Battery gauge reset - lower capacity

T400/410/420 and T500/510/520 series specific matters only
Post Reply
Message
Author
nanux
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:30 am
Location: Brno, Czech Republic

Battery gauge reset - lower capacity

#1 Post by nanux » Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:37 am

Hallo,

I have question about Battery gauge reset feature.

Recently my notebook's full charge capacity drops to 80% (57Wh design capacity about 45Wh real capacity). The Power manager announce me that it is right time to perform battery gauge reset. I said ok, I will do it over night. Before I started reset I closed all applications and give it a try. In the morning I found, that the reset doesn't help at all and even drops to 38Wh (68%). To be honest I haven't been just disapointed I was angry. I used Lenovo feature to lower quality of my HW? Ok, maybe I went wrong.. I said to me. I will try it again. I restarted computer, have the background services as clean as possible and try it again. Now I have only 65% of designed capacity and wondering if there is (hopefuly) some way to get more energy to my battery. Is it possible?

My configuration.
Lenovo ThinkPad T400 - 6 battery cell (1 year old)
Windows 7 (64b)
PowerManager 3.05

Thanks for any advice or explanation.

bill bolton
Admin
Admin
Posts: 3848
Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2005 10:09 am
Location: Sydney, Australia - Best Address on Earth!

Re: Battery gauge reset - lower capacity

#2 Post by bill bolton » Tue Oct 27, 2009 7:03 am

nanux wrote:Lenovo ThinkPad T400 - 6 battery cell (1 year old)
How many cycles is the battery showing?

Cheers,

Bill B.

nanux
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:30 am
Location: Brno, Czech Republic

Re: Battery gauge reset - lower capacity

#3 Post by nanux » Tue Oct 27, 2009 7:05 am

Cycle count: 110

Harryc
Moderator Emeritus
Moderator Emeritus
Posts: 13228
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:23 am
Location: Upstate New York

Re: Battery gauge reset - lower capacity

#4 Post by Harryc » Tue Oct 27, 2009 7:29 am

There's is no way that Power Manager did something to your battery. A reset simply makes the guage reflect what capacity is actually left in your battery.

dr_st
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder
Posts: 6653
Joined: Sat Oct 29, 2005 6:20 am

Re: Battery gauge reset - lower capacity

#5 Post by dr_st » Tue Oct 27, 2009 8:22 am

And to add to what Harry said - it is not always 100% accurate. Sometimes 2 or 3 resets are required to better reflect actual remaining capacity. Before the reset it showed 45Wh, now it shows 38Wh - the truth is likely somewhere there in the middle.

It is not very common, but also not unheard of - to have a battery degrade to ~70% of the capacity within ~1 year and ~100 cycles. It's somewhat luck of the draw.
Current: X220 4291-4BG, T410 2537-R46, T60 1952-F76, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G
Collectibles: T430s (IPS FHD + Classic Keyboard), X32 (IPS Screen)
Retired: X61 7673-V2V, A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad
Past: Z61t 9440-A23, T60 2623-D3U, X32 2884-M5U

nanux
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:30 am
Location: Brno, Czech Republic

Re: Battery gauge reset - lower capacity

#6 Post by nanux » Tue Oct 27, 2009 8:43 am

OK, now I understand it better. But what if battery reset set the capacity to less than it is. Then the battery can't be charged to its real capacity?

Have you any recommendation what should I do? Could another reset help?

BTW: it seems to me, that 65% for one year is a lot. I've set optimalization for battery lifespan and tried care about the battery...

Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “ThinkPad T400/410/420 and T500/510/520 Series”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests