Power Manager 3.31 ignoring battery charge thresholds?

[gsl]

I recall having this problem with a previous 3.1x version of Power Manager as well. I'm on a T400 with 64-bit Win7HP, genuine Lenovo 6-cell, and have my battery set through Power Manager to begin charging when it drops below 20%. I got to work this morning and plugged my laptop in, where the battery meter read 40-some%. A few minutes later I noticed that it was steadily increasing, and when I hovered the pointer over the Power Manager icon in the system tray it reported that the battery was currently charging along with the estimated time to full charge. The line immediately below that stated "Charging will start when below 20%." I tried unplugging the AC adapter and plugging it back in, and the battery returned to charging. I opened Power Manager and double-checked that I had indeed set the charge threshold.

As far as I can tell, Power Manager seems to be completely ignoring my set charge thresholds. I'm concerned about charging the battery when I don't need to. I'm mostly at a desk during the day but don't bother removing the battery because of the occasional time I need to unplug to go to the meeting room or for some other collaboration. I'd like the battery not to be charging to full every time it gets a little empty, though. Does anyone know of something I'm missing or some way to force Power Manager to adhere to the charge threshold settings?

[Aleq]

I have experienced the same on my W510. I downgraded to 3.20 and it's working again. Don't know if 3.30 works, 3.20 is just fine.

[TTY]

As far as I can tell, Power Manager seems to be completely ignoring my set charge thresholds.

Could it be that you had removed and subsequently re-inserted the battery before connecting to AC power? In order to remember customized charge level thresholds, the notebook needs power. If you remove the AC adapter as well as the battery, the notebook forgets what charge level thresholds have been set.

The charge level thresholds are set in Power Manager, which runs under Windows, so if you connect battery and the AC adapter after the notebook has forgotten its customized charge level thresholds, the notebook won't be able to recall the customized charge level thresholds until Windows is up and running. Therefore, if you have removed the battery and AC power and then re-insert the battery and connect to AC power, the notebook will use the default charge level thresholds, i.e. start charging if battery is 95% or less, no matter what charge level thresholds you have set.

If you have removed the AC adapter and the battery and then re-insert the battery and want to use AC power, don't attach the AC adapter immediately. Start the notebook up on battery. When Windows has fully booted, the notebook will remember your personal charge level thresholds and adhere to them. Then shut down Windows and attach the AC adapter.

[dr_st]

What you say is ridiculously complicated and even that does not seem to work properly.

Just this morning, I had my T60 docked and running, with the battery charged at 95% (my thresholds are 92% and 96%). All was well, until there was a power out, so the dock stopped working (but the notebook continued running on battery). I hibernated it. A few hours later I turned it on, and it's at 100%.

And this happens time and again. I never got the charge thresholds to work properly on the T60. Never mind when changing batteries, that's one thing. But it seems to suddenly lose them after standby or hibernation or turning off, or going between docked and undocked. And the worst thing - the Power Manager still shows the thresholds as being correct, but it just ignores them! There is no excuse for this broken behavior.

FWIW, my T410 seems to be much better with remembering thresholds.

[TTY]

I never got the charge thresholds to work properly on the T60.

What Windows version and service pack is installed on your T60? Do you use Lenovo's image or have you made a clean install? Do you charge the battery to 100% at least once a quarter?

[dr_st]

Edited...

I use XP SP3 (my own installation on my personal T60 and a custom corporate build on my corporate machine). Both were SP2 originally and upgraded to SP3. The same behavior occurs on both. I also observed it on Fedora 14 (tp_smapi thresholds say one thing, but the battery charges to 100%). Yes, at least once a quarter I typically have 1-2 full charge/discharge cycles.

[TTY]

The reason i asked was, that T6x ThinkPads don't meet system requirements for Lenovo's current power management driver under Windows 7. But as you don't use that OS on these notebooks, that cause can be ruled out. And i also suppose that you haven't omitted to install the Intel Chipset Software on your personal laptop before installing any other drivers.

[dr_st]

I typically just run System Update, and let it find the drivers.

BTW, do you use a dock?

[TTY]

I typically just run System Update, and let it find the drivers.

I've never installed XP myself, so i have no idea whether System Update achieves a sufficient result. These are Lenovo's installation instructions for XP on a T60:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-66020

BTW, do you use a dock?

No, so i have no experience with quirks in Power Manager that a docking station could cause...

[dr_st]

My experience has been that most of the quirks happen when going from docked to undocked and vice-versa. It is possible that something in the process confuses the embedded controller. Unfortunately, I find frequent switching between the two modes necessary for convenient work, and I won't give it up to get a more reliable operation of the charge thresholds. I've just learned to live with it.

With that said, the fact that the issue does not seem to plague my T410, which also goes between docked and undocked a lot, suggests that it is possible to make it work properly, which leaves me disappointed that they couldn't achieve it on the T60...

And since I encounter the issues on two different T60s with two different docking stations, I find it unlikely to be a matter of pure coincidence or a fault with a particular unit.