Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

Last week I bought my first ThinkPad, a T400 with C2D @ 2.5GHz, 4GB RAM, 14" display, from IBM's certified used store. I received it today and have had a very nasty surprise. Firstly, instead of the 6-cell battery it was supposed to have, it came with a 9-cell, which is much larger and heavier. What's even worse, however, is that even with the 9-cell I'm only getting two hours of battery life! A piece of paper included with the package, which has a sort of FAQ on it, states that two hours is what I should expect from a 9-cell, and one hour from a 6-cell. I fell like for $400 and a three-year-old laptop, I should be getting something more than a two-hour 9-cell battery.

Has anyone else ordered from IBM's certified used store? Is this normal? I feel like this makes what I thought was a decent deal into a complete rip-off. My elderly Dell Vostro a90 netbook with a 3-cell battery still gets over three hours.

Any advice/suggestions would be appreciated.

I have (I have bought 2 T61s and a Thinkcentre M57) - both the T61s came with brand new batteries, however I noticed that the configuration that they mentioned on the page was not the exact same as the model number - What I would reccomend is that you check the actual model number in the service area whenever buying a IBM/LENOVO product, rather than just trusting the posted description.

Unfortunately, almost any used laptop will come with a used battery, and with that comes a limited battery life (most stores in my area that sell refurbs guarentee a half hour of battery life). Since they gave what they advertised (and have a posting on the site about the potential for errors), there is not a lot of room for you to get reimbursed.

The best I can offer is reccomending you get a new battery, which as wrong as it seems, is the only option open to you. re the netbook, they use less energy than a normal system, so it is not a very accurate comparison (unfortunately)

I'm not sure about ordering from IBM's used store, but it unfortunately sounds like that battery's been used up. My T500's 9-cell with about 50% wear still lasts three hours; my old T400 with about 25% wear on it lasted about five hours or so with its 9-cell as well. Is the machine switchable graphics or Intel only? Have you tried to switch to the integrated card if it's switchable? Have you adjusted the power profile to 'Maximum Battery Life"?

Thank you both for the replies.

LegendaryKA8 wrote:I'm not sure about ordering from IBM's used store, but it unfortunately sounds like that battery's been used up. My T500's 9-cell with about 50% wear still lasts three hours; my old T400 with about 25% wear on it lasted about five hours or so with its 9-cell as well. Is the machine switchable graphics or Intel only? Have you tried to switch to the integrated card if it's switchable? Have you adjusted the power profile to 'Maximum Battery Life"?

And that's the thing, Power Manager says the battery is at 69% of designed capacity (full 58.40 Wh, design 84.24 Wh) and only has 141 cycles. From a review on netbookreview.com I've read before, a T400 with a 9-cell battery should last for over 9.5 hours. So I would think I should be able to get at least 50% of that (let alone 69%). Of course, the reviewer notes that the system runs on 8.5 Wh with integrated graphics, wireless, and 60% brightness. With the same configuration and 50% brightness, my T400 is using 14.5 Wh. So, I feel like I'm missing something and once I turn off unneeded things, it should be better; however, the piece of paper included with the system does say to expect two hours from a 9-cell.

To answer your questions, yes, I did switch to Intel graphics chip and did set the profile to "Maximum Battery Life." Now it predicts 2.75 hours of battery life, though it jumps quite a bit, so hard to tell for sure.

craigmontHunter wrote:Unfortunately, almost any used laptop will come with a used battery, and with that comes a limited battery life (most stores in my area that sell refurbs guarentee a half hour of battery life). Since they gave what they advertised (and have a posting on the site about the potential for errors), there is not a lot of room for you to get reimbursed.

I was not aware that that was the standard practice. I would think the battery would be replaced. Thanks for the info. I suppose at this point I need to decide whether I want to use the ThinkPad as a desktop and just deal with it or return it and buy something new.

Another question: which OS are you running? You really should be getting better life from your battery than that.

LegendaryKA8 wrote:Another question: which OS are you running? You really should be getting better life from your battery than that.

Currently the Windows XP Pro that came with it, though I'm planning to also install Linux (which, I hear, is not going to be good for the battery life either) and then either Vista or Windows 7.

Does the laptop feel hot? Did you disable switchable graphics in BIOS as well as autodetect?

Is it properly drivered?