Very Short Battery Life (T21)

[jacksoc1]

I have recently replaced my long serving T21 and thought it was time to pass it onto someone else to enjoy. In preparation for this I used the recovery CD (Windows 98) to put a 'new' image onto it. Since doing so I get no more than 15 mins battery life, under Windows 2000 I was getting about 1.5 hours.

The Thinkpad battery status shows about 84% before dropping to 2% it then shuts down and it looks like the battery is fully drained - it takes about 2.5 hours to recharge.

Things I have tried :-

Another battery - this does exactly the same
Tried a 3rd battery (why not?) - this does the same
Tried the batteries in another T21 (running Windows XP) they all seem OK
Tried just sitting in the Setup screen - battery seems OK

So my guess is that this is a Windows 98/ Battery Maximiser issue but I am not sure what, I cant work out how to uninstall Battery Maximiser.

Any help greatly appreciated.

P.S. I am new here so please be gentle (ish), oh and I have made sure my location is in my profile...

[wireless4laptop]

I think the first 3 batteries' all are bad. You need to exchange the internal 6 small yellow(or bluet, green)batteries.

[tfflivemb2]

If you have tried the batteries in another machine and don't have the same problem, then I doubt that the batteries are all bad. Try reinstalling the Battery Maximizer, and MAKE SURE that the settings are turned down from max.

On a T20 that I just sold, the battery was reported that it would last about 45 minutes before I reinstalled the OS, and now it lasts about 1.5 hours. On the reinstall, I had a newer version of Battery Maximizer...so this might be an issue.