Thinkpads Forum

I've got a 600e that at home I keep plugged into the Selectabase and running off ac. Also the battery is plugged in and fully charged. Whenever there is a power failure, the thinkpad will beep once and freeze completely. I have to turn it off and back on. Shouldn't this machine be able to cleanly make the transition to battery power if the ac adapter is unplugged?

Is the battery ok? I had one machine which behaved exactly the same. The charge indicator shows 100% charged but if I pull the dc plug to simulate a power failure, the machine freezes. On one occasion with another battery, I can move the cursor for a few seconds before it freezes. Using a known good battery eliminated the problems. Apparently, the batteries when at or near end-of-life may still exhibit a fully charged condition but don't have enough juice to sustain normal operation.

It's not a good idea to leave a charged battery inside a computer that's powered on AC. This tends to heat up the battery and makes it deteriorate faster.

Once at 100% charge, remove the battery and store it in a cool, dry place if possible. Check the battery monthly. If the charge has fallen down to 20% or 25% then recharge it again.

>It's not a good idea to leave a charged battery inside a computer that's powered on AC.
>

The other school of thought is that leaving the battery in the notebook shortens the life of the battery, true, but it may lengthen the life of your data. My personal opinion is that what I'm working on is more valuable than the battery. To me, the battery is a consumable and is used as a UPS in case of power fluctuations or failure.

Good point, nonny. An external UPS is genrally cheaper than a replacement battery, especially a new one, has more capacity and can protect more equipment, e.g. external drives. Plus, you can keep it when you sell the notebook.

The battery works, I can use it to provide hours of power w/o AC. I didn't know about the problem with leaving it installed while on AC power.