Thinkpads Forum

I installed widows XP Pro with my Think Pad 600. Work a bit slow but OK.
I miss all the drivers, including for the Battery Maximizer.
Can some one advise ?
Abraham

Although the Battery Maximiser is available, it does not work in the 600 series, and in particular the useful Battery Information program is not functional. Batterymon, with a 30-day trial period, is a very useful substitute, but still doesn't provide as much information on the battery as the Maximiser.

As Robbyrobot says, the Battery Maximiser functions are not functional on the 600 series. [Later: This isn't actually correct. Read the next post for more details.] This is in part due to the batteries themselves. No IBM or 3rd-party program will give you information on recharging "cycles" and whatnot that you can get for later IBM batteries/thinkpads because that information is not reported by the battery circuitry itself.

It is still recommended to install the Battery MaxiMiser and Power Management download on the 600 series because it will add new Thinkpad tabs to your Power Control Panel. You can then use the built-in Battery gauge that comes with XP.

If you want a better fuel gauge utility, then I would recommend Notebook BatteryInfo. It is very similar to the battery gauge available on newer Thinkpads. It is also free to use for home or educational purposes (you can support the project via a donation), and has a very low cost for commercial use. However, I should mention that Notebook BatteryInfo has problems reporting on remaining time when you have a 2nd battery installed in the UltraSlimBay: until the 2nd battery is depleted, the remaining time report is unreliable. This issue does not come up when you are using only the single main battery pack.

Phil.

Actually a version of battery maximizer works on the the 600 series. In fact, it works on any laptop (I have chekced this on a dell!). It can be downloaded from here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-44224

more info here:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=2409

I have this installed on my 600X and it shows the battery meter on the taskbar. It does not have all the advanced features that you will find in a T4x battery meter, but you can create profiles and see the battery charge/discharge rate (not time).

Hope this helps.

I have this installed on my 600X and it shows the battery meter on the taskbar.

Does it also show the battery data, i.e. cycles, age, condition? That's what would really be useful.

Robbyrobot wrote:

I have this installed on my 600X and it shows the battery meter on the taskbar.

Does it also show the battery data, i.e. cycles, age, condition? That's what would really be useful.

Unfortunately, it does not show number of cycles/age. It does show the conditition, I think (not sure, am at my lab now, will check up after I go home). The older batteries did not have these 'smart' capabilities AFAIK.

gator wrote:Actually a version of battery maximizer works on the the 600 series.[...]

Didn't know about that option. Thanks for the correction, gator.

Phil.

mobile meter will run with 2k/xp if you have acpi installed (which is standard)
Freeware, no registry entries, small, running stable,
it can display cpu+hd temperature,
charging/discharging rate and with 2 klicks actual capacity in mWh

tom_k