Thinkpads Forum

Hi All... I was just given an old 600X to play with, but I am in need of a battery. I remember having plenty of battery issues back in the day when I had a 600E of my own. What I'm wondering is if anyone has built a better battery for these things and where to get one. Is there one particular FRU # that is later and greater than the rest? I'm looking for the best bang for the buck, so any information or sources would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

Most general questions like this can be answered using the Search link at the top of the page. Click that link and on the search page enter:

600* battery replacement

then check the "Search for all terms" option just below the keyword field and also limit the search to the "770, 600/570 Series & Transnote" conference (drop-down box at the left). If you do that, 39 threads will appear, most of which will have some bearing on your question.

I've used batteryrefill.com for some of my 600X systems and they have performed well. A drawback about that service is that the battery will be glued back together and is visually unappealing. There are aftermarket sellers of 600-series compatible batteries from places online or on eBay but I've not personally used them.

and couldn't necessarily find a concise answer to my question of "which fru # is the latest and greatest"

Sorry if I missed it but some of those threads are pretty long and I would assume outdated.

I bought one on Ebay from the seller a-plus-batteries. It has been in service for 10 months and shows 12% wear level. There are cheaper alternatives, but this seller uses Panasonic cells and offers a 1 year warranty. The original IBM battery is 3200 maH and the replacement is 4400 maH so it provides extra run time between charges.


Hi-Capacity Li-Ion Laptop Battery Replacement for
IBM Thinkpad 600, 600D, 600E, & 600X.

Condition: BRAND NEW OEM Equivalent
Type: Li-ion
Cell Origin: Japan (Panasonic)
Voltage: 10.8V
Capacity: 4400 mAH
Weight: 10.8 oz
Color: Black
Warranty: 1 Year
MFR Country: Assembled in China

*Note: These are high capacity batteries.
They hold a longer charge than the original
IBM batteries.

Compatible Part Numbers: 02K6919 02K7016 02K7018
10L2158 10L2159 12J2464
12P4065 02K6506 02K6528
02K6904 12P40643

Level 8 Technology
P.O. Box 14370
Fort Worth, TX 76117

Ebay ID: a-plus-batteries

dt911 wrote:and couldn't necessarily find a concise answer to my question of "which fru # is the latest and greatest"

Well, I believe that the factory batteries were only a maximum of 3.2Ah (amp-hour) rated during the production of 600-series batteries. There are re-fill companies and non-original IBM packs which use newer 4.4Ah packs, so looking for those by FRU is meaningless.

As far as I know, there were a couple of suppliers of batteries for the 600 systems and since the FRUs would be different, even though the capacity is the same, there's no one FRU that you can say is the "best". If you go by the published Ah rating and know how many charge cycles the pack has seen, that should give you an indication on the usefulness of the battery. I've not tried to buy a new battery directly from IBM/Lenovo so I don't know if they even stock these anymore. The aftermarket batteries you can find on eBay generally have the 4.4Ah cells, but again, they won't have a specific FRU printed on them. Most descriptions will say that they are "compatible" or "replacements" for a range of FRUs as BillP has indicated.

Here is a good batterry at $22 + shipping: ebay item #120164362349

I guess this is a bit pricey, but I haven't seen a better one of late.