ThinkPad 380ED

[AlphaKilo470]

I have a ThinkPad 380ED that I just acquired and there are a few issues I'd like to solve on it. Fisrt, the battery meter, when my ThinkPad is running on either of the two batteries I have, the battery meter says 80% no matter what until the battery drops to 10%. Nothing in between. I'd like to know if anyone has an idea wahts wrong with the meter, the batteries are known to be good and hold over an hour each, so I don't think that's the problem. Also, does anyone know how to dissasemble the 380ED so I can replace the hard drive with a bigger one without causing permanent damage. Also, so I don't make any changes then have to go back to fix them, what's the maximum size hard drive that my computer will take?

[MadeInJapan]

Go to: http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.ws ... &loc=en_US
and download the pdf file in the middle of the page. This is the hardware maintenance manual for your computer and has diagrams and instructions for each step in taking your thinkpad apart to get to the hard drive. The specific instructions for the HDD removal begin on page 72 of the manual, or page 84 of the pdf document. Hope this helps.

In regards to your battery (I had a 380D before), it sounds like although you may have an hour of time, the battery is somewhat old and will not fully charge. This is somewhat typical with those older batteries....also typcial that they go from 80% to nothing, showing nothing between. The 600 series batteries had the same drop-out and things didn't improve until the BatteryMaximizer program was developed for newer thinkpads....I think this is something you'll just have to learn to live with unless you get an absolutely brand new battery for your 380ED.

Good luck!

[AlphaKilo470]

The batteries age was a suspicion for me. One of the two batteries, now, instead of getting an hour and a half battery life, overnight, dropped to 45 minutes. Good thing I have the second battery. Well, hopefully, the second one will stay good for at least a year when hopefully I'll be able to afford something nicer.