Thinkpads Forum

I am looking into replacing my batteries for my x230, as both my 9-cell and 4-cell only hold charge for a very short time.
Is it still an issue with the authentication chip, or has there been a work-around?

An apparently genuine 9-cell battery which has the x230 9-cell FRU (0A36307) is 66$:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/94Wh-8-4Ah-Genu ... XQuCdTfhcT

Whereas one which doesn't, but is also labeled as for the x230, is 32$:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/9Cell-Battery-f ... SwBLlVSIfb

If however I am unable to charge the latter in my x230, then there wouldn't be any point in buying it.
Does anyone have any experience with battery replacements?

i believe it will be ok , if no ... i think you can get your money back including for postage. hey, you have to ask them too !

My experience has been that most aftermarket batteries quickly fail and sometimes damage the power circuitry.

i got a 'genuine' from ebay...seller listed location as CA but turned out to be registered in China....writing was misspelled and the serial in Power Manager didn't match the sticker...got a full refund from seller and kept the battery

best case would be lightly used genuine on ebay

at the very least do the 'serial' test with Lenovo Power Manager, but unfortunately installing Power Manager on windows 8.1 caused my hibernation to stop working and i had to reinstall windows...long story

I would only purchase a genuine used one where the seller states the actual remaining capacity.

My understanding is yes X230 will only charge batteries it considers genuine, and there's no workaround (although I did recently read a blog post I found on hacker news about a guy who managed to overwrite the portion of the BIOS relating to battery authentication to fake the authentication such that his third party battery was considered genuine. It was a complicated and risky process).

With a third party battery you have no idea what you'll really be getting. A lot of the third party batteries are crap: actual capacity much lower, fail quickly, may refuse to charge at all in X230. Some may be OK, but I would only consider it from a named third party with specific reviews and a returns policy (e.g. if Anker made an Anker X230 battery I would consider it, but I would not buy any "X230" battery from China).

I would also go for a genuine. I've seen more than a few aftermarket thinkpad batteries (going back to the T60 era) lose their effective life in months.

I wonder if the cost of buying a dead (but legit) one and having a local battery shop replace the cells would be worth it. Heck, even if it works out to be the same price maybe it would be better to support a local business.

I'm joining the chorus.

I bought an aftermarket battery for my Satellite 2410 on eBay a few years ago, and it powered the machine for about half as long as the original (when both were in brand new condition). It was fine for moving around the house, or short stints off AC, but wore out quite quickly. If I recall correctly, it was done in around a year.