Frankenpad lives! Question about T60 battery

[Shooter X]

Got some NOS parts from Tuus and a donor T60 from ebay and now have my frankenpad running. T8100 with 140M GPU. Swapped in a UXGA screen I previously had in my R60. Runs great and I didn't even reinstall Windows 7. Took the SSD from my broken R60 and it booted right up in the frankenpad. Sweet!

My question is about the battery that came in my donor T60. Windows says "The battery has failed due to normal wear. The battery cannot be charged. Replace the battery". It won't charge and if I unplug the AC cord, it turns off immediately.

I've seen stuff about rebuilding laptop batteries, but have never done it. Is this a practical option for my 9 cell battery? I have no idea what to order if so.

Alternatively, are all the off-brand replacement batteries crap?

Or maybe I should buy a used Lenovo battery somewhere? I don't want to spend big bucks on a battery.

I really don't need new battery performance. I run on AC 99% of the time. If it even would run the laptop for 10 minutes before shutdown, that would be fine.

Want 9 cell not 6 cell due to preferring shape of 9 cell.

Any thoughts?

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to the forum.

If you want to be on AC so much, then a 6-cell would be just as good...
Re-celling batteries is a bad idea, which fails most of the times, and which is more expensive than buying a good used battery.
Look for genuine Lenovo 41+ (6-cell) or 41++ (9-cell) batteries, preferably made by Panasonic.
This is a real 9-cell Pana: http://www.ebay.com/itm/331768217636

[Shooter X]

It's the shape of the 9 cell that I like, not really the capacity. I have a 6 cell from my R60 and I don't like it.

I didn't know that the T500 used the same battery or that Panasonic ones are better. Went ahead and bought the one you linked because it's exactly what I'm looking for - OEM fit, 9 cell, not too expensive.

Regarding the frankenpad, this laptop is solid. I was able to get 60 fps on Counterstrike Source at 1600x1200! With turning down some graphics options of course, but still it's impressive versus what the ATI X1400 could do.

[RealBlackStuff]

Several models of the T60, T61, R60, R61 (all 4:3 14.1" or 15"), T500 and R500 can all use the same batteries (41+ & 41++)
Those were the good old days!
Nowadays the unwashed brainless designers at Lenovo make a different battery for almost every model laptop.

You can get even more performance by getting the T9300 CPU (best bang for your buck).
Or if you want bragging rights, get a T9500 or even X9000.

[PowerPC]

Nowadays the unwashed brainless designers at Lenovo make a different battery for almost every model laptop.

On a less cynical view, there is an industry-wide tendency to make the batteries smaller. Lithium batteries were always risky, and the only way to minimize potential damage is to use less material, making ever smaller capacity batteries even with all the consumer complaints.

No, this is wrong. They do know very well of they are doing - it's called planned obsolescence.

[micrex22]

Several models of the T60, T61, R60, R61 (all 4:3 14.1" or 15"), T500 and R500 can all use the same batteries (41+ & 41++)
Those were the good old days!
Nowadays the unwashed brainless designers at Lenovo make a different battery for almost every model laptop.

You can get even more performance by getting the T9300 CPU (best bang for your buck).
Or if you want bragging rights, get a T9500 or even X9000.

I've actually had issues with a T61 battery in my T60. The T60 would hang every time Windows would load... but soon as I put a bonafide T60 FRU it worked fine. However the T61 was fine with the T60 battery.
*shrug*

I've seen stuff about rebuilding laptop batteries, but have never done it. Is this a practical option for my 9 cell battery? I have no idea what to order if so.

Alternatively, are all the off-brand replacement batteries crap?

The counterfeit batteries are definitely poor-- however it's not possible to re-cell a genuine lenovo battery. Apparently soon as you open it up it disconnects the internal battery which kills the RAM inside (because the firmware isn't stored on ROM because lenovo wanted to troll anyone who opens them up).
Therefore the best option if you want to re-cell a T6x battery is to (ironically) buy one of the counterfeits and recell it with quality cells and verifying the circuitry is up to snuff. I haven't done it myself, but that's what I would do if I were.

[TuuS]

That battery you got looks like a good deal, assuming it's in reasonable condition, but if I had known you needed one, I could have sent it with the parts and saved you some shipping. I have several good tested batteries starting at $25 and my shipping is less than that seller by a few dollars, but generally speaking it's risky buying on ebay, most sellers here in the forum test the parts much more and you can be sure you're getting what you paid for.

Regarding CPU, we discussed other CPU options and the brand new NOS T8100 chip was bundled with the kit and it does have some advantages over the other penryns when it comes to temp and efficiency, and is one of the favorites for running in dual ida mode without any thermal issues. In fact many believe it's identical to the T8300, but underclocked so it could be used as an entry level penryn. Certainly a faster cpu could provide more power, but an SSD and more ram would be the first place I'd spend money and the most important upgrade was the new NOS board (brand new not refurbished), and his kit also came with an NOS heatsink, T61p clearplate sticker (also nos), and the cpu of course, still sealed in the Lenovo box.

I'm always thrilled to hear of a new Frankenpad being born and glad to know I had a hand in it.

[iganas]

No, this is wrong. They do know very well of they are doing - it's called planned obsolescence.

Exactly, it's greed, not stupidity, that drives this

I've seen stuff about rebuilding laptop batteries, but have never done it. Is this a practical option for my 9 cell battery?

I've tried re-celling a T500 battery without any luck. There's a video on YouTube that shows how to jump-start a re-celled T40 battery to circumvent the memory controller, but most likely it differs from the ones used in T60/T500. Will try over the next few days to re-cell my X31 battery, and will post the results if any of you are curious.

P.S. save the 18650 cells from your dead battery packs, since a dead pack usually means that only one out of 6/9 cells is dead. The rest are perfectly fit for DIY projects, assuming you have the means to charge them and measure their capacity

[TuuS]

I have quite a few dead batteries if anyone is interested. As for recelling a battery, I think if you wire the new cells in parallel with the old ones, wait for the voltages to equal out before removing the old ones from the circuit, and don't let the circuit go "open" it should work, but only if you start with a battery that still has some life left, even if only a few mins. If it says the battery has failed from normal usage, then the controller is shut down to prevent a dangerous charging condition.

[Pete B]

Welcome to the forum.

If you want to be on AC so much, then a 6-cell would be just as good...
Re-celling batteries is a bad idea, which fails most of the times, and which is more expensive than buying a good used battery.
Look for genuine Lenovo 41+ (6-cell) or 41++ (9-cell) batteries, preferably made by Panasonic.
This is a real 9-cell Pana: http://www.ebay.com/itm/331768217636

Just wondering RBS, how do you know that it is a Panasonic battery for sure?
FRU number, or ?

[RealBlackStuff]

Because of the FRU P/N 42T4620.
And of course I checked them in the Power settings.
I've had about 2 dozen of those, most of them at least 5 years old and still holding between 82% and 98% of original.
Cycles varied between 7 and 403!

[Pete B]

Thanks, I lucked out to get one Panasonic out of 3 batteries that I have, next time I'll
use that FRU. The Panasonic works and tests out very well.
Thanks very much for the tip!

[TuuS]

When we seen pallets of laptops come into liquidation from corporations there is often a small number of them that were never issued to an employee and are virtually brand new with their original factory battery with zero cycles. Sometimes we sell them whole, or if we find some with rare parts they get parted out, so we end up with lots of pristine parts. We also had a shipment where a corp replaced their T61's with T400's and T500's and kept the new batteries and AC adapters just giving the employees the new laptop and keeping their existing AC and Battery. In the end we ended up with a huge box of brand new batteries and AC adapters which all went to forum members here... it's awesome to find things like this for our most beloved thinkpad series.

[Cigarguy]

Can't beat buying from TuuS.

[Pete B]

Thanks, I lucked out to get one Panasonic out of 3 batteries that I have, next time I'll
use that FRU. The Panasonic works and tests out very well.
Thanks very much for the tip!

I had actually only checked a few of the 4 batteries that I have, 3 are Panasonics,
the 3 good ones! The one defective one has Sanyo cells.

[28CarsLater]

Hey, on the "real" Panasonic batteries for the 15'' T/R6x/500 series I noticed something on the one pictured in the link. My nine cell from Lenovo does not have the red circle "41++" and I notice these do. When I first saw it, I assumed it was because these were a Chinese knock off and the counterfeiters added the red circle sticker for whatever reason. How do we know for fact these were made by Panasonic?

Thx