T23 - Battery behaviour

[Northman]

I have just bought a refurbished T23 2647-8U8 (1200 Mhz, 256Mb Ram), though i am not sure what exactly has been refurbished in this unit. I was told to do 3 deep cycle to ensure battery performance, and so I did. The problem is like this - i charge the battery overnight, then i unplug the AC adaptor, and the Battery maximiser indicator drops to 97% instantly, and keeps on droping to about 43% in less than 40 minutes. Next, it intsantly drops to 5%. I have removed the hibernate and standby options upon alarms. The thing is, the laptop keeps on working about another 40 minutes after this before it crashes, while indicator reads 0%. Regarding the usage - text editing with mp3's playing in background, LCD on max brightness, setup for Maximum System peformance. I have deep-cycled it 4 times already. Is there any other way to ensure accurate reading, or calibrating? (Win XP indicator show the same)

Is there anyway of telling what was the output of the original AC adaptor?
The one i was given is not IBM original, and it ouptputs 16V, 3.8A that is approx. 60W. The battery has had 98 cycles, manufactured on 2002-07.

I also experience system beeps while working, both while on battery and AC, cannot trace them back to anything.

Please help!
Thanks.

[tfflivemb2]

As for deep cycliing the battery, they say that it works, but so far, it has only taken chunks out of my battery life. (T30 battery in a T21). I'm not sure how to get an accurate reading aside from using the Battery Maximizer program provided by IBM/Lenovo.

As for the adapter. The original adapter is a 72W adapter.

With regard to the beeps, are you getting beeps while typing? If so, are you pressing more than 3 keys at a time? Pressing more than 3 keys at a time can cause a system beep. If you are not typing when it happens, try noting the time on the system, and check the Event Viewer under Administrative tools (in XP).

[tp23]

Battery information in maximiser wizard should at least show the manufacture date, thats a date the battery lifespan begins to decline..... IBM warrants their own batteries for only one year.

Theres electronics in the battery that stores information on charge/discharge rates, sometimes this gets buggy but overall you really need the IBM 4.5 amp charger to insure the battery gets the correct charging rate.

Theres plenty of Ebay merchants selling the correct charger/adapter.

I havent seen an OEM battery that didnt work just like the IBM product.

Under the power connector theres a screw that needs to be tight to insure a good power connection to the I/O board.

[starbork]

I'd make sure you have an adapter that matches the original T23 power specs exactly. IANAEE, but doing otherwise seems like a good way to do some damage, or at least affect performance of your parts

Regarding getting aftermarket batteries for the T2x, I recently got a couple of new units from BatteryRefill.com, an undersider and an ultrabay. Both are original IBM units that have had their original cells replaced with brand new fully charged cells -- so your capacity is greater than the original OEM batteries!

The Ultrabay batt worked great right out of the packing -- I cycled it twice to ensure calibration, etc. I don't have the machine with me, but the amp hours are up the in the 3s, as advertised.

The underside batt, however, was a complete dud. It would go to 100% charge in about 2 hours, then drop to zilch in about 20 minutes of standard use. Knowing that the Lithium Ion batts are charge-controlled by a devious little computer chip inside the battery itself, I thought maybe it was bad calibration, and cycled it 5 times. Still a dud.

I called batteryrefill, and they took a few days to get back to me about the problem, but then they advised that they would send a freshly refilled batt free of charge, and once I confirm that it's working, to send the old one back. We'll see how it goes, and I'll report back on the status of the new battery. Overall, it seems like a good service. The prices are pretty good considering the capacity boost and warantee-- and, if you send them your old battery first, you get a decent discount.

Ryan
----
T22 900 / 512 / 80@4200 / XGA / "Scout"
T23 1.2 / 1024 / 40@5400 / XGA / "SkullTron"
T23 1.2 / 768 / 20@7200 / XGA / "SuperScout"

[Northman]

Well, it seems the battery is the problem, since it contains that chip that is responsible for calibration. I just borrowed an IBM 4.5A charger from a friend, will do about 2 more deep cycles and will keep you posted on how this went.