How much does it cost to extend the warranty?

[KristianJ]

And watching...

I'm probably going to go with the warranty extension in the next week or so depending on what happens with other expenses I need to fulfil. Plus I did a full discharge of my battery to see how it went and got a bit less than 3 hrs. Probably not flash, but I tend to be in places where I can run off AC and not have to worry about relying on the battery. Plus I just found myself a site with some nice laptop sleeves for a good price to add to my shopping list

[Coathanger]

My fresh out of the box, recently manufactured 9-cell gives me about 6 hours on the first cycle and I expect it to go up to about 8 hours for a few weeks. It does add abit of weight but the ability to just port it around and surf the net on the uni wireless network is just gold

[KristianJ]

Nice!! Well, my uni (UWS, which for the non Aussies is the University of Western Sydney) says it has a wireless hotspot active at my campus, but I haven't been able to find it. But they say it'll definitely be online by the end of the year. But 8 hours...that's awesome! Are you running NHC or any of the other apps that people around here swear by?

[Coathanger]

No extra apps, just using the Battery Maximiser Wizard and setting screen brightness at half way and processor speed as variable. Keeps me cable free and very happy

[bill bolton]

I expect it to go up to about 8 hours for a few weeks

While the 9 cell batteries give good capacity, they don't give that good a capacity with the standard Thinkpad power control software, even with everything running on minimum!

Cheers,

Bill

[Coathanger]

Put it down to newbies optimism! I am pretty stoked with my 6 hours battery life, more than I usually need at a time.

[KristianJ]

4 of those batteries left - I just checked.

Bill, the recovery DVD arrived yesterday - thanks again!