New T41p battery not as good as expected

[micah]

Just got a T41p via ebay from an authorized IBM refurbisher, it has a 9-cell Li-Ion battery, and even with cpu frequency scaling enabled the battery seems to only last about 2 hours. This seems low, but maybe its normal?

The thinkpad still has a year of IBM warranty, and 3 years of Mack warranty, and according to the seller:

These remanufactured products are sold by IBM with a S-Claim classification, which means that they are in excellent
new/ near new condition.

They are carefully tested and recertified by IBM and come in a IBM factory sealed box.

Should I try and do something about the battery?

[bill bolton]

This seems low, but maybe its normal?

Its not "normal" for a brand new battery, but if the battery has had a year or more of use it probably is.

Batteries are a consumable and do need to be replaced when they reach the end of their effective service life. The ThinkPad Configuration utility will show you how many "cycles" that battery had undergone, its initial capacity and its current capacity. Post those numbers here and you should get a response on what that is likely to mean in terms of remaining battery life.

Cheers,

Bill

[micah]

My guess is that the Thinkpad Configuration Utility is a windows application, which I can't do much with as I've gone Linux. Is there an equal utility for free operating systems?

[AIX]

# cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/*

http://thinkwiki.org/wiki/KThinkBat

http://thinkwiki.org

[micah]

# cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/*

Code: Select all

alarm:                   2318 mWh
present:                 yes
design capacity:         71280 mWh
last full capacity:      46370 mWh
battery technology:      rechargeable
design voltage:          10800 mV
design capacity warning: 2318 mWh
design capacity low:     200 mWh
capacity granularity 1:  1 mWh
capacity granularity 2:  1 mWh
model number:            IBM-08K8198
serial number:             390
battery type:            LION
OEM info:                SANYO
present:                 yes
capacity state:          ok
charging state:          charged
present rate:            0 mW
remaining capacity:      46370 mWh
present voltage:         12413 mV

[Kyocera]

micah, why not put your location in your profile as opposed to your machine type and specs, make your sig reflect your machine and specs. A country or state would be great.

[Saml01]

design capacity: 71280 mWh
last full capacity: 46370 mWh

Theres your problem.

The battery isnt filling to capacity. I dont know the estimated factory fresh battery life of your machine, but the 2 hours is not surprising seeing as how the battery is doing like 80% of its cap.