T23: Battery Maximizer ?

[Berny]

Hello,

simple question: on my T23 i've currently installed the latest version of IBM power management features (stand alone driver). now i want to install battery maximizer tools. will this overwrite my existing drivers?

second question: installation instruction for battery maximizer is somewhat confusing. it says:

The other ThinkPad machines:

- IBM ThinkPad Configuration package

- IBM ThinkPad Presentation Director (Windows 98/98 SE/Me/2000/XP or later only)

- IBM ThinkPad EasyEject Utility (Win2000/XP or later only)

so does this mean, that i've to install all that crap as well?

last question: instructions say that fuel gauge won't run under xp. is this fuel gauge the same as the original xp battery indicator?

what options does the battery maximizer offer? any advantages to classic xp?

thanx.

[beeryf]

i have the battery maxiMISER tool and i do have a battery percentage indicator as well as a notation indicating wether the computer is running on battery or plug power. its right on the taskbar.

[Berny]

but that's exactly what i have already by native xp. i also got an indicator for battery level and ac/dc status. so where is the advantage of ibm battery maximizer?

[beeryf]

my indicator is green with a little plug/battery symbol next to it. when i hold my pointer over it, it say battery maxiMiser guage. this only showed up after i ran the system update tool. before that the space where this is was empty.

[tfflivemb2]

First off, the Battery Maximizer is a great program. It allows you to access a lot of information on your battery AND it allows your system to read the battery as a device and not just a battery. You are given additional options for your power modes, to allow for a longer lasting battery or to use it full strength.

Information that can be pulled about the battery, using the maximizer program, are things like: condition of the battery, total number of uses, date of production, date of first use etc. The Thinkpad batteries have "smart" chips in them which store a lot of additional information, that XP does not. The maximizer program knows how to read the "smart" chip.

The other ThinkPad machines:

- IBM ThinkPad Configuration package

- IBM ThinkPad Presentation Director (Windows 98/98 SE/Me/2000/XP or later only)

- IBM ThinkPad EasyEject Utility (Win2000/XP or later only)

As for these packages, I NEVER install Presentation Director, as I have no use for it. The EasyEject utility is nice, because I can remove devices, such as my DVD/CDRW, and swap with my Floppy if I am working on something. This means that I don't have to worry about using the "safely remove devices" icon in the system tray. I also like the Thinkpad Configuration package because it can become a central point for being able to access information about everything on your Thinkpad, that is Thinkpad related all in one place. You can control settings for several devices from the same program. You can also find out detail information on your system, just by clicking on the system icon.

HTH

[Berny]

ok, sounds to me like this:

battery manager: gives some nice information, but not really a boost of battery performance. for example it's nice to know the manufacturing date, but once you know it what is it worth? power schemes can also be switched with xp (basic) or with speedswitch (advanced !).

easy eject utility: quite useless, because per default in XP you have the "remove hardware" button in the taskbar.

configuartion manager: don't know, but xp hardware manager or xp system analysis is sufficient for me.

my decision: i won't install the tools. 'never change a runnig system'.

anyway, thanks lot.

[tfflivemb2]

The Battery Maximizer does a little more that just what I listed...I just named a few things off the top of my head.

I had a situation with a Thinkpad 600E that refused to boot with the battery installed. It turns out that the system needed the Battery Maximizer program to be able to boot with the battery in. This problem didn't develop until after they had the 600E for about a month. I now install it every time.

I think you might have misunderstood my comments on the EasyEject utility. With it, you don't have to worry about the "remove hardware" in XP. WITHOUT the EasyEject, you will have to click on something everytime you change out something like an ultrabay battery, CDRW, etc.

The choice is yours of course, but I would definately suggest that you try installing them and if they don't suit your needs, simply uninstall them.

[Berny]

The choice is yours of course, but I would definately suggest that you try installing them and if they don't suit your needs, simply uninstall them.

so it's coming back to my first question: what happens to my stand alone ACPI drivers (which might be newer than the ones from battery maximizer)? will the maximizer screw everything up? and do i really need the other progs to be installed (like easy eject and config manager) or are they voluntary? can maximizer simply be uninstalled?

my concern is, that all this progs consume more memory and processor time without really doing useful things. even now on my lean system i've services running like TP-hotkey, TP-trackpoint etc. which do most of the time nothing but draining the battery.

[dsvochak]

There's a difference between "installed" and "running". I've got all the IBM software utilities and drivers installed but the only one's I usually have running are the hotkey, trackpoint support and the modem driver.

The trackpoint provides features beyond the normal windows driver. The hotkey utility must be running in order for the on-screen display of sound volume, screen brightness, etc to function.

On a machine similar to yours (T23, 1.13Ghz, 512mb ram, XP Pro) I've got @310mb ram free when idling. Unless you have so many applications and processes running that you're out of available memory so the machine is constantly swapping to disk, the various TP utilities won't drain the battery any faster than it would drain without the utilities running.

To answer the questions:

1) Power management drivers are not replaced when Battery Maximizer is installed, so Battery Mazimizer won't "screw it up".

2) It's always advisable to follow the IBM installation instructions. Certain TP utilities simply will not work unless the prerequisites specified in the utility's installation instructions are installed (in the order specified). I haven't done a full install in so long I don't remember whether Battery Maximizer is one of the utilities that won't work.

3) You can always uninstall Battery Maximizer.

It's worth noting that Battery Maximizer has a number of built in power schemes. After the Battery Maximizer wizard is run, these power schemes are available through the standard Windows power options properties screen even when Battery Maximizer is not running.

[Berny]

ok, all of you have convinced me. i have done it ! its quite a nice tool, suprisingly telling me that my battery has only 47 cycles.

the power scemes are quite useful, although i have to complain about the pre-defined lcd brightness settings (on ac: brightness 7 !!). is there a way to change 'em permanently?

to whom it may concern: i have installed battery maximizer without the other tools (no config manager or easy ejects) and it works fine.

thanx