Extended battery charging via external charger?

[tilneford]

I hope to join the ranks of satisfied X60s users and am deciding on the accesories to buy. The current Lenovo Labor day sale is tempting, but so is a meron.

Since the extended battery connects via the ultrabase connector, I'm not certain if it can be charged via the external battery charger. Does anyone know the answer from experience? When I return home, I'll be plugging into the ultrabase, but would also like to charge the extended battery for the next day. If I have to unplug from the ultrabase and re-attach the extended battery to be able to charge the extended battery, I know there will be nights when I forget to do so and I may just prefer to buy a second 8 cell battery.

BTW, Hello to all. This is my first post on the board.

[ozmann]

I don't think it will charge in the external charger.

My experience with the Ultrabay extended battery with the X40 was disappointing, in that the computer would completely discharge the extended battery before using the 8-cell battery. Li ion batteries last longer if they are not completely discharged.

The extended battery adds thickness and weight to the computer, which can be a hassle sometimes. I would just buy another 8-cell battery, particularly since it has higher capacity and is now on sale.

[First Light]

Where are you seeing a sale on ThinkPads and or accessories?

[tilneford]

Thanks ozmann for the info. I may try out the chat button on the Lenovo site and see what they say.

First Light asked:

>Where are you seeing a sale on ThinkPads and or accessories?

The Lenovo web site -- what they term a Labor Day sale (US) runs through Sept 11. Clearing out inventory -- imagine that.

[tilneford]

Was finally able to chat with lenovo today. There's a chat button on the shopping cart page. I was in debian with firefox and a window opened to say the browser was not supported. I booted to Win98SE (yes, I realize it -- but look below at the laptop I'm using), started the windows version of firefox and got the same not supported window. Opened IE6 and the chat worked, but only after downloading a chat applet from Avaya which took almost a minute (watching the blinking yellow light) on a slow dsl line, so I estimate it was about 9 megs in size. Not certain I would try it with dial-up.

To the point, the short chat session with lenovo was as follows:

David: Will the extended life battery attach to
the external charger to recharge or is it necessary to
have the extended life battery attached to the laptop to
be able to recharge the extended life battery ?
Atkinns: The former is correct.
Atkinns: You can attach it to the battery charger.
David: Thank you. Bye.

It only took Atkins about 20 seconds to respond to the question, so, assuming he gave a correct response, seems good info/ support.

If proper etiquette discourages posting of support chat sessions, would a moderator please advise. Since the experience here was positive, a possible breach of etiquette seemed mininal.