IBM T43 - the battery wear level - problem?

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NimnuL
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IBM T43 - the battery wear level - problem?

#1 Post by NimnuL » Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:39 am

Hello,
At introdution I want to apologize You for my english. I hope You will understand me.

I get down to the nittygritty. I think that with my battery is something wrong, the speed of wear level is in my opinion too fast.

Here are details for my battery:
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/4263/batt1up3.gif

As You can see, here is 8 cycle of charge, and actual max. capacity is 50,09Wh. It means that the wear level is now 2%. I charge the battery yesterday, and before that the max. capacity was 50,65Wh. So capacity in 1 cycle decrease 0,47Wh.

Please tell me if it's normal wear level?

Thank You.

Best regards
NimnuL

MOD EDIT: No images without a warning in the subject line - forum rules.
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NimnuL
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#2 Post by NimnuL » Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:43 am

Oh and Nottebook Hardware Control show 2% wear level and max. charge 99% not 100%.

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/6149/nhmux7.gif


>>Edit<<
And maybe You can tell me how to care the battery? Most of time I work with AC Adapter plug into the notebook. But if I use battery shuld I discarge it to 1% or 10% or maybe can I charge battery even if it is etc. 50% remaining battery?

Thanx a lot for responce.
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#3 Post by NimnuL » Sun Sep 24, 2006 3:51 am

Hey! Don't You undestand me or what? :)
Maybe You could tell me how it looks in Yours notebooks? How me
manny %% wera leavel is and how manny charge cycle?
Thanks a lot!
Regards, Michał
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#4 Post by GomJabbar » Sun Sep 24, 2006 4:58 am

My T42 has a 35% wear level @ 71 cycles. Design capacity 47.52 Wh, remaining capacity 30.82 Wh @ 100% charge.
DKB

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#5 Post by NimnuL » Sun Sep 24, 2006 6:00 am

Thanks a lot for Yours reply. Then I shuldn't worry about it, right?
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#6 Post by GomJabbar » Sun Sep 24, 2006 6:11 am

I can't really answer that. All I can say is that my wear rate is twice as fast as yours - although I have had my battery somewhat longer than you've had yours. I've had my T42 for over a year and and a half. IMO, if you get a couple of years out of your battery then that's not too bad.
DKB

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#7 Post by christopher_wolf » Sun Sep 24, 2006 12:41 pm

From what I have seen, that wear level is within the standard range; I have gotten 3+ years out of T4X Series Thinkpad batteries and it really depends on how you use them.

I have, however, seen the battery on my old HP ze5170 get a 35% wear level in one month; now *that* would really be too fast. :)
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#8 Post by sugo » Sun Sep 24, 2006 12:54 pm

2 years old original 6 cell T42 battery here. 40 cycles. Full charge capacity 48Wh. Design capacity at 47.5Wh. Wear level 0%.

The battery is made by Sony :D
X61

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#9 Post by NimnuL » Sun Sep 24, 2006 12:55 pm

OK. Can You tell me how to use the battery? How increase lifespan battery? Discharge almost to 0% or bettrer when discharge to 10% and then charge to 100%?


PS. Sorry then for the pictures in post without warning - I didn't wrote forum rules, sorry again.

>>Edit<<

Ohh! Seems to be SONY better than SANYO :)
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#10 Post by GomJabbar » Sun Sep 24, 2006 1:27 pm

sugo wrote:2 years old original 6 cell T42 battery here. 40 cycles. Full charge capacity 48Wh. Design capacity at 47.5Wh. Wear level 0%.

The battery is made by Sony :D
Did you find what Ponce failed to?

I would like to know how you use your battery, and how often, if ever, you refresh it.
DKB

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#11 Post by meeotch » Thu Sep 28, 2006 7:25 pm

I've got a 9-cell, about 18 months old, and it's down to 63% of design capacity. Actually, it was down to 66%, and I performed an "improve battery health" operation, which actually made things *worse*. Only about 70 cycles on it.

I don't think I've been using it in a particularly weird way. It stays plugged in most of the time, and I've been using Hibernate instead of Standby, in order to avoid "micro-charging" it up from 96% every time I close the lid & take it somewhere.

The thing that blows is that the "automatically determine charging thresholds & notify me when I should change them" option doesn't seem to do anything at all.

It's like they say: it's a consumable. Having to throw a hundred bucks worth of gas into your laptop every year isn't the end of the world. It's too bad that OEM batteries are like $160+. I'm tempted to buy a couple of clones at $50 apiece... has anyone ever actually seen an aftermarket battery damage a system?

mitch

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#12 Post by christopher_wolf » Thu Sep 28, 2006 7:37 pm

Aftermarket batteries can be problematic; worst case, they will, ahhh, "React Vigorously"


I have several 9-cells, of varying age (some from 3 years ago), and they hold up pretty well. 3:30 hours of use is what I have gotten out of each and the wear level is about 18% for each. They were used lightly until a year ago; since then they have been in my T43, along with the original 6-cell, and have done just fine. I would say that getting a new battery every year is a little on the expensive side, unless you want to get the very best battery life possible. :)
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#13 Post by meeotch » Thu Sep 28, 2006 7:42 pm

Sadly, I'm looking at about 1:40 on my current 9-cell. It seems to have dropped off rather precipitously in the past few months, though I haven't really been watching it. Maybe just unlucky on this one... 35% wear in just a year does seem extreme. It also really surprised me that reconditioning didn't do any good at all.

mitch

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#14 Post by leegaard » Fri Sep 29, 2006 5:01 am

NimnuL wrote:OK. Can You tell me how to use the battery? How increase lifespan battery? Discharge almost to 0% or bettrer when discharge to 10% and then charge to 100%?

)
Charge only the battery to around 85%

That will will increase lifespan considerably
Frank

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#15 Post by Gustavo » Fri Sep 29, 2006 8:41 am

Mine has a little over 1 year of use desing cap. 51.84Wh down to 45.32Wh after 102 cycles. Wear level 14%. Sanyo manufactured.

So mine is performing normally I get about 2:10 hours with Wifi and 4 dot brightness.
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Re: IBM T43 - the battery wear level - problem?

#16 Post by davidspalding » Sat Sep 30, 2006 12:03 pm

NimnuL wrote: Here are details for my battery:
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/4263/batt1up3.gif

As You can see, here is 8 cycle of charge, and actual max. capacity is 50,09Wh. It means that the wear level is now 2%. I charge the battery yesterday, and before that the max. capacity was 50,65Wh. So capacity in 1 cycle decrease 0,47Wh.

MOD EDIT: No images without a warning in the subject line - forum rules.
You have your battery set to begin charging at 10% ... yikes! Set it back to the default, or you'll be deep discharging your battery every time. That certainly cuts down battery life, if I recall.
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#17 Post by NimnuL » Mon Oct 02, 2006 6:21 am

Thanks for You reply. I already change the charge threshold.
Best Regards
NimnuL
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#18 Post by Bigeyedphish » Mon Oct 02, 2006 6:55 pm

ive mine for about 13-14 months and it says "Your battery can store 63% of its original full charge cpacity." oh yeah, and that's after 116 cycles.

because of the recall, I'll be getting a new one in a few weeks
-Greg

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