T-42 - Method to force 100% battery charge?

[DaveG11th]

Following advice here, I'm keeping my T-42 6-cell battery at 80% charge.

HOWEVER,
for trips, out of office meetings, etc., I'd like to go on the road with 100%.

Right now, the only way I can see to do this is to click on the battery icon, choose Battery Information, then Status tab > Battery Health > Improve Battery Health and change "Stop charging at" to 100%.

That's a lot of clicks, plus I have to remember to re-set it to 80% when I get home. Good luck to me on *that* last bit, given my brain functions...

Is there an easier, temporary way to get to 100% charge?

Dave

[BeeJayEmm]

Dave,
This happened with my R52 (YMMV): I have the power properties set to charge the battery at 40% and stop charging at 50%. The battery was within those parameters. The ThinkPad was in hibernation and I inadvertently pulled the AC adapter plug from the wall. I plugged it back in and later noticed that the battery LED on the top case was flashing, indicating it was charging. When I woke the computer up, I noticed the battery was almost fully charged. Once it was completely out of hibernation, the flashing stopped. I tried this again another day to confirm the behavior. If you have hibernation enabled, you might try this experiment. I'm not sure if it works with suspension as I don't use it.

Brian

[Paul Pennington]

Are you using a dock or port replicator at your home location? You might try using Access Connections to make it behave differently whether "docked" or "undocked".

When you get ready to go on a trip, remove it from the dock and connect the power supply directly. It will also charge 100% while you're on the road.

Disclaimer: I haven't tried this, and Access Connections has been known to cause other problems.

[DaveG11th]

Thanks, all.

I'll experiment with the hibernation approach. Simple suspension (by closing the lid and lighting the outhouse... er, half-moon symbol) doesn't do it.

Access Connection - as a TPad newbie -- what is this? I don't seem to see this among my Program Files. (But then, I don't know that I have all the standard goodies on the hard drive on my unit, which I bought used... I think I do, since I have Access IBM and other such stuff.)

[Beaver]

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... IGR-4ZLNJB

Anyway, if you have ThinkVantage Access Connections installed, it should show you something like this after pressing Fn+F5:

[DaveG11th]

....
Anyway, if you have ThinkVantage Access Connections installed, it should show you something like this after pressing Fn+F5:

Thanks for the link - on my T42, Access Connections doesn't pop up, only a window that allows me to turn wireless on/off and Bluetooth on/off.

I skimmed the linked docs for Access Connections and there's too much about networking options/types that I don't know -- plus, I've been happy with my ability to connect anywhere, consistently -- plus, I don't have set or consistent/predictable 'outside world' connection types, such as you might have with a known (external) office network.

Instead, I either use public wi-fi in random settings (airports, cafes) or one-time hookup into networks with their own log-ons (hotels, conferences, etc.).

My current wireless software, whatever it is, works just fine, and I've grown wary of installing "updates," especially, as in this case, where I have to also install a new hotkey file and a new wireless card driver.

In any case, from the docs I don't see an option to change power or battery settings... so it's a case of it it ain't broke -- or if it is broke, I can't see the broken part -- so I'll choose not to fix it...

This sounds waspish, but I don't mean it that way, and I do appreciate the link -- I've yet to coherently map Lenovo's site, and while it's unbelievably rich, I never seem to know where I am or how I got there.

[fschwep]

My current wireless software, whatever it is, works just fine, and I've grown wary of installing "updates," especially, as in this case, where I have to also install a new hotkey file and a new wireless card driver.

In any case, from the docs I don't see an option to change power or battery settings... so it's a case of it it ain't broke -- or if it is broke, I can't see the broken part -- so I'll choose not to fix it...

This sounds waspish, but I don't mean it that way, and I do appreciate the link -- I've yet to coherently map Lenovo's site, and while it's unbelievably rich, I never seem to know where I am or how I got there.

The principle of 'if it ain't broke, don't (try to) fix it' is very sensible. Usually, Thinkpads work right out of the box using their factory install. It may happen that you install new hardware and need new drivers, or some additional hardware/driver combo won't work with the factory-installed OS or BIOS, but in most cases the machine will work perfectly well if you never change anything.

Windows does a fair job running your wireless connections. Acess Connections adds some functionality like the use of the Fn-F5 key to toggle your wireless radio on and off, and may give you more choice of security settings, location profiles etc.; but it's not an absolute neccessity.

Where the battery is concerned, you can also set it to charge up to 90% or thereabouts while it is docked. The purpose of not charging to 100% all the time is to avoid the battery at 100% charge which seems to be bad for its health.
The original battery in my T42 held out for more than three years of daily use, mostly in a minidock, while it was set to charge to 94% and to start charging at 90%. No matter what limits you set, at some point the machine will arrive at that and just sit in its dock running short cycles to keep it charged at your arbitrarily chosen maximum. Obviously, if there a large difference between the lower and upper limits, the machine will wait longer until it recharges and that may, theoretically, lengthen the life of the battery. But you will usually have a battery that is charged far below maximum, and thus shorter runtime off the AC grid.
It seems that setting an upper limit a bit lower than 100% is far more important for the health of the battery than limiting the actual number of charge cycles.

[Nick Y]

Simple way here, with the T43, is to turn on the mains power, from cold, and then leave it -or let it boot but do not log in. Took me a while to realise why it went to 100% while I was having breakfast, when it is set to stop charging at 95%.

(BTW, a simple restart seems to leave the start and stop s/w active.)