New T400, 3 Hours Max Battery...Why?

[LambertJohn]

Just got a new T400 with ATI graphics. When I run it on its six cell battery only, I get about 3 hours max. Sometimes 3.5. I've got the display set at 50% brightness, and still, battery life isn't what everyone advertises it to be. Also, the LED screen noticeably dims at 50% brightness. In other words, it's really drab, no pop. It's sort of like the backlight is literally off. Am I doing something wrong here? Shouldn't I at least be able to get 5-6 hours on my six cell battery? I'm really starting to wonder if I even have an LED screen. FYI, brand new out of the box, the battery cycle count was 6. What's up with that?

[ssd_thinkpad]

With the 6 cell battery you most likely get up to 6 hours of battery life when you do this:

• set switchable graphics to intel gpu
• set windows energy modus to maximized battery life

There are lots of other ways to enlarge your battery life, you will find plenty of tips if you read through the relevant posts in this forum.

[bdneenm]

I have pretty much had the same issue with mine. I've had some success getting it close to 5 hours, but under extreme minimal working conditions. Reminds me of the iphone 3g with their increase battery power by turning off all major functions for the purpose to which you bought the product. Now with that said, I love my thinkpad but I do wish the advertised battery length didn't come with such difficulty on the 6cell or any others.

However, one method you can try is the Battery stretch feature to see what you are able to get out of that.

[bill bolton]

but under extreme minimal working conditions.

Welcome to the world of specsmanship between laptop vendors!

The battery duration specs from all the vendors are not real world numbers. WIth any brand of laptop, I figure if I get about 66% of the claimed battery operation duration while doing useful business tasks I'm doing pretty well.

YMMV

Cheers,

Bill B.

[LambertJohn]

Thanks all. I figured that's what it was. Sometimes real world really sucks.