How long will a 6-cell battery work on T41 in general?

[firstep]

Hi, there. My T41's 6-cell battery only lasts 2.5 hours now. Is it normal?

The maximum capacity is 37.5WHr. I've been using it for more than half years. Wi-fi always on. Brightness always 6 or 7.

Are Wi-fi and Brightness the most important factors impacting battery time?

[fargusmax]

The screen brightness is the biggest power drain you've got so far. You would see better battery life with the brightness on 3 or 4. You could always buy an extended 9-cell, although some don't like the fact that it adds extra weight and the fact that it sticks out a bit on the back.

The wi-fi isn't too much of a drain (compared to the screen), although turning on any power saving options could help a bit.

Slowing down the processor would help too.

Rob

[none]

Well, you already lost about 20% of the designed charge capacity of 48WHr, so that's no help.. I think it's quite normal though, it really depands on ow many cycles the battery has been through..

Aside from that though, YES, screen brightness and Wi-Fi are huge power gobblers. The other day I was troubleshooting a modem in this big new Fujitsu laptop... The thing was down to 5% charge after about 55 min!! I couldn't believe it. That was officially the shortest battery life I've seen on a Centrino. He had a 15" screen so bright the colors were actually washing out and 2 Wi-Fi cards (I don't know why)...

I know sometimes you have to use Wi-Fi, but try reducing your screen brightness a few notches

[Tan Mann]

Well, you already lost about 20% of the designed charge capacity of 48WHr, so that's no help.. I think it's quite normal though, it really depands on ow many cycles the battery has been through..

Aside from that though, YES, screen brightness and Wi-Fi are huge power gobblers. The other day I was troubleshooting a modem in this big new Fujitsu laptop... The thing was down to 5% charge after about 55 min!! I couldn't believe it. That was officially the shortest battery life I've seen on a Centrino. He had a 15" screen so bright the colors were actually washing out and 2 Wi-Fi cards (I don't know why)...

I know sometimes you have to use Wi-Fi, but try reducing your screen brightness a few notches

I agree!
Cange the brightness down to a 5 setting, adjustin the wireless power to LOW and setting your battery to stop after 10 mins and making the CPU setting as ADAPTIVE and turning off things like the serial port, the parallel port, the modem(if you are not using these features) makes a huge difference in battery life.
On a 14" SVGA T4x, I get about 4.25 hrs with these settings, on a 15" SXGA+ unit, I am down to 3 hrs ,15 mins(flexview is nice but a bit of a power hog).

Also, if you have Bluetooth and don't use it...turn it off...