Genuine Lenovo Batteries vs. Generic Replacement?

[twillis449]

My experience wih 'genuine Lenovo' batteries is similar to that of firthinkpad's above. I bought a T61 and the battery failed after about 6 months - then I had a similar experience with a T60's battery. No way am I gonna pay Lenovo's highway robbery prices. I've had reasonable experiences with clones costing about 1/3 the price. If I want to sink money into computers I'd rather do it on things like extra memory or a SSD which can give me some long term benefits.

[dehory]

This has been a very useful thread for me. After my X61 suffered battery failure almost a year ago, I gave up on the computer and didn't find out about the recall until many months too late (i.e. after my warranty had expired). I've just started getting it back in shape as a travel computer and need a new battery for it.

FYI, the Lenovo Outlet site is currently having a 20% off sale until Feb 23rd and there's a range of batteries in stock. As I write, there's still a small handful of X6x/s-compatible "scratch & dent" 4-cell and buckets of refurbished 8-cell batteries for a bargain $24 and $34.80 respectively. (That's including UPS Ground shipping.)

The only catch is that the site seems to be on the verge of collapse approximately 95% of the time (overwhelmed by deal hunters?) and it takes an almost inhuman degree of patience to make it through the checkout process.

[dr_st]

Do notice that if your battery is subject to a recall, they will replace it regardless of the state of warranty on your system.

[dehory]

Unfortunately, the Battery Diagnostic Tool told me that since the unit is more than 6 months out of warranty, I'm not eligible for a replacement (even though my battery matches one of the listed FRUs).

[Mithrandir]

I have a ThinkPad T61p that I purchased almost 2 years ago. My second 6 cell battery just failed within the past week. The first one I had would discharge normally until it reached about 20%, then it would hit critical battery level, then hibernate. Lenovo replaced that battery with a new one under warranty. The second one has 53 cycles on it, and failed again. It reached about 75% on the power gauge and then immediately hibernates. When I plug it in and turn it back on the battery is at 4-5%. Both of these were Lenovo batteries, manufactured by Sony. Now I'm in the position where I have to buy my replacement battery. I'm hesitant to spend $150 for a genuine Lenovo 9-cell that may also fail me in another year. I'm considering the outlet, but it's $53 there with only a 90 day warranty... I just with I could get a battery that lasted me more than a year. I don't have any prior experience with other ThinkPads, as this is my first...

[Eudoxus]

I think that you have been just plain unlacky. If I were you I would either buy another lenovo battery in the outlet or would try to find one in the forum's marketplace. There are some posts in the forum according to which the best thinkpad batteries are manufactured by Panasonic.
Good luck!

[djfotizo]

I havent been following this thread, so feel free to flame if this doesnt help anyone. I landed on this forum a few days ago when searching for a new battery because mine did the 70% to 2% thing recently. Well I am happy to report that after UNinstalling TP Power manager, and installing BatteryCare from batterycare dot net, My battery is now reading accurately. Now here is the good news. It immediately picked it up at 30 full. so instead of 100 to 70 then dead, it goes from 30 to zero. Then I noticed over a couple days it was holding more 33, then 37 , then 42. I sat and watched the charge rate yesterday and it started to show 0kwh at 40%. Then I noticed it would trickle up then go back to zero. It was a very slow process. Like 5% an hour of charging. So I ran the battery down to zero and let it charge all night. Apparently The cells have to level out by passing trickle charges between each other till they are all even.

anyhow, i am happy to report that my battetry is restored. I am currently at 67% batter and still have 2:40min remaining. The guage is now accurate. In my case, the culprit was the thinkpad battery manager, not the battery itself. Just an fyi.

Again, sorry if this is not on topic, but i am sure it will help someone from having to prematurely make the decision of Generic VS OEM.

Jason

EDIT: you have to leave the laptop on while charging for it to balance out the trickle charge.

[Ollo]

Good info!

Thanks Jason!

[frankiepankie]

I bought an Lenovo 3000 N100 for cheap, because it had a bad battery, and no HDD.

I bought an clone battery from eBay, coming from Hongkong. It worked perfectly, no problems at all. It also has 3 year warranty, so if it causes any problem, i can contact the seller and claim a solution.


And about original batteries: I think a battery with Panasonic cells is the best there is. I once had a T4x battery with Panasonic cells, and with nearly 300 cycles it was still at original capacity But unfortunately my current batteries (T61 and R51) are Sanyo, and they degrade quite fast


And the cause where your battery jumps from a high percentage to a low percentage (eg: 75% > 4%) is in almost every situation one or more bad cells in the battery pack.

[djfotizo]

And the cause where your battery jumps from a high percentage to a low percentage (eg: 75% > 4%) is in almost every situation one or more bad cells in the battery pack.

Not necessarily true (and I am betting several others can attest). TP Power Manager is causing a fault. In my case it was a software issue, not hardware. Again, my battery restored itself after uninstalling the IBM TP Power Manager. I am still on the same battery charge that i was when I typed my post yesterday. It only took about 3 days of cycling for things to go back to normal. Since the TP power manager handles the charging/discharging for optimal performance, it has the ability to do thing incorrectly. My guess is that the way it trickle charges is failing to spread the trickle through all the cells, making one or more appear faulty. It simply isnt the case.

currently 61% and 2:04 remaining. 3 days ago, it would have shut down well before the 60% mark.

also, my battery pack is made up of sony cells.

[virge]

I bought an clone battery from eBay, coming from Hongkong. It worked perfectly, no problems at all. It also has 3 year warranty, so if it causes any problem, i can contact the seller and claim a solution.

I haven't had much luck with generic batteries. The quality seems really low in the ones I've seen. One T23 battery actually fell apart, and overall life seems short. I have older IBM/Lenovo batteries that are still good, but generic batteries seem to die in a year or two.

I've never pursued a warranty claim, but from my experience with other parts shipped from China, the cost of returning a product really makes the process not a worthwhile experience for me.

[loyukfai]

@djfotizo: http://batterycare.net/ Is this what you're using?

[djfotizo]

yes. that is it. if you monitor its activity, you will get real information about your battery vs the confusion that TP Power Manager seems to be giving.

[djfotizo]

bad news... my battery started acting funky today. It did the drop to 4% again, but get this... The computer went to 0% then ran for another hour before dying completely. I am at a loss. I am consistently getting 2.5 hrs per charge, but the readings are unreliable.

sorry guys...

[loyukfai]

Ah that's pretty bad... Cause I assume that the PC would suddenly shut down...? I think I had mine configured to go into hibernation at 3%.

Cheers.