Recommend a source for replacement battery?

[rambo47]

I just picked up a mint T43P locally and it comes with a 9-cell battery. With only 4 charging cycyles I find it's still pretty poor, lasting maybe 2 hours with WiFi turned on. I will mostly be using this around a power outlet so I thought I'd pick up a standard battery that fits more flush than the extended battery. The extended one is a kludge and sticks out too much for my taste. Heck, maybe I'll get a new extended battery for travel and the standard one for home use. I got the package for $300, including the base/port replicator and two a/c adapters. 100GB hard drive, 2GB RAM, 2.13 GHz Pentium M processor (centrino), ATi Radeon FireGL v3200 graphics card, Windows XP Pro, and the whole thing is clean enough to eat off of.

[ajkula66]

Have you tried running the battery all the way to 0% and then charging it fully?

You can post a WTB ad in the forum's Marketplace, or check Lenovo's outlet since they do get these from time to time, but any T43p - even when severely undervolted - is a power-hungry beast...

Good luck.

[rambo47]

I have not discharged the battery completely. Perhaps this will recondition it and give me a bit more life. And I'll keep an eye out for the Lenovo Outlet, which is down right now. Thanks!

[GomJabbar]

I got a Dr. Battery/Boston Power/Sonata battery for my T42 and am very pleased with it. Just doesn't work with the docking station AFAIK. The 6-cell Dr. Battery doesn't stick out the back, but it raises the rear slightly.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=81968

[rambo47]

After running the battery down several times to 5% and then recharging I have found the battery life to be MUCH improved. It's never going to be a super long-life computer, what with the processor used and all, but it's way better than it had been. I'm probably going to resell the T43P and keep my T60P though. Gotta love that wide-screen WSXGA+ screen!

[Navck]

Cheap and cheater method, for people who know what they're doing:
Open the pack up
Extra, you'll thank me later for this step: Take a photo of the inside of the pack incase you forget the wiring order.
Remove the cells
Buy new 18650 cells. I recommend Sanyo, LG and Panasonic cells.
Friction fit them in, they'll hold nicely in the pack (No soldering required)
Make sure all the temperature probes go in the right places, too.

[asp]

Cheap and cheater method, for people who know what they're doing:
Open the pack up
Extra, you'll thank me later for this step: Take a photo of the inside of the pack incase you forget the wiring order.
Remove the cells
Buy new 18650 cells. I recommend Sanyo, LG and Panasonic cells.
Friction fit them in, they'll hold nicely in the pack (No soldering required)
Make sure all the temperature probes go in the right places, too.

Is this even a safe procedure? Won't the battery housing get damaged when you try and open it?

[Navck]

With all things that can potentially "vent with flame," yes you will have to be careful to slowly split the battery case. It'll pop back together fine.

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/reb ... op-battery

This is a little more ugly with the hot glue but you get the idea.

http://www.summet.com/blog/2007/02/17/l ... ry-refill/

(With X3x series pack)

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... &view=next

[Radioguy]

Ah, but once the chip recognizes the cells are bad, and reports "failure due to normal wear", will it just go back and report things as fine once the physical cells are replaced? It remembers cycles, so I assumed it would remember death as well. Printer carts do.

Would love to know this, and if there's a way to reset that.