Just got my T40

[LuDaCriS66]

Just got my T40 this afternoon and so far, I'm really happy about it. There are some things I'm wondering about though. The documentation I got isn't really that good.
How long am I supposed to charge the laptop for, after a full discharge?
Does the battery light turn off when it's fully charged?
Is it normal that I went from 16% battery life to 5% after popping in a regular CD to install an app within a matter of minutes?
Does this battery have the "memory" problem?

Oh yeah.. if there's anything else I should know or tips and such.. please reply
Any driver or BIOS updates I should get?

I got a 2373-72U
Pentium M 1.5
256mb
40GB 5400rpm drive
Radeon 7500 32mb (all I need really)

 

[eriqesque]

As for the battery going down that fast it probably wasn't fully charged to 16% if thats the way it was when you got it.
No the battery light doesn;t go off it stays steady green when fully charged.
As for discharging the battery you shouldn't deep discharge the battery it's a Li-Ion battery and they don't like that
and no they do not suffer from memory effect.
also to get the most life of you battery you should keep the discharges as shallow as possible.
I know this is kind of defeating the purpose of a battey, therefore you should use the battery as you need to and not really get caught up in the whole Whrs thing.
Also your new battery comes with a one year warranty so if it falls below your expectations with in that year simply call IBM and they will send you a new on.
Also dont forget to call them within your 1st 30 days and get your recovery CD set.
As for updated drivers and Bios you use your discretion for those that being said i have and did updated all as soon as i received mine.

 

[LuDaCriS66]

thanks for the info

What about leaving the laptop plugged into the AC adapter, even when fully charged? Is that a problem? Will that hurt battery life at all?

 

[eriqesque]

It shouldn't
plus it will act as a battery back up just in case of power failure
or AC being jerked from the wall or something.

 

[oaaltone]

Leave the battery plugged in whenever possible, it will not hurt the T40. In fact, that is how it's designed. Read IBM's official battery tips here.

My T40 gets INCREDIBLE battery life with the default battery. Just yesterday I used it for ~4 hours around campus and it was at ~30% when I was done. I have the power profile set to "Word Processing".

 

[LuDaCriS66]

Originally posted by: olliebg
Leave the battery plugged in whenever possible, it will not hurt the T40. In fact, that is how it's designed. Read IBM's official battery tips here.

My T40 gets INCREDIBLE battery life with the default battery. Just yesterday I used it for ~4 hours around campus and it was at ~30% when I was done. I have the power profile set to "Word Processing".

Thanks! Thats going to my favourites heh