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Just got new thinkpad 42p need basic tips and checks

H

HoMeZ

Senior member
Hey Does anyone have any tips on how to keep the battery alive for as long as possible? Should I regularly fully discharge or just fully discharge once a month? Should I keep the batterly out of the laptop when it is plugged into the wall? And do I have to do anything when I first turn on my laptop to burn it in like fully charge and then discharge the battery? And how do I check for problems like dead pixels?
 
Not sure about dead pixel's. Read IBM's documentation on battery health (You can access it through the battery maximiser wizard). They give some great info. I think for the first charge, you are supposed to FULLY charge the batt w/out the laptop on and then FULLY discharge it. I read somewhere that in general with Li-On batteries, about the first 3-4 uses of it you want to fully charge/fully discharge it (i.e. let the laptop die without shutting down). From there, 1-2 times per month you want to fully discharge and charge overnight. As far as leaving the battery in while running on AC, I don't believe it hurts the battery much/if at all. When the battery is fully charged or close to it, only a trickle charge of current goes through to charge the battery so no real damage occurs. I believe if you discharge/charge your batt as recommended by IBM it shouldn't be a problem. However, I wouldn't mind hearing other opinions on this as well. Enjoy your T42p!
 
Thanks for the info. I don't think I have to charge up my battery it came saying ready to go or something like that.
 
You probably want to fully charge (or if it's fully charged) and then discharge it like was stated above. Once should be fine... a few times might be better. Do this like once a month there after for maximum life with a Li Ion battery... If you're a true portable user this wont be a problem what so ever.

I have seen/experienced batteries (on a few dells that my friends own) lose a lot of capacity over a year b/c they never took their laptops anywhere. They just let them sit in their dorm room. No granted they didnt' have great batt life as these were pre centrino systems. But from what they said they lost like half of their battery time which sucks royally!
 
Hmmm I didn't read anything in the documentation that IBM sent with the laptop about discharging and recharging the battery...
 
I just got a T42 today also (for work). So far it has been a great laptop. As for the battery the IT staff said to fully discharge it about 1-2 time(s) per month and then fully charge it afterwards. I believe these were IBM people too that I was talking with too.
 
You Don't need to FULLY DISCHARGE a Li-ION Battery.
In fact the more you do this the worse the battery will be.
It can in some cases ruin a Li-Ion battery to fully discharge.

They have no memory effect...
Once they are fully charged they stop charging so
no evercharge concerns.

The do suffer from being subjected to heat so
If at all possible you should charge the battery while the
machine is off, if you are in an area that is hot.
 
Originally posted by: eriqesque
You Don't need to FULLY DISCHARGE a Li-ION Battery.
In fact the more you do this the worse the battery will be.
It can in some cases ruin a Li-Ion battery to fully discharge.

They have no memory effect...
Once they are fully charged they stop charging so
no evercharge concerns.

The do suffer from being subjected to heat so
If at all possible you should charge the battery while the
machine is off, if you are in an area that is hot.
Click to expand...

Okay well, if you click once on the little Battery Status icon next to your system tray, you will see an option that is labelled something like "Battery Health" or something along those lines. Or I believe you can get this same info through the Access IBM app. Either way, it recommends fully discharging the battery to ensure you receive your full capacity. Obviously Li-Ons have no memory effect, but that only allows you to charge the batt if you are at like 50% or anything other than 0% batt life. If this were a NiMh and you charged it @ 50%, your battery life would be screwed. Li-Ons remove that roadblock, but you still have to condition them.
 
Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
Originally posted by: eriqesque
You Don't need to FULLY DISCHARGE a Li-ION Battery.
In fact the more you do this the worse the battery will be.
It can in some cases ruin a Li-Ion battery to fully discharge.

They have no memory effect...
Once they are fully charged they stop charging so
no evercharge concerns.

The do suffer from being subjected to heat so
If at all possible you should charge the battery while the
machine is off, if you are in an area that is hot.
Click to expand...

Okay well, if you click once on the little Battery Status icon next to your system tray, you will see an option that is labelled something like "Battery Health" or something along those lines. Or I believe you can get this same info through the Access IBM app. Either way, it recommends fully discharging the battery to ensure you receive your full capacity. Obviously Li-Ons have no memory effect, but that only allows you to charge the batt if you are at like 50% or anything other than 0% batt life. If this were a NiMh and you charged it @ 50%, your battery life would be screwed. Li-Ons remove that roadblock, but you still have to condition them.
Click to expand...

Go ahead then and do just that.
But don't come crying that you just lost a bunch of battery capacity then.
Li-Ion batteries need no conditioning.
But like I said do as you like... Your battery not mine.
 
Li battery should NOT be allowed to fully discharge. It WILL die if left that way. I have made the mistake of doing just that once (putting the computer to sleep after draining the battery to 3% capacity). After 1 week of leaving it asleep, guess what , the battery refused to take charge.

After calling IBM, the service rep semi-jokingly told me what a stupid thing that was to do, and I admitted that I was stupid to think discharging my battery was a good thing. He felt sorry for me and replaced my dead battery. Well, that is the last time I fully discharged a Li-Ion battery.
 
hmmm different sides of the story. I have also heard the once a month thing, but then never read it.

On a side note, does anyone know why my DVD-Rom won't read a REAL Gone in 60 Seconds DVD? Windvd says media cannot be read or something to that effect.
 
You lucky dog. I imagine there's a better way, but the way I usually check for dead/stuck pixels is just to check the whole screen with white, then black. You can just flood-fill a new image in Windows paint and drag it around the screen, or set it to be the background, or whatever. I'm almost embarrassed to admit my low-tech ways around all the gurus on this site. 🙂

I'd enable "standby" when the lid closes, and close the lid whenever I'll be away from the computer for a few minutes. Aside from that, you can just try dimming your screen and disabling your Wi-fi device when you don't need it to enable longer battery life. If you're a power user running lots of applications and popping around a lot, then setting the normal caching/performance registry tweaks (DisableExecutivePaging, etc.) would probably help both speed and battery life.

I agree with what others have posted: you should really make sure you NEED to do it before you go discharging your batteries for maintenance purposes. You may not need it, it might actually damage the battery, and at the very least you'll be wasting some of the 500 or so charges that your battery'll be good for (at least that's the conventional wisdom; I've had batteries last much longer and still give decent performance).

Probably the hardest thing for me, personally, is not running off of battery all the time, even when I'm camped out on the couch and plugging in isn't difficult. I'm just really lazy. If you manage to only use the battery when you really NEED it, depending on circumstances you can easily double or triple your battery's useful life.

I'd probably spring for the modular battery now, unless you really don't have the money. In fact, I'd probably watch things carefully, and before the T42 ends its model run, I'd pick up an extra main battery just to make sure I'd be covered down the road.
 
Alright, I just got my T42 a week ago, and it seems as if there's something that isn't mentioned here that should be.

If you left click on the battery Maxmiser gauge, there is an option that says "Battery Reconditioning". What this is basically for is to, as fbrdphreak said, discharge your battery at least once a month.

Where am I getting this?

If you're still at the Improve Battery Health screen, click on the help button and scroll down to the section entitled "Reconditiong The Battery" and click on the supplied internal link. Allow me to quote:

"Reconditioning your battery can increase the full charge capacity of your battery. It is recommended that you let the battery run to less than 3% at least once a month.

Occasionally, it may be necessary to "deep cycle" your battery one to three times to give it optimum performance. This will require you to let your battery run completely down, and then to recharge it fully. It is recommended that you charge your ThinkPad overnight for a full charge from a deep recharge condition without leaving your ThinkPad powered on. A brand new battery should be fully charged overnight before its first use. "

Granted, I do agree that COMPLETELY discharging your battery would probably be bad news, but then again doing the balancing act from 0%-3% must be pretty tough. Regardless, that IS what IBM has chosen to put in their documentation, and I suppose I trust IBM enough to follow through with it.
 
Originally posted by: MrCraphead
Alright, I just got my T42 a week ago, and it seems as if there's something that isn't mentioned here that should be.

If you left click on the battery Maxmiser gauge, there is an option that says "Battery Reconditioning". What this is basically for is to, as fbrdphreak said, discharge your battery at least once a month.

Where am I getting this?

If you're still at the Improve Battery Health screen, click on the help button and scroll down to the section entitled "Reconditiong The Battery" and click on the supplied internal link. Allow me to quote:

"Reconditioning your battery can increase the full charge capacity of your battery. It is recommended that you let the battery run to less than 3% at least once a month.

Occasionally, it may be necessary to "deep cycle" your battery one to three times to give it optimum performance. This will require you to let your battery run completely down, and then to recharge it fully. It is recommended that you charge your ThinkPad overnight for a full charge from a deep recharge condition without leaving your ThinkPad powered on. A brand new battery should be fully charged overnight before its first use. "

Granted, I do agree that COMPLETELY discharging your battery would probably be bad news, but then again doing the balancing act from 0%-3% must be pretty tough. Regardless, that IS what IBM has chosen to put in their documentation, and I suppose I trust IBM enough to follow through with it.
Click to expand...


Go for it.

But in that same program before you do this,
write down your "Full Charge Capacity" before and then again after this so called reconditioning.
 
Well, all I know is that when I received my laptop, and fully charged it, it wouldn't go above 99%.

So I "reconditioned" it, and afterwards, it achieved 100%.

*shrug*
 
Small, but useful dead pixel application here. Effective for the four basic color tests, and the ability to test with any user defined color as well.
 

I've read it online some place so it must be true......

My understanding is that it is a good idea to dischage Lithium Ion batteries because it allows the electronics that monitor battery health to propperly calibrate. Could be the reason for that 99%--> 100% improvement stated above....


 
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