just received my 9 cell li-ion battery for my T40!!

[thelittleprincess]

I just received my new model 92P1102 ThinkPad T40/R50 Series 9 Cell Li-Ion Battery...

I've read up on batteryuniversity.com but am sooooo confused. Can someone explain to what I need to do in layman's term?

I know I need to charge up the battery. I've read that on some batteries, you need to charge and discharge 5 times before being able to maximize it and use it. But I don't think this is necessary for the Li-ion battery - am i right or wrong?

When it is charging, can I use my laptop still? Or should I charge overnight or for 24 hours with the laptop off?

I have the T40 (model 2379-D6U) and I do have Battery Maximiser installed - but because it's a T40, I can't set the charge minimum and maximum. I learned that it was the cycling that killed my former 6 cell battery of just under 1.5 years (almost 500 cycles!!!) So that way I see it, I will probably keep the battery charged up in my laptop and use the AC adapter while I am in school (8am to 3pm). When I do decide to use the battery - say when I not near an electrical outlet - how low should I allow my battery to go? I've read some as low as 3%, others say not to go below 10% and others also seem to day not below 80% - with the latter, that wouldn't get me much "mobile" ability would it?

At what point does the battery charging consider recharging as a full cycle? Sometimes i unplug the AC adpater to move from the main lecture room to the study rooms and then lose a few % in power - but when I plug it in again, and it charges, the cycle doesn' t increase if it was already near full. Am I making sense? From my understanding, I want to minimize the number of cycles in order to maximize my battery life.

Thank you so much to whoever can answer my questions (and those patient enough to have read this!!)

 

[tiap]

My tp is used on average approx 6 hrs per day with the battery removed. It is stored as recommended with a less than 40% charge for over a month at a time.
If you don't need it, don't have it in the machine. Best way not to run up cycles.
For first time use charge it if possible without using the tp.
Bottom line is replacing batteries is a cost of using a laptop. 1.5 years isn't all that bad.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Congrats on the battery!!
Now that you've gotten it, here are a few things I would do to maximize its life:
(1) Charge it overnight with the laptop off first thing. I don't know if this ACTUALLY does anything, but it is recommended by IBM and you can't hurt it by charging it overnight.
(2) When you use it, try not to let it go below 10%. When you get close to 10%, try to plug in as soon as possible.

The big thing is to avoid letting your battery heat up too much (i.e. keeping it in a position where heat builds up around it during use, esp during charging) and try not to "cycle" it too much; this is where not going below 10% comes in. To avoid the system heating up too much while charging, change the default Battery Maximizer settings to have the CPU run on Adaptive mode while plugged in. This will not affect performance much and will lower temperatures greatly.
In regards to moving from your main lecture hall to study rooms, here is what I would do: Use your laptop on battery in places where you know you won't have easy acces to an outlet, then plug in when you have easy access to one. This way you still use your battery but you shouldn't ever get down to 10%. You want to continue to use the battery, you just want to avoid letting the percentage get too low.
Hope this helps

edit BTW, according to this thread on Thinkpads.com, it isn't fully discharging a battery that generally kills it. In fact, if your "capacity" lowers when you discharge a battery that just re-calibrates the "digital fuel gauge" that is used to measure the capacity. What reduces a battery's capacity is actually heat, cycle count, and age in general. 1.5 years isn't an unreasonable life for a battery