T42 Battery Life question

[bluesdoggy]

Just got a T42 and really really like it with the exception of one thing. I wanted to check out the awesome battery life that i'd heard about, i unplugged the laptop (first time its been unplugged) and surfed the web with it while watching a movie with the family. To my great surprise the battery only lasted about 2 hours. The sales person from ibm swore up and down that even using wireless i should get around 4 hours worth of battery life out of the 6 cell battery, so what gives? did i get juiced?

Anyone's input (especially someone with a t series laptop) would be greatly appreciated.

 

[NecessaryEvil]

what power setting did you use?


Super Power Saver should get you 3-4 hours.

the way you get those LONG hours is to have the brightness down all the way, and the CPU running slow.

Even my T42P w/ 15" UXGA got 3.5 hours on the 6 cell. I haven't tried out the 9cell though..

 

[TheGeneral]

what power setting did you use?


Super Power Saver should get you 3-4 hours.

the way you get those LONG hours is to have the brightness down all the way, and the CPU running slow.

Even my T42P w/ 15" UXGA got 3.5 hours on the 6 cell. I haven't tried out the 9cell though..

QFT

just use the MaxiMiser to change your power scheme

 

[NecessaryEvil]

QFT?

Quantum Field Theory?

Quiet Ferret Time?

Quick Frog Tossing?

Quacky Frankenfurter Tasting?

 

[ukk0]

QFT?

Quoted For Truth

 

[NecessaryEvil]

ah.

I was going to go to Genmay (not the [H], the [M]) and find out...but, alas...it's down.

 

[bluesdoggy]

QFT had me too..

anyways thanks for the help, i am doing some testing today, right now i've completed a full charge of the battery and have it running in super power saver mode. We'll see how far it gets. It might be a good idea to just invest in the 9 cell battery.

 

[TheGeneral]

QFT had me too..

anyways thanks for the help, i am doing some testing today, right now i've completed a full charge of the battery and have it running in super power saver mode. We'll see how far it gets. It might be a good idea to just invest in the 9 cell battery.

only $99 on newegg

 

[Gila724]

There are a couple of things you need to consider - the first is that it was the laptops first time running on battery. It may not be up to its full capacity yet and you may need to cycle it a few times to get it up to its designed capacity.

The other thing to consider is the screen brightness, this may have got better over the last couple of years but putting the screen up to full brightness also draws a fair bit of extra battery (about 2-3 watts/hour over fully dimmed).

Another thing that's becoming a bane for me when browsing the interweb on battery is flash adverts, they use a lot of CPU power...

 

[bluesdoggy]

I was under the impression newer lith-ion batteries weren't in need of "training" like some older laptop batteries. Is this incorrect?

 

[Gila724]

Quite, the first few cycles of a battery's life are very important for getting it up to its full capacity. It needs to be fully charged then run down until flat (either 1% or 0%, only completely flatten it if its still not working up to full capacity after that). Then it should be charged up to 100% again. Just do that a few times and the battery should be up to or above its design capacity, which being a 6 cell, should be 47.5 watt hours. Battery Information in battery maximiser is the easiest way to check up on it.

I don't know where you got the impression that li ion batteries dont need training, if anything they're actually fairly complex to look after compared to nimh batteries. The advantages are that they don't suffer from memory effects, the capacity can be far more accurately gauged and they have a higher capacity than equivalent nimh cells.

 

[eriqesque]

Quite, the first few cycles of a battery's life are very important for getting it up to its full capacity. It needs to be fully charged then run down until flat (either 1% or 0%, only completely flatten it if its still not working up to full capacity after that). Then it should be charged up to 100% again. Just do that a few times and the battery should be up to or above its design capacity, which being a 6 cell, should be 47.5 watt hours. Battery Information in battery maximiser is the easiest way to check up on it.

I don't know where you got the impression that li ion batteries dont need training, if anything they're actually fairly complex to look after compared to nimh batteries. The advantages are that they don't suffer from memory effects, the capacity can be far more accurately gauged and they have a higher capacity than equivalent nimh cells.

This is not true
LI-Ion batteries DO NOT need to be conditioned.
In fact it is recommended you do not condition them
they also dont like deep discharges fequently
the deeper the discharge the less it will like be rehcarged. Any further info can be read at the following site and authority on Battery Technologies.
Battery University

 

[Gila724]

I said the first couple of charges, but yes you are otherwise right, li ion batteries shouldn't be run down to 1% often otherwise they'll lose capacity faster.

 

[eriqesque]

I said the first couple of charges, but yes you are otherwise right, li ion batteries shouldn't be run down to 1% often otherwise they'll lose capacity faster.

They do not need to have this done on the 1st couple of charges either.
They do not need to be conditioned.
The 1st charge up is however very important they need to be fully charged to the 1st time.