Battery usage

Hi guys, I have questions on maintaining thinkpads' battery. I currently using two thinkpads t61 and x200. Both battery stops functioning, cycle count only around 100 and quite dissapointed with this. I partly worry it is due to my bad usage. Hope someone can help me with these.

1. Should I fully discharged the battery before charging it or whenever it is at around 70-80%.

2. Can I charge when it is 90+%?

3. If I like to keep the battery away, should I fully charge it occassionally to keep it alive? I have had it kept away and it became unuseable.

Thanks in advance

 

1. No that is not necessary.

2. I charge all my battery to 95%, but never to 100% if i can help it.

3. Keep the stored battery between 40 to 60% charge level.

P.S. What battery make is your X200? my 6 celled X200 battery with Sanyo cell dropped to half of the original design charge level after 140 charge cycles.

 

My experiences with Sanyo batteries are not good either. Sony and Panasonic batteries seem to keep their capacity much better.

 

i am getting sicked of getting burnt by low quality Sanyo batteries from Thinkpads to iPod... i will make a point to avoid this brand next time i purchase any Thinkpad products.

 

Unfortunately it's the luck of the draw on what branded battery you get from Lenovo, you don't have much say on these things. But I agree the Sanyo's are pretty generic stuff, I got two of these in 6 cell form on my T61. My first one, albeit was used heavily by the previous owner for most of the time had 35% wear after 130 cycles. Power Manager reports this battery in poor condition and doesn’t hold charge for more than 1.45 hours for a 6 cell.

Just recently got a new Sanyo 6 cell genuine battery from an eBay seller (£29.99 is quite good value) and try to condition it better now by charging custom thresholds. But my sister’s Panasonic battery on her R61e is very good, it tends to hold charge a lot more better than my Sanyo batteries over time!

 

Panasonic battery is the best...

 

Thanks lead_org, will follow that on new one I just gotten. I have been used to do without battery so likely to store away. Having read from somewhere, stored battery needs to be charged once in few months.

Both spoiled batteries (t61 6c and x200 4c) are Sanyo. My newly gotten one for x200 6c is LGC, not sure exactly what it is though but as long as not Sanyo I'm happy.

I agree, it has burnt my pocket a big hole

 

lol i didn't know sanyo made such low quality batteries. i have heard that their regular rechargeable eneloop batteries are pretty good though.

 

iPod battery recall involved either Sanyo or Sony, the latter had the overheating issues... and the former had the premature failure issues.