Just got my T400, how should I start using my battery effectively?

I want to preserve my 6-cell battery for as long as possible, what should be my first steps to doing so?

ie) Charge it overnight while computer is off, etc.

Thanks!

 

Main thing is if you are going to use it plugged in a lot, take the battery out.

Any only do full charges on the battery if you can.

 

Hey, yeah I've read that before, but i'm asking.. For the FIRST EVER charge, should I plug my new battery in and drain all the battery first and then charge? or should I just charge it straight up?

 

Charge to 100% then go to 0% than recharge .... do that 3-4 times.

 

store the battery at 36~40%

 

How do you know that? I read somewhere we should stay at 70%...

 

search the forum for the battery guide, and also wikipedia says it's best that lithium-ion battery is stored at 40%
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery

 

thanks for the links!

 

Yeah, if it's sitting around and it can be plugged in, remove the battery. Don't leave it fully charged except for when you need the full juice. The wikipedia article is quite good with respect to care.

 

I would highly NOT recommend this. If you accidentally trip over the power cable, there goes all your unsaved data.

 

You know that lithium ion batteries don't like the charge to be in either extremes, right? Doing a full charge cycle is a great way to shorten the battery life.

 

There is an option in the Power Manager on the T400. Which says to extend battery life... You can check that, I think it does not do max charges or something...

 

don't charge to max and drop over and over X_X;;;;;; do it like once every two months lol. and the only reason is to recalibrate the thingy that shows you how much battery life is left.

 

I suggest that you use the power management utility. You can set custom charge thresholds if you like.

If you plan on using the thing at a desk almost all the time set a very conservative threshold like start at 30%, stop at 70%. This will keep your battery in the midrange. Li-Ions don't like to be stored at extremes. 40% is about perfect for a long unused period, otherwise they just randomly degrade.

If you plan on using it both plugged in, and on battery use higher thresholds. I set mine to start charging at 60%, and stop charging at 95%. This prevents my machine from always trying to top off, but does ensure that I have enough juice for several hours of productivity. Also the laptop can charge to 95% far faster than to 100% because the last 5% tends to be a trickle charge.

I do agree that unplugging the battery is probably a bad idea. Leaving it in, provides an instant UPS and allows you to just grab and go. Also be aware that standby does draw a trivial amount of power, but is a better option than hibernate/shut down if your laptop will only be off for an hour or two.

FYI, the default settings are to start charging at 95%, and to stop charging at 100%. It also seems that these thresholds are actually written directly to the battery, rather than the OS. I set the thresholds in Vista, but both XP and Ubuntu respect them (very impressive).

 

Charge to 100% and deplete to 0% just so your computer know the battery capacity....the new batteries have no memory effect....and charging to 100% and depleting to 0% a lot is not a good idea (dun no where I have read that)....rather charge to almost 100 and deplete to 10-20%....and store battery at 40% at dry low temp places when plugged in (of course power could go down and thus your laptop).

 

Same could be said about your Desktop PC Don't be so careless with your power cable and you won't ever trip over it...

 

Hard to say that about people who bring their laptops elsewhere other than using inside the house. Lectures and other study places often have lots of people plugging in their laptops and I would think the cable would be prone to tripping over.

 

About that charging to 100 and draining to 0 only once using the battery for the first time sounds like a good idea. As long as subsequent charges are at 10-20% and charge up to 90-95%.

 

Don't you lose a lot of up time if you stop working if you leave an extra 20% of the high and low thresholds? Does it make that much difference in longevity to do something like this? Seems like the cost of this might outweigh the benefit...

If the battery can last up to a year and over that year I've been able to work an extra 20+ hours then just buying a new battery makes more sense.

 

Storage Temperature 40% Charge 100% Charge
0 °C (32 °F) 2% loss after 1 year 6% loss after 1 year
25 °C (77 °F) 4% loss after 1 year 20% loss after 1 year
40 °C (104 °F) 15% loss after 1 year 35% loss after 1 year
60 °C (140 °F) 25% loss after 1 year 40% loss after 3 months

I leave mine at 40% while i'm at home, but If i need to go out, I just charge it to 95 before I leave

 

wait you guys mentioning the 40% storage deal. that means you guys keep the battery out of the laptop when youre plugged in, correct?

meaning that while in use with the battery throughout the day, you deplete to around 20% and then you charge up to 40% and take it out?

 

With the ThinkVantage Battery maximizer utility it is possible to set charge thresholds. My battery is always inside my laptop. I set mine to not start charging unless the battery is below 60% (you can make it anything you want). This means if I plug in when my laptop is at 73%, the laptop runs off the AC and the battery is IDLE and cool. If the cable is accidentally unplugged, the power goes out, or I pick up my laptop and go it will seamlessly switch over to battery power.

In my opinion this is far more elegant and effective than constantly unplugging and replugging the battery.

 

man....

You brought it to USE, not to keep!

Everything has its expiration, use it while you can.

 

no...if you want to ruin maybe

let the power manager cycle the battery

 

Hello,

at first load your battery 36h, then unload to 10-15%, then charge 24h.

Then set powermanager to automatic charging and plug the cord in,
then lean back and relax and let the software thinking.

The battery will safe your work, when electricity goes down.

Regards
Andreas

 

Are my thresholds not working or something?

I set it to 40% start charge and stop at 90% but it still charged up for 100% for some reason... did i mess something up?

 

i have found that taking the battery out can reset the thresholds, so they will say one thing and do another. did you take it out? shut it down with the battery in, reboot, reset the thresholds and try again... should work.

 

oh yeah, I just recently got the t400 so i've been removing the battery and stuff just for the feel of how heavy it is and stuff. I'll try that and see if it works, thanks

 

I would agree with zerosource. There are more important things to worry about!!