Just managed to "restore" full capacity of the 9-cell battery at 112 cycle count

The cycle count of the 9-cell battery (Sanyo) is 112, and it degraded from the 93.24 Wh (design capacity) down to 78 Wh (full charge capacity).

The charge mode in battery maintenance is "always fully charge", but no matter how many times I perform "battery gauge reset" with power manager, I am unable to fully restore the full capacity. My bet is that the Sanyo cells degrades fast.

However last night I performed 3 steps:

1) Run CPU stress tests on battery until it hibernates due to low battery;
2) Enter BIOS on battery until the machine turns off due to empty battery;
3) Connect the power cord to start charging, WITHOUT turning on the machine, for a whole night.

This morning when I turned on the machine, power manager reports 93.48 Wh (full charge capacity)!

This "restored" capacity may be temporary and may not be accurate but I have a feeling that the software of power manager needs improvement.

 

Let us know what power manager reports at the next charge cycle.

 

That procedure sounds very similar to apple's battery maintence procedure.

Apple Portables: Calibrating your computer's battery for best performance

Recommended intervals of once a month for users who primarily use AC adapter, and every few for those who often use their battery.

 

I thought this procedure is essentially what Power Manager does when you order it to do a battery gauge reset.

One of the recent BIOS updates also fixed a strange battery capacity bug, so that may explain partially or entirely the massive jump in battery capacity.

 

Thinkpad Power Manager has "Battery Gauge Reset" feature, buried in advanced settings, that does smth like this.

How to perform battery gauge reset? - Lenovo Community

 

What model do you have? Have you read this thread? How is your Thinkpad Sanyo battery holding up? There were conclusions that the Sanyo batteries did indeed wear out faster, but on more recent ThinkPads they seem to be holding up better.

 

Sanyo got bought out by Panasonic a while back. I would assume their more recent batteries are very similar to Panasonic's, which were traditionally accepted as the best of the three Thinkpad battery suppliers (Sanyo, Sony, Panasonic) I believe.

 

Wow really? I mean I haven't noticed too much wear on my X220t battery, but it has like 2 or 3 charge cycles. My T410s 44 WHr battery was horrid, 11 charge cycles and only had 36/44 WHr and when I did a reset it dropped to 33 WHr. When I saw that Sanyo in Power Manager I rage face'd.

 

I guess you didn't read my OP

I have an X220. Yes that's why I'm upset with my Sanyo 9-cell. My Panasonic 4-cell is still at 0% wear level at around 50 cycles.

 

the manufacturing for sanyo batteries may have not switched over completely (or at all).
"On December 21, 2009, Panasonic completed a 400 billion yen ($4.5 billion) acquisition of a 50.2% stake in Sanyo, making Sanyo a subsidiary of Panasonic.[3][4] In July 2010, Panasonic announced that they would acquire the remaining shares of Sanyo. "
i bet that batteries made in 2010 or later by sanyo are better than they used to be, but still not as good as panasonic ones.

 

My X220i 6c went down to 56Wh once. But after a few resets I got it back to 64Wh. It has about 150 Cycles.

Same thing happened with a really old T61 Battery (6-cell). It was down to only 21Wh from originally 57Wh, it was in a really bad shape but I got it up to 45Wh again. Guess I'll never those 12Wh again however, even though it only has 50 Cycles.

 

So I use my x230t pretty much exclusively on battery power, what battery lifetime settings should I use?

When I use it plugged in I always unplug when I hit 100%, otherwise it is only plugged in while the machine is in sleep/hibernate/off. Is the default 96%/100% setting fine or should it be like 90%/100% to reduce any off chance small charge cycels?

 

Why do you always unplug it when it's at 100%? The battery at 100% for periods of time between being mobile isn't going to hurt it, you just don't want it to sit at 100% on a machine that rarely gets unplugged. Keep in mind that each charge cycle is a hit on the battery, so if lowering your charge levels to 90/100% will reduce the number of charge cycles it will be better for it.

 

I just tried the recalibration as the OP suggested, but without any effect. I'm still 48/62 Wh on my X220 6-cell.

My battery already has 310 charge cycles. Some people here suggest they have 100 cycles on a 3 year old laptop...how is that possible? I'm using my Laptop every day on a docking station, but then run the battery to almost 0% in the evening. What would be the optimal charge settings for me?

 

that amount of wear sounds normal for 300 cycles. some people don't use their battery every day so they have less cycles.

 

When is it really recommended to perform a battery reset?

My x220 is a bit over a year old, has 139 cycles and dropped down to 55/63 on a full charge. So far I've just been using the "Automatically optimize for battery lifespan."

 

I'm currently at 265 cycles on my x220 9 cell sanyo battery and I've done the listed reset procedure. My battery capacity is at 72/94 Wh.