My eBay T-400 (update)

I've had this notebook for fifteen months now, daily use. The extended battery I bought for it new and seldom if ever use finally deteriorated to 65% capacity - a consequence of charging it to 100% all the time. Thinkvantage was advising me to get a new one but I did a battery re-set and also did several full discharges to fully charged cycles and it is now back up to 85%. I also adjusted the max charge to 85% which should help things. I just seldom use the battery but it needs to be in the machine anyway so if I think I'm going to need the battery I change the settings and let it charge to 100% if I'm going somewhere with it.

I've gone through one keyboard - tried cleaning the first one with pressure from a can of brake fluid. Don't know what I was thinking that day - just looking for something with pressure. Dumb. New one on eBay was $30.

I've bought two new Wi-Fi radios to replace the original which stopped working, but the problem is not with the radio card, it's with something else. I need to get it in the shop (it's still under warranty) but haven't taken the time. I use a USB wi-fi when I use wireless. I plug in the Ethernet at home - a very long cable. Someone on this board advised that the T-400 has a problem with the motherboard/wireless radio relationship. I think they are right as a new radio card doesn't help the problem. The USB wi-fi stick works fine in the meantime.

What a great notebook this has been. Got it on eBay for $399 January before last. I bought a friend a Lenovo for Christmas, a G570. It's nice but I'll stick with my T-400 until something major breaks, if ever it does. This is one tough notebook. I travel with it a lot.

Minor problem currently, can anyone help? Tapping the Home and End keys together with Fn held down usually adjusts the screen brightness. This has stopped working lately and I'm having to use the Windows Mobility Center to adjust screen brightness - a small pita. It would be nice to have that feature back . . . anyone know what I've done to stop that feature from working?

Thanks,

Mike

 

Re-install the Hotkey drivers.

 

i've had my T400 for close to 3.5 years now and still get 7 to 8 hours on my 9 cell.

have kept my thresholds at 20 and 90 this whole time.

 

Thanks guys. Hotkey drivers are currently downloading . . . along with drivers for the wi-fi radio. I haven't tried that to fix the wi-fi problem so maybe new drivers will fix both problems.

I think the problem with my 9 cell is due to the fact I don't use it much.

I had a ZEOS notebook in the early 90's which I used on batteries for years when working in Africa. The batteries lasted for many years because I would fully discharge them and then re-charge to full. Batteries love this kind of use in my experience. The one in my machine is mostly just along for the ride and is deteriorated because of it, is my theory. I keep the original 6 cell in the bag just in case I do need some battery time.

The brightness hotkey problem is a known issue it turns out - seems like it deactivates after a sleep cycle. A re-boot fixes it. I'll see if fresh drivers also fixes it.

Thanks,

Mike

 

New Li-ion batteries don't like to be discharged to 0% and back to 100%. This might have applied to old school batteries in the 90's but no more. Don't go less than 5% or else it might do permanent damage to the battery.

As far as the brightness change, I've never had a problem. These are hardware keys, so even without any drivers they should function (BIOS, Linux, Windows).