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    T400: where'd my battery life go?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by pk_volt, Nov 21, 2009.

  1. pk_volt

    pk_volt Notebook Consultant

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    I used to get around 5.5 hours of battery life on a single charge with my 8 cell T400 laptop

    it's been about 3 months. I use the battery up not all the time, but somewhat regularly, and now I only get like 4 hours on a fresh charge.

    is there some sort of calibration sequence I have to do?
     
    pk_volt, Nov 21, 2009
    #1
  2. Stewie Griffin

    Stewie Griffin Notebook Consultant

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    did you change anything in the power manager that might of led to more power consumption?

    things like wifi and usb devices also drain more battery
     
    Stewie Griffin, Nov 21, 2009
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  3. pk_volt

    pk_volt Notebook Consultant

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    hm, i honestly don't recall changing anything in the power management, unless I accidently pressed something

    and nothing is plugged into my usb when I bring it to campus
     
    pk_volt, Nov 21, 2009
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  4. hding

    hding Notebook Consultant

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    hding, Nov 22, 2009
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  5. pk_volt

    pk_volt Notebook Consultant

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    hm,

    well usually, I charge it up when it's got like 10% left, but it just seemed very sudden that I lost a lot of battery charge.

    I also want to note that, I keep my computer on standby with the battery on like 90% of the time. Is this bad?

    though I did set my battery to charge at 85%

    Also, in power management, it says my battery condition is "good"
     
    pk_volt, Nov 22, 2009
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  6. Lostinlaptopland

    Lostinlaptopland Notebook Consultant

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    Are you actually only getting 4 hours or is it just saying there is only 4 hours left?

    What I mean is that do you time it yourself or just take the reading off of the battery meter.
     
    Lostinlaptopland, Nov 22, 2009
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  7. pk_volt

    pk_volt Notebook Consultant

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    I take the reading, but from my observation, the time seems to be fairly accurate.


    Also, power management says my full charge is 50.6whr and the design capacity is 56.2 whr.

    this menas I've lost like ~10% of my charge

    I'll try to time it again sometime
     
    pk_volt, Nov 22, 2009
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  8. Lostinlaptopland

    Lostinlaptopland Notebook Consultant

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    Just wondering as in the batter maintenance section I think there is a meter guage reset button, perhaps that might be worth a try?
     
    Lostinlaptopland, Nov 22, 2009
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  9. Stewie Griffin

    Stewie Griffin Notebook Consultant

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    I wouldnt suggest it. You should rarely ever have to do that. Like you said, you should recalibrate the battery
     
    Stewie Griffin, Nov 22, 2009
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  10. hceuterpe

    hceuterpe Notebook Evangelist

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    Hrm, how regular is "regular"?
     
    hceuterpe, Nov 23, 2009
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  11. sz1a

    sz1a Notebook Guru

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    I had the same issue when upgrading.

    It can be a fault with the switchable graphics. Open power manager and activate high performance/ energy saving back and forth a couple of times. Sometimes W7 runs both simultaneously which uses up lots of battery.

    I made a clean install and had to re-configure Power Manager. I used the Energy Star mode (had to download profile from lenovo) and then created a copy in Power Manager and added some basic tweaks.

    My battery power rose from 4 hours to 6 hours & 40 mins on integrated graphics/9-cell.
     
    sz1a, Nov 23, 2009
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  12. pk_volt

    pk_volt Notebook Consultant

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    argh

    I tried doing the battery calibration and after the 1st charge, I was able to get around 5hours and 2 minutes, but again, my batter drops down to like 4 hours afterwards.

    Anyone have any ideas or anything else I can try?
     
    pk_volt, Nov 30, 2009
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  13. pk_volt

    pk_volt Notebook Consultant

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    which calibration method is this you speak of?

    I just used the Lenovo battery calibration program
     
    pk_volt, Nov 30, 2009
    #13