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    T61 - Battery taking forever to charge

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by rxblitzrx, Aug 30, 2008.

  1. rxblitzrx

    rxblitzrx Notebook Evangelist

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    My T61 is about 1 year old now and the battery takes hours to charge from 96% to 100%. I'm guessing this is just normal aging.

    Anyone explain differently?
     
    rxblitzrx, Aug 30, 2008
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  2. AuroraAlpha

    AuroraAlpha Notebook Consultant

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    My T61p is a few weeks old and does the same thing. I think it is just designed to swtich into a trickle charge to help prevent damage to the battery. It takes about an 1:30 to get from 96-100% but I don't think it even takes more than half of that long to get form 20-96%.
     
    AuroraAlpha, Aug 30, 2008
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  3. rxblitzrx

    rxblitzrx Notebook Evangelist

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    Good point. I do notice that the battery charges a lot faster from 20 - 90 (or whatever)
     
    rxblitzrx, Aug 30, 2008
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  4. Tinderbox (UK)

    Tinderbox (UK) BAKED BEAN KING

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    Have you tried a full discharge to calibrate the battery meter!!!
     
    Tinderbox (UK), Aug 30, 2008
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  5. rxblitzrx

    rxblitzrx Notebook Evangelist

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    Last week, I fell asleep while watching a movie on my laptop. The next morning it was down to 1%. I'm guessing that would count??
     
    rxblitzrx, Aug 30, 2008
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  6. Tinderbox (UK)

    Tinderbox (UK) BAKED BEAN KING

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    If you want to do a full discharge boot into the bios and leave the laptop till it shuts itself off!
     
    Tinderbox (UK), Aug 31, 2008
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  7. Cereal KiIIer

    Cereal KiIIer Notebook Geek

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    Completly discharging a battery can damage it! It's a very stupid idea. There is some electronic parts in the battery that always need power.
     
    Cereal KiIIer, Aug 31, 2008
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  8. nicodemus

    nicodemus Notebook Consultant

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    Not completely sure with Lenovo, but other batteries don't allow a complete discharge. It will cut off power before that happens so as to preserve itself.
     
    nicodemus, Aug 31, 2008
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  9. Tinderbox (UK)

    Tinderbox (UK) BAKED BEAN KING

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    Strange i am only stating what my laptop manual says to do!!!

    Also the laptop will switch itself off before the battery is damaged

    Also the battery has protection against low discharge

    So thanks for calling me STUPID :mad:

     
    Tinderbox (UK), Aug 31, 2008
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  10. sefk

    sefk Notebook Consultant

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    You 2 are both right.

    It's true that a FULL discharge will kill the battery. Even with protection the battery still doesn't like "full" discharge: it's generally better to do a few half recharges instead of one big recharge.

    However, once in a while, a "full" discharge is good to recalibrate the battery meter (as mentioned above).

    In our case:
    "My T61 is about 1 year old now and the battery takes hours to charge from 96% to 100%. I'm guessing this is just normal aging."
    A standard li-ion battery recharge very fast at first then slow down gradually. Near 100%, the recharge time increase almost exponentially until it reach 100%, then a safety mechanism will stop the charge.

    You can do a "full" discharge as mentioned above. It might help, but don't expect much.
     
    sefk, Aug 31, 2008
    #10