Things to do before starting to use my new L520?

Hi there,

I recently ordered an L520 and it shipped on Friday, so I expect to receive it any day now. Having not purchased many new computers before -- and never a Thinkpad -- I was wondering if you had any recommendations as to things I should do before using the laptop.

I know with some batteries you're supposed to charge the battery a certain amount before use and discharge it fully three times, so that is my primary concern (extending battery life). Any other tips on things to install/remove upon receiving the laptop or other precautions to take would be very much appreciated.

Thanks for your time!

 

In general, don't use it on a soft surface or in some place where heat will not dissipate easily. Don't use it near liquids.

In respect to the battery, with my experiences with Li-ion batteries, the battery meter has always been accurate ever since the first charge and the battery life isn't affected if you do full discharge cycles first. I heard that Lenovo conditions the batteries before shipping, which means you don't have to do anything special.

 

Creating Recovery Discs is always a good idea when you receive your new system, just in case something do go wrong you can have something to fall back on.

Setting charging thresholds can also prolong the life of the battery, you can do this on the Lenovo Power Manager (I put mine 35%-95% but others may have slightly different levels).

 

Why don't you just enjoy it for a bit before you get all anal about everything? It never gets better than when you get it.

In addition to the recovery discs, I'd make a copy of the SWTools folder. It contains all the drivers and applications installed on your machine. It's on the C:\ drive.

As to the battery, I just put it in and use it. If I got a buy battery a few years down the road, that's the price of owning it.

 

Did you order the HD+ screen. It would be great if you do a mini-review on the screen. The thing I recommend you do when you first get your laptop is burn an recovery disc, copy the drive like Zaz say, after that clean out all the bloatware you don't need.

As for charging the battery for certain amount of time, that is not necessary for Ni-ion battery, they are pre-charge at the factory unlike older NiMH.

 

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! Zaz -- don't worry, I will certainly enjoy it. I just wanted to make sure I didn't do anything to hurt its lasting performance.

And K2001 -- yes, I ordered the HD+ screen. I'll post a mini-review of that and other features (HD camera, etc) because I haven't seen much written about the L520 just yet.

 

Who's worried? I was just reminding you, you gotta have some fun along the way.

 

You need to name it.

You can't get attached to it until you name it.

 

How do charging thresholds prolong the battery life?

Review, please!

 

When you set a threshold the battery is instructed not to charge until it reaches a particular point, this is useful if you often cycle between AC and battery power from time to time. So say you take your laptop on battery power for 1 hour then plug it back in, while most laptops will automatically charge it up and notches up a cycle count, with ThinkPads as long it has sufficient battery power (say 70% after the 1 hour stint) it will not charge and preserve that amount.

It will only charge once it depletes to the lowest threshold level (say 35%) so in between you could cycle AC and Battery Power 3 times before the battery actually needs to be charged, thus effectively you saved the battery from being charged up 3-4 times and potentially lowering battery wear.

 

Hearst, thank you for explaining it to me. It makes sense but I still don't understand why you have an upper limit (95%).

The sad news is that I will probably have to uninstall the Lenovo Power Management application in order to get the TPFC running so that I can keep the fan noise down but I was told that the last settings are maintained after the Power Manager has been deinstalled.

 

Charging cells to maximal capacity isn't the best for battery cell longevity either, hence the 95% upper limit.

Why? On my X120e, I'm running Thinkpad Fan Control and Power Manager at the same time, with no issues. TPFC will override any fan settings you make in PM. It doesn't change any BIOS fan settings, so TPFC will need to run in the background to manage the fan settings.

 

There is apparently an incompatibility problem with the newer Lenovo software for L520 and a couple of other ThinkPads.

See for more in the ThinkPad Forum, the Lenovo Community and below.

 

Thanks for discussion and since we are on the topic, could someone please explain how battery calibration works and the benefits of calibrating the battery? Also, when and under what circumstances should one optimally calibrate the battery?

Thanks in advance.