Turn off battery charging on a ThinkPad

hi,

as I'm considering to get a secondary (or actually a third battery, including slice) for home use, as I will use the X220 as desktop replacement I'd like to know if there is any way to turn off battery charging on a ThinkPad, for a better battery lifespan?

If it's possible, is there a Lenovo tool or is it BIOS only?

thanks!

 

Use the battery charge threshold feature in ThinkVantage Power Manager, a Windows utility from Lenovo for Thinkpads.

There are a number of threads on this topic in the Lenovo subforum, use Google to find them. Search:

Code:

site:forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/ battery threshold

or anything similar.

 

Does anyone know if there is a Windows / non-Thinkpad utility that allows setting battery charge thresholds? I just want to avoid the Thinkpad Power Manager and use the Windows PM instead.

 

Doubt it. ThinkPad Power Manager has a few ThinkPad specific tools.

It's quite useful and doesn't impact system performance significantly on my systems. Power Manager and TVAPS are useful. Make sure to install the latest Power Management 1.62 driver though; Windows gives you a 1.4 version by default.

 

No--Power Manager interfaces with the battery chips in a unique way that won't be available in other applications. Yes, it's a bit bloaty, but the battery runtime gains and battery-lifetime-extending benefits far outweigh that.

 

As stated by many above, the Lenovo Power Manager let you select the threshold for charging the battery. Buy setting the threshold it will only charge your thinkpad if it went below a certain limit you selected. I find it more useful than manual turning off the battery charging function. This is only reason I use the Lenovo Power Manager.

 

Got a new X220 arriving next week. Should I initially charge it for a certain period before turning it on for the very first time? Thanks

 

Personally I would run full battery cycle before turning the threshold on, however I do not see a reason to do so. I just do because I think it help the battery reconfigure so the battery meter accurately display the battery charge.

 

the lenovo laptop battery all conditioned when they leave the factory, so you don't really need a full charge and discharge cycle per se when you get it.

 

....thanks!

 

So I understand it allows you to set a certain % when it starts charging and when it stops charging but will it then run on battery or on power, when it stops charging, lets say at 95% ?

As I'll use my ThinkPad as a desktop replacement and it will be on power for like 90% of the time and I already smashed my dell battery that way..

Thanks!

 

It will run on power (unless you notice the lights going off, in which case it will run on battery ).

Don

 

Do you think there is any point removing the battery, to protect it from heat, if you run the machine plugged in most of the time? I mean, look at the Macbook Pro's. They can run pretty hot yet have a captive battery.

 

In my experience, the batteries on ThinkPads stay fairly cool when not is use and not being charged. TPFC reads mine as between 25 to 27 depending on ambient temperature.

MacBooks are a whole different story, but they don't expect you to keep using it once the next generation comes out, do they.

 

Keep in mind that some Thinkpads also throttle you down if a battery isn't installed (going off memory on that one, but I think I've seen such threads on here before).

 

...... And with the risk of introducing dust and dirt by regularly removing and replacing it, probably best to keep it in permanently. Thanks.

 

I had looked myself for something to change the charge thresholds that wasn't the Thinkpad Power Manager. I wanted something lighter weight than the Power Manager, but no such thing exists, the best you can do is see your battery info, but you can't change the charge thresholds.

 

Power Manager isn't that heavy. The only bad part is accidentally triggering the thing and waiting ten seconds for it to load so you can close it.

 

That is what I didn't like about it, that it is slow to load. Now I ignore the Power Manager because I get terrible battery life anyway, even on the most stringent power settings. I would care to use it with a newer Thinkpad, I just wonder if it loads faster now, especially with the new SSDs.