The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    battery maintenance tool only works when laptop is on?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by wackedwithbamboo, Aug 5, 2011.

  1. wackedwithbamboo

    wackedwithbamboo Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    67
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    i have an x220 an set the battery maintenance to charge when below 40% and stop at 95%. Will this maintenance tool only work when im charging the laptop while its on? and if so...will doing so still be better then constantly charging it at 100% while it is off?
     
    wackedwithbamboo, Aug 5, 2011
    #1
  2. redevils89

    redevils89 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    4
    Messages:
    137
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I have mine set to 85-95, and when it's within that range, even if I turn my computer off and back on, it's still at the same level.

    So I guess it does work even when off.(and if it doesn't, the software would be useless)
     
    redevils89, Aug 5, 2011
    #2
  3. sniper_sung

    sniper_sung Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    66
    Messages:
    611
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    When I had my ThinkPad T60 it only worked when it's running Windows, and it didn't work when it's powered off or running DOS. Not sure about X220 (haven't tested yet). Years ago, SONY VAIO laptop's battery maintenance software writes charging thresholds into the battery chips so the mechanism doesn't have to worry about the running state of the machine.

    Yes the maintenance will decrease the speed of degradation of the battery. The nature of the Li-ion batteries is that they degrade fastest when the remaining capacity is at 0% or 100%, and they degrade most slowly when the remaining capacity is at 50%.
     
    sniper_sung, Aug 5, 2011
    #3
  4. pipspeak

    pipspeak Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    94
    Messages:
    1,041
    Likes Received:
    55
    Trophy Points:
    66
    Yeah it works all the time. I leave my laptop in a powered dock docked even when shut down and the battery does not charge until it reaches the thresholds I set.
     
    pipspeak, Aug 5, 2011
    #4
  5. Colonel O'Neill

    Colonel O'Neill Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    300
    Messages:
    935
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Works all the time and across multiboot OS'es.
     
    Colonel O'Neill, Aug 5, 2011
    #5
  6. THS

    THS Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    37
    Messages:
    186
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    The battery has it's own charge/control circuitry.

    All the software does is set the thresholds on these chips.

    So you can just set it and uninstall the software.
     
    THS, Aug 5, 2011
    #6
  7. wackedwithbamboo

    wackedwithbamboo Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    67
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    hey you guys are right! i guess the only thing to do is calibrate the battery since the battery gauge isn't that accurate yet...(its fluctuating) or is this normal?
     
    wackedwithbamboo, Aug 5, 2011
    #7
  8. dimm0k

    dimm0k Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    145
    Messages:
    250
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Does this threshold actually stick when you remove and insert the battery back? I went through a cycle because it got reset somehow...
     
    dimm0k, Aug 6, 2011
    #8
  9. mariol90

    mariol90 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    167
    Messages:
    108
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    it's normal, since it calculates time left based off power consumption and current battery capacity, which you can see in the power manager software. when you use a computer normally the power consumption will generally be all over the place, unless you're doing something very constant like letting it idle or watching a video.
     
    mariol90, Aug 6, 2011
    #9