Problem with ThinkPad 600 batteries

Information about the problem of early dying batteries on Thinkpads of the 600 series.

Problem description

The charge indicator falls from some still quite high (between 50% and 95%) charge state to 5%. This happens only on batteries which have gone through some recharging cycles already.

Affected Models

• Thinkpad 600, 600E, 600X

Affected Operating Systems

• all

Status

• Raph Levien has collected comprehensive information about this phenomena and possible solutions in 2002 on this page: http://www.levien.com/tp600-battery.html

Solutions

• See this page: http://www.levien.com/tp600-battery.html

• That page notes that a BIOS update marked as "optimizing battery recharging" might help avoid the problem in the first place, theorizing that that update disables charging when the battery is fully charged and the laptop is using mains power. With any luck that BIOS update is on most Thinkpads by now.

• According to a front page Slashdot.org article, if one discharges their 600X battery nearly fully at least once a week, the batteries will be fine.

• Samiam: I did not have problems with the battery until it was plugged in all of the time; both of my batteries went from being able to hold a charge from one hour to being able to only hold a charge for about five minutes.

• It has been the experience of some users, that the batteries perform far better if you never charge the battery while the computer is on. The area around the battery gets quite hot while using the laptop. Charging the battery at that temperature seems to be a bad idea.

• More a way of circumvention than an actual solution is to buy an external battery pack.

• I have had excellent success with a refurbished battery from batteryrefill.com (which I only recharge while the laptop is off).

Related Links

• Slashdot.org article
• http://www.levien.com/tp600-battery.html