Crappy Lenovo Battery

[[TC]»Elmo«]

How old exactly is the laptop?
If it's a few years old, it's quite normal for the battery to wear out. This can easily happen 18months - 2 years if it's regularly being used on battery power.


Regarding charging cycles, with LiIon the only thing that really matters in normal use is the number of full charging cycles. 1 charging cycle is full -> empty (according to the battery controller) -> full. Charging from 50% to full twice counts as 1 cycle, not 2.

The battery controller will never allow the battery to get to fully empty under normal conditions, so letting it go to "0%" is fine. Then there's the fact that by default windows will shut down long before it gets to 0% anyway.

Also, it's actually a good thing for LiIon batteries to go down to reported 0% occasionally (again as above, that doesn't mean empty, that's just where the controller reports 0% to be). Older batteries that never get to reported empty can sometimes get out of calibration so they never actually fully charge. Letting it run to 0% normally fixes that - doing that made a mate's old vaio last 2x as long.

Finally, as ZsoLT said, never store the battery for long periods when charge is low - batteries loose a little charge over time even when they're not being used, so they can eventually get below "0%" which is where damage happens. Ideally, you should always fully charge it before storing for any significant length of time.

(2012-04-07 19:14)Johan. Wrote:  And, to add to Zsolt's post: get it covered in something, and put it in the fridge/freezer. This also makes sure that your longer able to use the battery on a nice long time..

Make sure you put it in a sealed container with some silica gel for several hours before letting any electronics anywhere near the inside of a freezer. The gel absorbs any moisture in the air which should prevent it condensing on the electronics. Also, make sure it's left to sit at room temperature (out of the container) after removing it from the freezer for a few hours before you power it up.
Rapid changes in temperature + electronics + power = condensation + fffzzzt.