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, 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 firmware update whose changelog entry mentions "optimizing battery recharging" might help to correct the problem, on the theory that this update disables charging when the battery is fully charged and the laptop is using mains power. With any luck the firmware update is on most Thinkpads by now.

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

• Samiam: I did not have problems with the battery until I left it in a laptop which 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 is the impression of some users that the batteries perform better if they are never charged 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).

External Sources

• Slashdot.org article
• Raph Leviens ThinkPad 600 battery page
• Daniel Blais' IBM ThinkPad 600 battery page