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
• Another possible solution is to buy an external battery pack.

Solutions

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

It has been the experience of some users, including myself, 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.

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.