[ltp] Battery management

[Ignacio Fernández Galván]

Hi,

In my ThinkPad R51 there used to be a bit of drain in the battery when  
powered off, maybe 2-3% in one day. I shut down the computer at 100%  
charge (according to gkrellm) and, when I turned it on the next day, it  
was at 96-98%. I took that as normal (it was not suspended or hibernated,  
just plain powered off)

However since a few days, it does not happen anymore, everytime I boot up  
the computer it's at 100%. If that's true, it's fine, but I'm worried  
maybe the battery status is not reliably read. I have not updated the  
kernel, but I've installed a bunch of packages from thac's repository  
(Mandrake 10.1). The other possible change has been the fact I'm used the  
laptop a couple of times, for some hours each, without AC power (the  
laptop is quite now, I had had it always plugged before).

So, the question is, is this normal? Does the battery need some  
"conditioning" before reaching its full capacity (or before being able to  
maintain it for longer)?

Thanks
Ignacio