[ltp] Battery management

[Alejandro Bonilla]

Ignacion,

    I always recommend fully charging the battery and then removing the 
whole power from the battery until the PC even shuts down. It makes my 
batterys live longer. I haven't received my IBM so I'm not too aware of 
the apps for the IBM's, but there could be a Battery Calibration util or 
so from IBM.

    There was once an Issue I saw with acpi and the T42 where the PC 
wouldn't shutdown and then drain 10% immediately from the battery. I had 
this issue once and left the PC overnight as it was OFF. but really 
wasn't and killed my battery.
   
    Just make sure ACPI is current and working. I use 2.6.9 and works 
fine for me in a previous T40.

Keep fluent the usage of that battery, even if you don't use it.

- Alejandro

Ignacio Fernández Galván wrote:

> 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