[ltp] Re: WARNING: Lenovo ThinkPads and 65W power supplies

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh]

On Fri, 05 Nov 2010, Bjørn Mork wrote:
> Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@hmh.eng.br> writes:
> > As a general rule, don't use any recent Lenovo ThinkPad with a 65W power
> > adapter without a battery.  
> 
> That's a very good advice.  But I would extend it: Never use *any*
> modern laptop without a battery regardless of power adapter specs.  

Well, you can certainly do it with ThinkPads, they are engineered to work
well when underpowered.  However, the performance will be limited to avoid
problems.

> It may work without one, but the chances are high that it wasn't
> designed to be used like that.  You can cut a few design corners if you

ThinkPads were designed to withstand that.  It is just that it will run
slugguish :p

Lenovo does assume you'll have a *working* battery plugged in almost all the
time.

> I'd be surprised if there are any laptop designers not taking advantage
> of that. It would be just stupid.

If it will croak?  It is a bad product.  Thus, good stuff like ThinkPads do
something not to croak.

OTOH, it would be nice to have that little fact written down in the manuals.
I don't have a recent ThinkPad, though, so for all I know it might even be
written in one of the manuals.

And I'd still prefer to have a design that is actually resilient enough to
not need limiters when the battery is not there (or not acting as a proper
battery anymore), as it will age a lot better.

The newer ThinkPads are *NOT* going to last as much as the large population
of T23 that are still in use everywhere in the world.

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh