From: John Kim (jokim_at_CHS.CUSD.CLAREMONT.EDU)
Date: Fri Dec 17 1993 - 01:04:59 EST
In message Thu, 16 Dec 1993 10:32:32 -0800 (PST),
sztarkin_at_bullwinkle.ucdavis.edu writes:
> My Thinkpad's battery has been "exercised" about 10 times since Nov. 12,
> the happy day I received it. Subjectively, It now seems to lose less
> charge and last longer than initially.
I've got a 750mono originally with 4MB of RAM. My first charge lasted about
3.5 hours. It died suddenly - FUELDOS reported about 20% battery remaining
when it beeped and a few minutes later the light started blinking. That
confused me so I kept going and a few minutes later it died despite the
% battery indicator. The next charge went the other way - the computer kept
going for about 40 minutes after the battery indicator went to 0%, the
beeps, and the blinking light. After that the indicator has been more or
less accurate with battery life slowly increasing to over 5 hours.
Then I got an 8MB memory upgrade and it screwed up the indicator for about
5 cycles. It also shaved about an hour off my battery life. And 5 days
off my suspend life. :( Too bad. I kinda liked being able to brag about a
5 hour battery life...
> However, most recently after a
> full charge, no use for a couple of days and booting up without the AC
> connected, it was at 83% of capacity. I am pretty sure I have the ports
> off. So, either start-up consumes the power or the battery is still
> somehow losing its charge with time? Apart from this, the unit has
> performed flawlessly with the only problems caused by my inexperience.
There's a microprocessor (and probably some memory) built into the battery.
I think that's where the computer gets the % battery remaining figure. It
takes a couple cycles for it to learn how fast you use the battery. And
when you're not using the battery, it drains it very slowly (I'd guess about
5% a day on mine, of course I've only left it unused for a day since I've
gotten it. :).
The 1/0 switch on the battery turns the processor on or off. If you're
really picky about it, I suppose you can turn it off when you're not using
it. But I think that'll cause the battery to have to "learn" how fast the
computer uses power again, meaning your indicator will be inaccurate for a
few cycles.
-- John H. Kim | "In fact, Chicago does support security. The sec- jokim_at_jarthur.cs.hmc.edu | urity APIs are there; they just don't do anything." This mail sent by NUPop | - Brad Silverber, VP Microsoft personal systems
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