Turn off battery charging on a ThinkPad

hi,

as I'm considering to get a secondary (or actually a third battery, including slice) for home use, as I will use the X220 as desktop replacement I'd like to know if there is any way to turn off battery charging on a ThinkPad, for a better battery lifespan?

If it's possible, is there a Lenovo tool or is it BIOS only?

thanks!

 

Use the battery charge threshold feature in ThinkVantage Power Manager, a Windows utility from Lenovo for Thinkpads.

There are a number of threads on this topic in the Lenovo subforum, use Google to find them. Search:

Code:

site:forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/ battery threshold

or anything similar.

 

Does anyone know if there is a Windows / non-Thinkpad utility that allows setting battery charge thresholds? I just want to avoid the Thinkpad Power Manager and use the Windows PM instead.

 

Doubt it. ThinkPad Power Manager has a few ThinkPad specific tools.

It's quite useful and doesn't impact system performance significantly on my systems. Power Manager and TVAPS are useful. Make sure to install the latest Power Management 1.62 driver though; Windows gives you a 1.4 version by default.

 

No--Power Manager interfaces with the battery chips in a unique way that won't be available in other applications. Yes, it's a bit bloaty, but the battery runtime gains and battery-lifetime-extending benefits far outweigh that.

 

As stated by many above, the Lenovo Power Manager let you select the threshold for charging the battery. Buy setting the threshold it will only charge your thinkpad if it went below a certain limit you selected. I find it more useful than manual turning off the battery charging function. This is only reason I use the Lenovo Power Manager.

 

Got a new X220 arriving next week. Should I initially charge it for a certain period before turning it on for the very first time? Thanks

 

Personally I would run full battery cycle before turning the threshold on, however I do not see a reason to do so. I just do because I think it help the battery reconfigure so the battery meter accurately display the battery charge.

 

the lenovo laptop battery all conditioned when they leave the factory, so you don't really need a full charge and discharge cycle per se when you get it.

 

....thanks!