Re: draining battery with tpctl

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Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 23:33:07 +0900

On 11 Aug 2005 23:37:37 -0400, Bruce Lewis <brlspam@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>I got a new battery for my Thinkpad 600E. At first it charged to 99%,
>then 58%, now just to 22%. Following advice I see on web pages about
>"battery memory" I keep trying and failing to drain the battery because
>it automatically suspends at 1%.
>
>I'm running debian testing with thinkpad and tpctl packages installed.
>There is no windows partition.
>
>As root, I tried to disable the automatic suspend:
>
>tpctl --psb=-
>tpctl --pse=-
>
>It didn't work. Where do I go from here?

The BIOS 1% suspend cannot be defeated and such fuel gauge
readings are indicative of the TP600 series infamously bad packs.
You can drain to the BIOS limit by just booting into the setup
screen or by stopping Lilo.. IBM also has a self booting floppy
checkup utility (Doctor?) that drains the pack as low as the BIOS
will permit. In any case, don't expect any improvement no
matter how drained.
.
So called TP600 "new" packs only have new cells at best unless
old original pack stock in which case the cells are nearly dead
anyway (Li-ion have limited lives used or not).. The pack
internal fuel gauge cannot be reset even with new cells. So
usually the result is erroneous reading albeit full capacity, and
sometimes undercharging. that cannot be corrected The
electronics remembers the original cell quality..

Draining is useful only for packs and cells that are basically in
good condition but give _minor_ fuel gauge errors. Draining also
uses up Li-ion capacity and isn't needed for Li-on cells since
they don't have a memory effect..

The only way to verify if the pack and not the laptop internal
charging circuits are the problem is to compare another pack.
Good luck.

• Previous message: level13_at_gmail.com: "Linux on old Toshiba Satellite 320CDS"
• In reply to: Bruce Lewis: "draining battery with tpctl"
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