Hi Everybody,

So I tried for years to get a decent used ThinkPad -- only to have each one die shortly after I received it. I tried eBay. I tried thinkpaddepot. Boom. Crash. Die.

But then I got lucky through craigslist, of all places, and am typing this on what I can declare to be as close a machine to my ideal laptop as I have ever come ...

... except for one thing: the battery life sucks.

I seem to recall reading in old reviews of this model that its battery life was actually pretty remarkable. I'm lucky to get two hours out of this machine, if that. Of course, I'm using a battery which is not "genuine Lenovo," but is instead a cheap knock-off. I think it's a 4-cell, to boot.

Now, I've seen genuine Lenovo batteries for this laptop on the actual Lenovo site, where they charge $179.00 -- and I've seen eBay listings (from highly rated sellers) that CLAIM they are selling you a genuine Lenovo battery for the X60 -- and only charge $25.00 (the one I am currently looking at is "seller refurbished."

Does anyone have any experience with this? Not necessarily with the same model laptop. If I can truly get the right thing for 25 dollars instead of 179, of course I'd like to do that. I just don't ... know. Maybe one can't ever know.

Any feedback (apart from "get lost with your stupid question") is welcome.

/G

I recently ordered a $20 9-cell Chinese dropship ebay battery for my x200. It should show up in a week or two. I am posting here to subscribe to the thread and I'll give you a data-point on their utility.

Oh, hey, great -- I'll look forward to it.

Thanks,

/G

Hi,

You could try something like <battery plus> in your locale. They can rebuild & sometimes have replacements for popular Laptops.
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

Seems there are no good replacement batteries for any device. Look at the rating on trusted sellers for them. Ebay might as well be pirate bay. Who knows what you might get there.



I received a genuine IBM battery one time from a laptop that is still in use today. The note attached said to never have battery installed when using as a desktop under power.

New Battery: I'll be right back to edit in the old one's stats. This is pretty much fully charged.

bash-4.2$ cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/*
alarm: 3324 mWh
present: yes
design capacity: 47520 mWh
last full capacity: 66480 mWh
battery technology: rechargeable
design voltage: 10800 mV
design capacity warning: 3324 mWh
design capacity low: 200 mWh
cycle count: 0
capacity granularity 1: 1 mWh
capacity granularity 2: 1 mWh
model number: COMPATIBLE
serial number: 44728
battery type: LION
OEM info: SANYO
present: yes
capacity state: ok
charging state: discharging
present rate: 14244 mW
remaining capacity: 65370 mWh
present voltage: 12269 mV
bash-4.2$

New Battery: I'll be right back to edit in the old one's stats. This is pretty much fully charged.

bash-4.2$ cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/*
alarm: 3324 mWh
present: yes
design capacity: 47520 mWh
last full capacity: 66480 mWh
battery technology: rechargeable
design voltage: 10800 mV
design capacity warning: 3324 mWh
design capacity low: 200 mWh
cycle count: 0
capacity granularity 1: 1 mWh
capacity granularity 2: 1 mWh
model number: COMPATIBLE
serial number: 44728
battery type: LION
OEM info: SANYO
present: yes
capacity state: ok
charging state: discharging
present rate: 14244 mW
remaining capacity: 65370 mWh
present voltage: 12269 mV
bash-4.2$

bash-4.2$ cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/*
alarm: 1415 mWh
present: yes
design capacity: 62160 mWh
last full capacity: 28300 mWh
battery technology: rechargeable
design voltage: 11100 mV
design capacity warning: 1415 mWh
design capacity low: 200 mWh
cycle count: 0
capacity granularity 1: 1 mWh
capacity granularity 2: 1 mWh
model number: 42T4835
serial number: 684
battery type: LION
OEM info: SANYO
present: yes
capacity state: ok
charging state: discharging
present rate: 15939 mW
remaining capacity: 26200 mWh
present voltage: 12103 mV
bash-4.2$

Not bad for $20. I'll post again after I figure out how long the new one actually lasts. It seems promising, even though there is some weirdness with the reported "design capacity"


Actual Testing Update:

For a second there I thought I had a bunk battery, but I didn't quite have it seated properly. Doh! It was showing up in /proc/acpi/battery, but wasn't pushing power! Anyway. I'm at about 2 hours of actual use, browsing, downloading, normal use, uptime today in with about 60% of the battery life left. So I expect 4-5 total hours of runtime, which is good enough for me and great for a $20 replacement battery when I was only netting 45 minutes to an hour on a charge before the upgrade. And I'm carrying the other one around charged up as a backup, just in case I need it. I count this purchase as a win.