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    Can you run a Thinkpad without battery?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by species5618w, Jun 19, 2012.

  1. species5618w

    species5618w Notebook Consultant

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    Would that harm the machine?
     
    species5618w, Jun 19, 2012
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  2. takeabyte

    takeabyte Notebook Evangelist

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    Yes, you can run it directly off the power adapter. This is actually better for the battery (so I've read, anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) if you primarily use it while plugged in.
     
    takeabyte, Jun 19, 2012
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  3. nkull

    nkull Notebook Guru

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    Depending on the machine and use, you may run into performance issues --- With a ThinkPad there is no reason to take the battery out if you keep it docked / plugged in most of the time, but I would setup the power manager to optimize the charge settings for such use. My laptops are ALL setup to not start charging until they discharge to between 60 - 70% capacity, and they all stop charging at 90% --- This keeps the battery from being stuck at 100% with small charging cycles which is not good for it.

    I've generally seen that it is best to keep the battery IN regardless of use.
     
    nkull, Jun 19, 2012
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  4. bogatyr

    bogatyr Notebook Evangelist

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    Machine? No. Performance? Yes.

    If you want to protect the battery, setup the charge cycle as suggested above by using the Power Management tool that Lenovo provides. I would not suggest keeping the battery out of the laptop as it will lower performance (I think down to 800Mhz on the 20 series, i.e. T420, W520, etc).

    EDIT: More details on running without the battery and performance:
    http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T5...ow-only-if-battery-not-plugged-in/td-p/682859
     
    bogatyr, Jun 19, 2012
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  5. species5618w

    species5618w Notebook Consultant

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    Ah, thanks for the warning and the link. However, the performance issue seems to be associated with the 65W power adapter. I have the 90w adapter.
     
    species5618w, Jun 19, 2012
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  6. nkull

    nkull Notebook Guru

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    Just keep in mind that these machines were built to run with the battery, and with the advanced features that allow you to configure the charging cycles on the battery I can think of no reason to remove it.
     
    nkull, Jun 19, 2012
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  7. power7

    power7 Notebook Evangelist

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    This probably varies depending on power adapter, machine, BIOS version etc. W520 with 170W does not throttle CPU w/o battery. And even if it did, ThrottleStop would fix the issue (170W is more than enough under any load anyway).

    There is certainly no harm in trying.
     
    power7, Jun 19, 2012
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  8. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

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    Yes it will run, it can cause issues as I believe _60/61 series ThinkPads throttle down the CPU if a battery isn't installed, made my Z61t's T7200 downclock to like 800 MHz until I reinstalled the 7 cell battery.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Jun 19, 2012
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  9. baii

    baii Sone

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    Is the "throttle" cause by a insufficient power adapter? "Build to run with battery" seem kind of silly to me though.
     
    baii, Jun 19, 2012
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  10. talin

    talin Notebook Prophet

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    My T410 throttled without the battery. Then I simply got a 90 watt power supply and performance was back to full. :)
     
    talin, Jun 19, 2012
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  11. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

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    No, Z61t runs/charges fine with 65 watt, but I also tested with the 90 watt adapter and it still throttled it, so it was something in the BIOS.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Jun 19, 2012
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  12. Netbooker

    Netbooker Notebook Enthusiast

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    I knew I should've open the power manager. I've been leaving batteries out of my laptop while at home for years now. I'll look at it tonight and configure it to stop charging at a certain point. The only reason why I would say not to do so is the fact that you may lose power, at which point your computer will shutdown. That, IMO, would be bad for the board and cards.
     
    Netbooker, Jun 19, 2012
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  13. Quanger

    Quanger Notebook Evangelist

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    My T500 without a battery and with the OEM 90watt adapter I am sure does "not" throttle down.
     
    Quanger, Jun 19, 2012
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  14. soreloser

    soreloser Notebook Enthusiast

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    i've heard that keeping it at 100% is bad.

    but i also used to read about how in general it's a good idea to use your li-ion batts "a little" and then charge it back up, instead of draining it completely before you charge.

    does this still apply to batteries nowadays?
    so are small charging cycles good or bad?
     
    soreloser, Jun 20, 2012
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  15. SSri09

    SSri09 Notebook Guru

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    Heat is the worst enemy of Li-ion batteries. A battery can be charged by "x" number of cycles. Small charges are not good. My notebook uses a Li-ion battery, which charges to 100% even if it is 90-95% charged.

    My notebook is very heavy; it is a beast with a poor battery life. It is powered most of the time. When I am not going to be travelling for a while, I remove it and keep it in a cool-dry place.
     
    SSri09, Jun 20, 2012
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  16. soreloser

    soreloser Notebook Enthusiast

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    i remember reading that 2 half-charges are actually equal to 1 full charge cycle. based on this concept, many small charges dont actually "use up" your charge cycles faster.

    but this is only talking about the charge cycle number i guess.
    you'll have to also consider the heat the batt is exposed to, as well as the fact that the batt has a shelf life and will degrade even if you don't use it.
     
    soreloser, Jun 21, 2012
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  17. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    As above stated, it's not true that a li-ion battery only has x number of charges. It's much better to do partial charges then full charges if you plan on using your laptop for several years.

    Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
     
    sgogeta4, Jun 21, 2012
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