[TriLUG] Linux laptop battery

[M. Mueller (bhu5nji)]

It's a NiMH.
Charging cycles lasts less than 5 min.
No change in /proc/apm or apm -m
I've using main power mostly for about 9 months - never removed the battery; 
rarely used the battery.

I guess it's off to the battery store for me.  
Thanks
Mike M.

On Sunday 03 February 2002 04:07 pm, you wrote:
> That battery is toast, but you can try to recondition it:
>  - put in the battery and plug in the laptop
>  - when the light indicates that the battery is charged, pull it out, wait
> one minute then put it back in.  The battery should charge again.
>  - repeat two more times then run the battery till dead (you may have to
> turn off the system sleep in the BIOS so that you can actually run the
> batter dead)
>  - do it all over again.
>
> Note, if the live time does not increase after doing this, then the battery
> is the best its going to be.
>
> Please note this does not work for the newer Lithium batteries.  Those
> batteries you should never run till dead.
>
> Jon
> ===
>
> On Sunday 03 February 2002 15:49, M. Mueller (bhu5nji) wrote:
> > Can anyone help me determine if a laptop battery is dead?
> >
> > Symptoms:
> >
> > 1.  Laptop runs no longer than 5 minutes without AC
> > 2.  cat /proc/apm gives this:  1.14 1.2 0x03 0x01 0xff 0x80 -1% -1 ?
> > 3.  apm -v gives this :
> > APM BIOS 1.2 (kernel driver 1.14)
> > AC on-line, no system battery
> > 4. battery is installed
> > 5. charging light goes out pretty quickly after being reinstalled
> >
> > Is there anywhere to go to get the battery checked?
> > Is there a chance that I'll buy a new battery only to find out the laptop
> > is faulty?
> > It's not a Mandrake 8.1 problem or an APM problem is it?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Mike M.
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