IBM laptop battery doesn't last but 10 min

[Jmichael484]

My dad has an IBM thinkpad laptop and if you use it with just the battery (yes, fully charged) it will go out in about 10 to 15 min even with the screen brightness turned down all the way and the power saving features on like "half speed when runnning on battery". Is there something physically I can do or a program I can get to help save the power?

[thefly]

I've got a p3 thinkpad @600mhz. In battery mode it cuts the processor power to 300mhz and dims the screen. Once that is done the battery runs for about 1 hour.

Maybe your battery is getting old? 10 mins is terrible.

[Garfield]

Ummm...is it a lithium battery (or containing lithium)? 10mins is horrible. I'd go get another.

--Garfield

[trey_w]

those batteries are designed to really run for only about 3 years or so

i would get another one

[flounder43]

Mine only runs about 5 minutes...Old battery. I just plug it in.

[KeyboardCowboy]

my laptop runs about 2 hours on battery power, i would get another battery

[Garfield]

Originally posted by flounder43
Mine only runs about 5 minutes...Old battery. I just plug it in.

What about when you want to go somewhere without a power supply? That's the beauty of a laptop.

[Phil]

my dell one has started only lasting about 20 minutes or so, it reads that teh battery is full and then all of a sudden it apears empty. I think it's just because of the age of it, you could probabally get a replacement for it though but they aren't that cheap