Thinkpad X200 batteries
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My Thinkpad X200 is almost 17 years old and is running fine on Trisquel as my daily driver. My problem is the unavailability of high quality batteries. Almost all batteries these days, no matter what the price, seem to be Chinese junk.
I find that the Chinese batteries last about a year. (About 10% are no good out of the box, but I've had no problem getting free replacements.) I bought a 9-cell in late 2023 and it worked great. But it declined to 50% capacity by October 2024. So I bought a new battery from a famous auction site. The advertisement text was unclear and I was sent a 6-cell. That's OK at the bargain price, as long as it actually works reliably. We'll see...
I now have a nice collection of retired Thinkpad batteries and am almost to the point of building my own replacement. Here are my questions-
- Does anyone know a reliable source of non-Chinese 18650 cells? The market is rife with counterfeits. I would prefer US or Japanese batteries.
- Is it worth attempting to resurrect old battery packs by swapping out individual defective cells for used/good cells?
Many thanks!
I have a thinkpad t420i, and I've been wondering for some time which is the best battery to buy. Would you help me with information?
I have the same question! The battery I just bought was defective out of the box. Right now,the marketplace is polluted by Chinese junk. It is too bad, because China has some good products.
I guess need to buy US-made 18650 cells and rebuild my own battery. Since I don't have a spot welder, I need to find cells with solder tabs attached. So far, I've found these, but there may be better options.
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13189
The Thinkpad battery pack is rather difficult to pry apart, but is not very complex. My advice: take lots of photos of the innards.
I bought mine from Laptop Battery Express. It comes with a two year warranty on the Xtend brand ones. If you have less than an 80% charge capacity remaining after 1 year they will replace it under the warranty.
Update- the battery is no good. It holds a charge, but suddenly goes deal at random times after maybe 30 minutes of use.
Under US federal regulations, defective li-ion batteries must be shipped with special handling.
Yes, I am a lawyer (retired) and don't want liability for shipping a defective battery. This is a complicated issue, so I have asked the vendor for instructions.
The federal rule in Part 173 says-
(f) Damaged, defective, or recalled cells or batteries. Lithium cells or batteries that have been damaged or identified by the manufacturer as being defective for safety reasons, that have the potential of producing a dangerous evolution of heat, fire, or short circuit (e.g., those being returned to the manufacturer for safety reasons) may be transported by highway, rail or vessel only, and must be packaged as follows:
(1) Each cell or battery must be placed in individual, non-metallic inner packaging that completely encloses the cell or battery;
(2) The inner packaging must be surrounded by cushioning material that is non-combustible, electrically non-conductive, and absorbent; and
(3) Each inner packaging must be individually placed in one of the following packagings meeting the applicable requirements of part 178, subparts L, M, P, and Q of this subchapter at the Packing Group I level:
(i) Metal (4A, 4B, 4N), wooden (4C1, 4C2, 4D, 4F), or solid plastic (4H2) box;
(ii) Metal (1A2, 1B2, 1N2), plywood (1D), or plastic (1H2) drum; or
(iii) For a single battery, and for a single item of equipment containing cells or batteries, the following rigid large packagings are authorized:
(A) Metal (50A, 50B, 50N);
(B) Rigid plastic (50H);
(C) Plywood (50D); and
(4) The outer package must be marked with an indication that the package contains a “Damaged/defective lithium ion battery” and/or “Damaged/defective lithium metal battery” as appropriate. The marking required by this paragraph must be in characters at least 12 mm (0.47 inches) high.
**********
We'll see what the vendor says. A simple battery purchase isn't so simple anymore.
Question- I installed TLP from the package manager as advised here: https://medium.com/geekculture/managing-your-thinkpad-battery-under-debian-linux-with-tlp-d0822c42c69c
It is is running but gives the following results:
--- TLP 1.5.0 --------------------------------------------
+++ Battery Care
Plugin: thinkpad-legacy
Supported features: none available
Driver usage:
* tp-smapi (tp_smapi) = inactive (kernel module 'tp_smapi' not installed)
+++ ThinkPad Battery Status: BAT0 (Main / Internal)
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/manufacturer = JingYi
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/model_name = 08K8193
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/cycle_count = 0 (or not supported)
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/energy_full_design = 48840 [mWh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/energy_full = 38530 [mWh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/energy_now = 32340 [mWh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/power_now = 9242 [mW]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/status = Discharging
Charge = 83.9 [%]
Capacity = 78.9 [%]
+++ Recommendations
* Install tp-smapi kernel modules for ThinkPad battery thresholds and recalibration
***************************************
I checked the Debian documentation at https://linrunner.de/tlp/installation/debian.html
Tp-smapi can apparently create a conflict with the Kernel:
Legacy ThinkPads only: External Kernel Module for Battery Care
Important
As of version 5.17, the Linux kernel in combination with TLP 1.5 or later offers full battery care support (i.e. charge thresholds and recalibration) for ThinkPads from model year 2011 onwards. Debian Bookworm meets this requirement with its kernel 6.1, the even newer Debian Sid kernel as well.
An external kernel module (also referred to as “out-of-tree” module) is not required in these cases, and the following steps are not necessary. However, if your model is from 2011 or older, read on.
Only if the bottom of the output of tlp-stat -b, section ‘Recommendations’, shows the line
Install tp-smapi kernel modules for ThinkPad battery thresholds and recalibration
then install the required package
tp-smapi-dkms (main) – optional – External kernel module providing battery charge thresholds and recalibration for ThinkPads before model year 2011 as well as specific tlp-stat -b output until model year 2011
either with your favorite package manager or the command
apt install tp-smapi-dkms
Warning
Bullseye: the acpi-call-dkms package in the official repositories is incompatible with backports kernels ≥ 5.13 and may cause TLP battery care malfunction, system freezes and reboots.
Solution: install acpi-call-dkms version 1.2.2 from Debian backports:
apt -t bullseye-backports install acpi-call-dkms
Note
Refer to Debian backports for setup instructions
You must disable Secure Boot to use the ThinkPad specific packages
What should I do? I am running a Libreboot Thinkpad X200 from circa 2008. Is it worth attempting this? Thanks!
Both packages are available in the Trisquel repo:
tp-smapi-dkms: https://packages.trisquel.org/aramo/tp-smapi-dkms
acpi-call-dkms: https://packages.trisquel.org/aramo/acpi-call-dkms
The Aramo version for acpi-call-dkms matches the recommended one (1.2.2), however the package description states that "it allows you to tamper with your system and should be used with caution."
That is a strangely worded description! No sure what to do here.
Debian says-
Warning
Bullseye: the acpi-call-dkms package in the official repositories is incompatible with backports kernels ≥ 5.13 and may cause TLP battery care malfunction, system freezes and reboots.
Solution: install acpi-call-dkms version 1.2.2 from Debian backports:
apt -t bullseye-backports install acpi-call-dkms
I find the wording perfectly clear: if you are going to use that package, you are going to tamper with your system. The first line of the description says: "Kernel module that enables you to call ACPI methods by writing the method name followed by arguments to /proc/acpi/call." Which tells you how you are going to tamper with your system. Whether or not to tamper with your system remains your decision.
> Debian says
Not quite. What you are pasting here is what "Linrunner" says, whoever that might be. Debian says the same as Trisquel, which is not surprising given that package descriptions are most often inherited from upstream:
https://packages.debian.org/en/bullseye-backports/acpi-call-dkms
Tamper means "meddle unwisely or interfere rashly." I guess I have already done so by installing Trisquel instead of Windows, running Libreboot, etc.
I think I'll act rashly and install tp-smapi-dkms. I'll put on my protective gear and see what happens...
Short question: A thinkpad x200 without battery, just regular electricity adapter supply: Does it work? Or does the laptop need to have a battery for working, no matter if it's used exclusively over battery or always is used with electricity adapter supply?
The Thinkpad X200 works and has a battery and AC adapter. The battery is hot swappable and the machine will run on AC with no battery. Thanks.
Well, I installed acpi-call-dkms and tp-smapi-dkms. No smoke, but there is a load error for the kernel modules.
--- TLP 1.5.0 --------------------------------------------
+++ Battery Care
Plugin: thinkpad-legacy
Supported features: none available
Driver usage:
* tp-smapi (tp_smapi) = inactive (kernel module 'tp_smapi' load error)
+++ ThinkPad Battery Status: BAT0 (Main / Internal)
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/manufacturer = JingYi
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/model_name = 08K8193
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/cycle_count = 0 (or not supported)
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/energy_full_design = 48840 [mWh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/energy_full = 38530 [mWh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/energy_now = 22380 [mWh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/power_now = 12067 [mW]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/status = Discharging
Charge = 58.1 [%]
Capacity
Update - I searched for the above error message and got numerous hits for other distros. TL:DR version- tl-smapi is not needed anymore and can be removed. The battery level setting doesn't work, but it is not worth the effort to fix. I think generic Chinese batteries lack some OEM functionality. Thanks to all!