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Re: Upgrades for the T60 Thinkpad

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Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
> You can get different capacities, and also different chemistries.
> Definitely stick to the original chemistry as should be writton on
> the battery pack, so for Li-Ion avoid LIFePO etc. cells even if
> they look the same, or else things might go very wrong with the
> charging/discharging circuitry.
> 
> Capacity (the mAh spec.) varies too. The cells might have that
> printed on them, or you can work it out from the capacity of the
> whole battery. But in the latter case you have to understand
> which cells are in series and which are in parallel and only divide
> the total mAh figure by the number of cells connected in parallel
> to get the original capacity of each cell. Of course make sure to
> wire the new cells up exactly the same in this regard as well.
> 
> It should be OK to upgrade the capacity of the cells used, provided
> you stick to the original chemistry. There's also a limit on the
> maximum charging current ("C-rate"), eg. 0.5C, and this is measured
> relative to the battery capacity, so in theory _downgrading_ the
> cells to a lower capacity than originals might cause the charging
> circuitry to charge them too quickly and wear them out early. I'm
> not sure whether laptop batteries charge at rates close enough to
> the limit for that to be a real issue though, and I doubt you want
> to downgrade capacity anyway - just if you're pulling cells out of
> spare battery packs it might be tempting.
> 
> As for lifespan, I think that all depends on quality and there I
> can't help you. I think brand name cells are still generally
> expected to last much longer than cheap Chinese-brand things. Also
> I've seen Aliexpress reviews of Lithium cells testing at lower
> capacity than they're marked at, so too-good-to-be-true pricing
> probably is. On the other hand if I buy eg. Panasonic cells from a
> relatively trustworthy supplier (so I know they're not fakes), it'd
> cost well over $100 for a full set. Yes, much more than third-party
> replacement battery packs cost, but they probably use Chinese-brand
> cells inside. So I'm not sure about the best way to approach buying
> new Li-Ion batteries myself, it's a pain.
> 

Mmmhm! That is quite an interesting read! I definitely feel quite out of 
my space with this one, definitely worth learning a lot more about if I 
hope to have a bit more success with these older machines, learning how 
to repair the batteries opens up alot more opportunities with more niche 
and funkier machines - not even just ThinkPads obviously (although I 
have no doubt they will still take my fancy more than most)

Better to be safe than sorry when looking for cells, I'd rather overpay 
than underpay considering the difficulty of disassembly for these cases, 
as for the Chinese replacement batteries I can definitely say I've spent 
my time with them for my T60 for the timebeing, they've been... decent, 
not amazing but have gave it a new lease on life as a more portable 
machine for the past while - though I can already tell they're degrading 
quite quickly.

Surprisingly, I would trust myself with battery replacement more than 
most of the third-party replacements considering my track record of them 
with my camcorders, some just die immediately!

-- 
- Mokka

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

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Upgrades for the T60 Thinkpad Caffeine Canidae <samuel.common@hotmail.com> - 2026-06-21 23:32 +0000
  Re: Upgrades for the T60 Thinkpad Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> - 2026-06-22 13:05 +1000
    Re: Upgrades for the T60 Thinkpad Caffeine Canidae <samuel.common@hotmail.com> - 2026-06-22 06:26 +0000
      Re: Upgrades for the T60 Thinkpad Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> - 2026-06-22 18:08 +1000
        Re: Upgrades for the T60 Thinkpad Caffeine Canidae <samuel.common@hotmail.com> - 2026-06-22 08:21 +0000
          Re: Upgrades for the T60 Thinkpad not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2026-06-23 09:49 +1000
            Re: Upgrades for the T60 Thinkpad Caffeine Canidae <samuel.common@hotmail.com> - 2026-06-24 15:10 +0100
              Re: Upgrades for the T60 Thinkpad bp@www.zefox.net - 2026-06-24 17:54 +0000
                Re: Upgrades for the T60 Thinkpad Caffeine Canidae <samuel.common@hotmail.com> - 2026-06-30 10:07 +0100
              Re: Upgrades for the T60 Thinkpad not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2026-06-25 09:40 +1000
                Re: Upgrades for the T60 Thinkpad Caffeine Canidae <samuel.common@hotmail.com> - 2026-06-30 10:14 +0100

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