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Re: Upgrades for the T60 Thinkpad

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Caffeine Canidae <samuel.common@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
>> I've pulled apart more laptop batteries just to get the cells out,
>> trying to practice doing it without wrecking the case, and the
>> possibility of it all depends on how they're designed/assembled,
>> which varies a lot. Some are fairly easy, many fight you all the
>> way.
> 
> Hmm, I'll definitely have to do quite a bit more research on it it 
> seems. But it's a good thing to learn, it's entirely possible. I'll 
> check what kind of seal it is on the X41 batteries, I've got quite good 
> access to some tools so I could try quite a few methods for getting them 
> open. If at least only one of them survives the probably brutal 
> endeavour of trying to repair them without destroying it entirely then 
> it'll be a success (though, I hope to end up with two working ones, as 
> I'm planning to sell one of three of the laptops - the other one is pure 
> scrap.
> 
> Thankfully as far as I know the battery cells themselves are universal? 

The ones I've disassembled all used 18650 (18mm wide, 650mm long)
cells, though apparantly newer laptops can use different shapes.

> They're standard from what I remember, I saw advice on them being they 
> should all have the same life on them - like maximum charge.

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.

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Thread

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 not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2026-06-25 09:40 +1000

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