ThinkPad Battery

Your ThinkPad comes with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. The battery life of the standard student ThinkPad will last approximately two hours and take at least that long to recharge. Occasionally, you should let the battery run completely out and recharge it to keep it running at full capacity.

Installing and Removing the Battery

  1. Turn the ThinkPad over with the yellow label facing down and slide the battery in until it clicks and latches.
  2. To remove the battery, slide the battery latch to the unlock position. Then slide out the battery.

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Charging the Battery

  1. Plug the AC adapter into the yellow port on the back side of the ThinkPad next to the parallel port.
  2. Make sure the AC adapter is securely connected to the power cord.
  3. Plug the power cord into an outlet.

NOTE: Your battery will continue to charge even if your ThinkPad is in use.

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Power Consumption Settings

You can control the power consumption of your ThinkPad while running on the battery. The screen and hard drive can be set to be turned off after a specified idle time and for the ThinkPad to go into Stand By after a specified idle time.

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  1. Go to Start, Control Panel, and select the Power Options icon.

  1. Click on the Power Schemes tab. By default the settings are to turn off the monitor after five minutes of being idle, the hard disk after three minutes of being idle, and system stand by after five minutes.
  2. Change the settings to your desired scheme.

  1. Click the Alarms tab. The low battery alarm lets you know you should save your work and either charge your battery or connect to a power supply to continue working. The Critical alarm lets you know your ThinkPad is about to shut down and you should save any work immediately. By default, if no action is taken for the Critical alarm, the ThinkPad will automatically go into hibernation mode.
  2. Change the alarm settings to your desired level.
  3. When you are finished, click OK.

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