[SPARCbook] SPARCbook

[Ken Hansen]

I have an old IBM Thinkpad (486 class) that has similar
battery problems - due mainly to age of the batteries...

What that vendor suggested may work for you - the idea was
to "restore" the batteries ability ot retain a charge.

It went something like this:

	With adapter plugged in, run the unit for 5 minutes,
	then remove power adapter and remove battery for
	30 seconds, then replace it.

	Then use the laptop on power adapter for 30 minutes,
	and remove adapter/battery for 30 seconds.

	Then use the laptop on power adapter for 2 hours,
	and remove battery and adapter for 30 seconds.

	And finally use the laptop for 8+ hours on power
	adapter, then remove power adapter and run down
	battery till *dead* (ignore all low power indicators).

	Then recharge the battery for 8+ hours (overnight)
	and battery should be better.

	You should run down the battery 2-3 times a month,
	then recharge overnight.

The basic idea seemed to be that by slowly increasing the
recharge time and removing the battery before charging you
are "forcing" the battery to charge a little deeper into
it's capacity each time. These notes may be completely
useless for the battery in the SPARCBook, but this may help.

***
*** Use at own risk, these steps have not been tested on
*** a Tadpole SPARCBook.
***

But, I have used them on the IBM Thinkpad 360PE and found
the battery performance to improve.

The vendor reports an aprox. 1 hour battery life for a new
battery, older batteries would have less life IMHO.

As for the rebuild, there are many companies that rebuild
laptop/two-way radio and other battery packs, and the cost
should be less than the $125 Tadpole (used to?) charge
for a new battery... But the new battery is only expected
to last for 1 hour.

I have just started to tinker with my unit on battery power,
and I found that 20+ minutes (close to 30) used up 25% of
the poawer (per LCD display) - running Solaris 2.6 with all
Tadpole/Sun patches and packages, as listed on Hugo's FAQ.
(BTW, the patch package has a few "outdated" patches that
you should not install, you should get the latest revs. of
each patch)...

Hope this helps,

Ken
n2vip at njcc.com


> do you have the power management patches installed?
> 
> if you do, then try dischargeing it all the way. then recharge all the
> way.  do that about five times, and it should start preforming better.
> 
> -Jonathan
> 
> Bill Shields wrote:
> > 
> >     I jsut aquired a SPARCBook 3GX.
> > 
> >       The problem is that the battery only lasts about 15 minutes after
> > being fully charged.
> > 
> >     Is there a source for these batteries that will not cost an arm or a
> > leg?
> > 
> > Bill
> > 
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