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I bought a new laptop battery on Amazon for my Thinkpad. When I plug it into my computer, the computer tells me the battery has 91% capacity. Am I being ripped off or is it normal for the battery to initially report a capacity of less than 100%?

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Question belongs on ServerFault (or maybe SuperUser). – prokiner Nov 13 '09 at 19:44
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migrated from stackoverflow.com Nov 13 '09 at 19:45

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4 Answers

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It seems possible that you wouldn't be shipped a 100% charged battery.

It seems possible that the computer needs to cycle the battery fully the first time to know what 100% would be.

It seems possible you were ripped off, depending on the quality of the 3rd party seller, but unlikely, unless it was a very, very good deal.

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up vote 1 down vote

My experience with thinkpads (2) is that this will change over the next few days. They seem to start low and then build charge.

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The Thinkpads have very conservative charging circuits/controls which helps extend the useful life of the battery. However, it also means that many times the charge percentage hovers in the 90's rather than always going up to 100%. – Brian Knoblauch Jan 28 '10 at 13:39
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up vote 0 down vote

Though a different question, read the quote from the first answer... It seems pretty relevant.

Is it better to use laptop on battery or on ac power?

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If you have not charged the battery yet, I'd say that any reading at all is perfectly fine. You should charge it completely, then see where things stand.

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