I have bought a new battery for my Thinkpad x201 tablet and replaced the old one because it was not working properly. I bought one from eBay and it works fine holds the charge well, but the issue is that when I check the battery status while it’s full it only gives me 88%, not 100% even though that it is fully charged, and I get Plugged in not charging. I searched online and I have found solutions about recalibrating the batteries after replacement, I followed the instructions and drained my battery and recharged it again but still no luck it’s still indicated that the battery is full at the 80’s range.
Hi.
I would use HWmonitor to check the wear level, current and designed capacity to see if the battery really is at 100%.
If you have Windows, I would go to devmgmt and remove the battery, restart and see what you get from that.
If it still claims to be at 88%, I would leave it in BIOS to drain it completly, leave the computer off and plug in. Give it couple of hours more in charger after the leds indicate it to be full, just to be sure.
Be warned though, draining the battery completly might make things worse if one of the cells is dying, and that is usualy the cause for incomplete charge. Then again, it might wake the cell.
Is it a genuine battery? If it’s an off brand, it’s a reverse engineered battery BMS, so misreporting of percentage is 100% normal for an off brand battery.
And you don’t have any software stopping the charge when the cap hits the 80’s?
This is the result on HWmonitor
I don’t think it’s a genuine battery because the seller didn’t mention that. He also mentioned that the capacity of his battery is higher than the genuine one, this is the reason why I’m having doubts that if its really a genuine one.
This is the link for the battery
No, I think windows automatically is turning the charge of when its reaching 88%, I think windows is guessing when the battery reaches 88%. it’s fully charged. so in windows 10 I don’t get the Charging title when I reach 88%.
While it is true that new computer do try to stop charging around 90%, x201 is older model that does not have that function to my recollection.
Recardless, this is easily dismissed by charging the battery while laptop is off. That usually charges the battery to full regardless.
I would say that it is just a calibration issue.
I really doubt that that is a genuine battery.
Even when I turn it off and charge it still it’s stuck on 88% when I power it on.
What is the right way to calibrate the battery and maybe calibration will fix the issue.
Thanks
Well, the easiest way is to just leave it on, once it shuts down start it back up and go to BIOS. Let it sit there until it shuts down again.
After that, just plug it in and leave it off. Once the charging led indicates full just leave it charging for hour or so more.
Some manufacturers do give tools for this but I don’t think there is for Lenovo.
But do check that you have the chipset and
Lenovo Power Management Driver installed
Lenovo EOL has those:
https://download.lenovo.com/eol/index.html
If it still says just 88% and you are happy that you got your moneys worth, I would just use it.
I have checked in the Lenovo website for drivers but I couldn’t find any power management tool for windows 10, all the drivers are for power management are only for older windows.
I will try to do the method you mentioned and I hope it will fix the issue, I will give you the feedback after I try it.
Thanks for you time and help.
Have you tried letting the battery charge up to its fullest and letting it die completely? Might just need to retrain the charge circuit what the full capacity should be
I’m doing this right now, I’m draining the battery fully, and then I will charge it fully.
That’s because x201t is not Windows 10 supported device. There is no drivers for W10. That is why I directed you to the End Of Life site of Lenovo.
Windows 10 and Windows 8 are similar enough that usualy drivers for 8 will work in 10. But usualy you do not find drivers for 8 either. 
Anyways, I would just install drivers that are made for Windows 7. Usually they are still better than generic drivers.
For example, the generic Windows 10 sound driver does not always detect 3.5mm plug, therefore you can have audio problems with headphones.
I’m sorry, I thought you knew this already, thats why I didn’t mention it.
So I have done all the required tasks, I opened the laptop on bios settings and kept it until it’s fully drained I even done this process multiple times to make sure no juice left inside the battery, and I left it for one day without touching it. Then I plugged the charger and waited for 7 hours while it’s connected. Now I opened the device, and it reached 90%, which is considered full in windows and fully charged. I think I will leave it as it is. I don’t mind the 90% as a fully charge.
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