Battery authenticity check

[steveadorjan]

Sorry for posting this here (I asked it in a model-specific subforum first, but I realized it should rather belong here:
I wonder if anyone could help me clarify the following question: If an original Lenovo Thinkpad battery is re-celled by a dealer, do I have any way to check this without actually opening the battery? For example, will the Power Manager (I still use Win7 on my X220) battery info show this or not? Power Manager does display the manufacturer (e.g. Panasonic or Sanyo or LGC), the date of manufacture, the number of cycles, date first used and so on.

The reason I'm asking is that I want to buy a X220 battery on ebay (UK) and the seller (a shop with 99% rating) describes it as genuine, original, brand new (though NOS, made a couple of years ago) Thinkpad battery with the correct FRU and everything but says it is "open box", that is, it's supposed to be new, in the original Lenovo box, but not sealed. So I'm not quite sure whether the seller got them direct from Lenovo or some third party. Since the price is quite low (about 50% of similar ones in sealed box), I'm afraid it might have been tampered with (re-celled, hacked, who knows). But if I can check this with Power Manager, I'd take the risk and order, since in the worst case, I can file an ebay complaint.

[zoltan87]

I am pretty sure the software won't be able to show whether the battery has been re-celled. I have bought a few batteries from eBay for my T60 in the last couple of years. I was lucky with two genuine 9 cell extended batteries, but was burnt badly with an Ultrabay battery, which was supposedly new (physically it looked new) but had less than half of the advertised capacity. Ended up getting a partial refund after some messaging back and forth with the seller. Also bought like four 3rd party batteries from different vendors with supposedly A++ cells, they were all absolute c***p, they must have sourced those A++ cells from the trash somewhere at a cell factory. Actually thinking back now, I should have asked for full a refund in those cases, but because of the low price I paid, I just didn't want to waste my time going through the whole refund process. Still I should have done it, as those advertisements are blatant lies, and I find it hard to believe that those sellers are not aware of what they are doing. They shouldn't be able to get away with scamming the public like that.

So yeah, not sure what to say, I would message the seller asking about the capacity of the battery, if he promises close to factory value, then I would buy it, especially at that price. And if it turns out that the run time is just not what it was promised, then I would ask for a refund.

[UMPC2024]

Once I bought what was advertised to be a 70++ 9-cell battery for my ThinkPad T430 in China. It looked like a Sanyo one, had all the markings, except the sticker was peeling a little bit at the top. I put it into my T430, it wouldn't charge it, but the Power Manager had all the specs written out like a genuine one. Eventually ended up just junking the battery at a recycling center. Good thing I didn't pay too much for it.

So to answer your question, no I don't think Power Manager can determine if one has been recelled or not.

[RealBlackStuff]

xx30 Series should all get the EC-mod to bypass the Lenovo battery-check.
After doing that, even fake chinese knock-offs will charge somewhat (unless they are defective...)