[ale] laptop battery life [maybe OT]

[joh6nn]

i've got Kubuntu 6.06 (Dapper) installed on my IBM thinkpad.  the battery 
charge isn't being properly reported, though.  If i start with a full charge, 
the battery shows as full with about 2 hours before it runs down.  Inside of 
half an hour, though, the battery will report as near empty, with about 5-10 
minutes left before it dies.  If i ignore the warning, i can run for another 
1-1.5 hours before the battery does actually completely use up its charge.

It doesn't make a difference which app i use to check the battery's remaining 
charge, and it also reports the incorrect charge in Windows (where you can 
also get another hour out of it if you ignore the warning).

googling has turned up all sorts of information about how to deal with 
batteries that don't hold a charge, but very little that sounds similar to 
what i'm seeing.  i did see one post that suggested using the "battery sync" 
option in the BIOS, but my BIOS doesn't have that option.  there is indeed a 
newer BIOS available, but this laptop is mission critical for another 5-6 
weeks, and i'd prefer not to flash the BIOS until then.

any thoughts at all are welcome