Laptop battery fault

ahs1953

Any advice on my rights welcome on where I stand with the following - my laptop suddenly switched off without warning last week. Returned to Acer for warranty repair. When I got it back, motherboard had been replaced. Then worked fine on mains but dead on battery power. Returned to Acer who say a new battery is needed at £35 plus £40 labour. Laptop and battery not quite 12 months old used majority of the time on mains. Has had about 6 hours use on battery power in that time. Their T&C say batteries have a 6 month warranty but this seems to be a battery fault caused by a blown motherboard. The laptop and battery worked perfectly up till last week, with more than 2 hours of battery power watching video.
Thanks in advance for any advice given before i ring them and dig a hole deeper than I can climb out of.

maninthestreet

£40 to change a battery???

mc33033

ahs1953 wrote: »

Their T&C say batteries have a 6 month warranty but this seems to be a battery fault caused by a blown motherboard. The laptop and battery worked perfectly up till last week, with more than 2 hours of battery power watching video.

This might be quite hard to prove ahs1953, the onus is on you to prove a fault and that its not just fair wear and tear. As maninthestreet said there should be no need to pay £40 to change a battery, it is a user servicable part, you don't normally even require tools to change them.

I don't understand your usage pattern though - only used 6 hours in 11 months? It sounds like Acer may well have fully discharged the battery during their testing and a cell has reversed or something similar may have occured and the battery electronics have shut it down. Either way it's not going to be easy to prove.

scullster

mc33033 wrote: »

This might be quite hard to prove ahs1953, the onus is on you to prove a fault and that its not just fair wear and tear. As maninthestreet said there should be no need to pay £40 to change a battery, it is a user servicable part, you don't normally even require tools to change them.

I don't understand your usage pattern though - only used 6 hours in 11 months? It sounds like Acer may well have fully discharged the battery during their testing and a cell has reversed or something similar may have occured and the battery electronics have shut it down. Either way it's not going to be easy to prove.

OP has used it on mains predominantly, he estimates 6h use on battery only, i.e. unplugged from the mains.

Batteries are tricky items, they are classed as consumables hence the shorter warranty period. I agree it may be tricky to prove that there was an inherent fault, I'm sure most engineers will suck their teeth, and then tell you the battery hasn't lasted long because you've constantly used it off the mains - batteries like to work for their money and cycle from fully charged to discharged.

I don't know if you've paid carriage costs to send it, and whether you'll pay carriage costs for the return - if you decline their extortionate offer to swap the battery, they may choose to charge carriage. I'd ask them to supply the battery only.

dacouch

Leaving your battery in the lap top whilst running it on mains can seriously reduce the life of the battery as the above poster pointed out. Lap top batteries do not like constantly being hot as well as the cycle part.

On your next battery take it out of the lap top when your running it on mains as it will preserve the life of the battery

ahs1953

Thanks for the info people. After speaking to a very helpful lady on Consumer Direct, I'm going to chance my arm with the retailer, rather than the repair team, for a battery. If there's no luck there, I'll accept that I may have mis-used the battery, though the laptop user guide makes no mention of the need to remove the battery when on mains. Another one of lifes learning curves I suppose.

ahs1953

Very useful bit of info I've found - the downloadable PDF user manual includes a whole chapter devoted to correct care of the battery. This chapter was not printed in my hardcopy version. It's also not listed in the Table of Contents, so what I am persuing is why Acer decided to leave out this chapter in the printed guide. I've still got the bit between my teeth on this, so am now awaiting a reply from the laptop seller.