Battery pack coming to the end of its life ... again!!

top_drawer_2

This is basically what I have ...

Pic

buglawton

Laptops could easily offer a battery recondition cycle like my high end Ni-Mh charger does. The fact that not one manfr can be arsed to do so shows how much of the consumer's interest they truly have at heart.

To prolong batt life, fully discharge and recharge it once every few weeks.

[Deleted User]

top_drawer wrote: »

How do I go about running the laptop purely off mains?

Take the battery out

A._Badger

Never fully charge a lithium ion battery and then put it way. Charge it only to around 60 % and store it as cool as possible.

To a degree a Li-On battery will start to age from the moment it is made and even stored cool in a semi-charged state it will still die, sooner or later.

However it will last a great deal longer stored unused than it will if left plugged into a hot laptop all the time. Heat damages the cells and the continual charge/discharge will kill it in next to no time.

As for replacements, I have had IBM Thinkpad battery packs (better quality than Dell) disassembled and refitted with new cells in the States and have been very pleased with both the quality and the money saved.

I can't remember the name of the people who did it but it might be worth Googling for them.

Hope that helps.

macman

top_drawer wrote: »

This is basically what I have ...

Pic

Your picture is of a mains adaptor, not a battery pack. The 'box' in the middle is not a battery, it's the transformer that converts mains AC power into the DC power the computer requires. You plug that into the power jack which is usually on the back or side edge of the laptop.
The battery is attached to the computer (normally underneath at the back, detached by releasing two sliding clips).
How do you normally charge your battery then, if you don't plug the mains adaptor in to the laptop?

fwor

buglawton wrote: »

To prolong batt life, fully discharge and recharge it once every few weeks.

This may have been true for older battery types such as NiCad, but for the most common current battery technology used in laptops - LiIon - that isn't good advice. The life of these batteries is mainly limited by the number of charge/discharge cycles they can go through.

As A Badger says, the other main factor is heat, which shortens the life. Because a full discharge and recharge tends to make the battery hot, it's one of the worst things you can do to it.

rsykes2000

top_drawer wrote: »

I'm sorry for being dim but I cant see how this can connect to the laptop!!

I have a lead with a silver pin plug this has a wire leading to the battery. In the battery connects another lead, this has no connection that I can see that could go into the back of my computer.

Jen

Switch laptop off.
Take out the removeable battery from the back of the laptop (you have had a new battery so you must know how to do this).
Plug the charger in to the laptop as normal.
Switch on.

Hope this helps

savemoney

I got a 6 cell battery on my dell laptop and we have had it since June 07

buglawton

Many laptops have a power management setting where it will not start charging if the current level is x percent or above. So if I set x to say, 60, it will stay at 60% even when plugged into mains. This is healthier, apparently than leaving it plugged in all the time with batt at near 100%, per this article:

http://www.blogomonster.com/blogs/entry/Guidelines-for-prolonging-Li-ion-battery-life.

One observation I have made is that Tomtom batteries - Li-ion - never seem to last more than 18 months. Suspect this is because I always use the car charger whether needed or not and it does get hot.

AirCooledHeaven

buglawton wrote: »

To prolong batt life, fully discharge and recharge it once every few weeks.

Does this actually work with a Lithium ion battery ??