Need to return Li-on battery but how?

forgotmyname

Some sellers are better than others, Bought an item worth over £200 (broke my own rule of only buying what your willing to throw away). But it was a 3rd of the price of the item purchased in the UK.

2 Parcels for the order and bon one arrived empty. Box 2 was in the states possibly sightseeing in Graceland. That arived a few days later having looked like it had been partying hard.

Few scratches on the 2nd item, its for the worskshop so not bothered, seller resent the missing items without a quibble. Even though they underinsured the entire package.

Another occasion, small electronics boards, the seller sent a cheaper product which I already had loads of. They kept me waiting and waiting until silly me let the case time out. And the replacements never arrived.

CardinalWolsey

Ageing_Stick_Insect wrote: »

Things have become worse in the last hour. My existing 5 year-old battery is now showing as 'not charging'. It clearly is nearing the end of its working life.

Are you sure its your existing (and new) battery(ies) that are not working here, or is it your power supply? If your power supply is failing, it might not be delivering enough power to your laptop for it to charge the battery, only providing enough power for the device to operate. Can you borrow someone else's power pack to test?

Ageing_Stick_Insect wrote: »

I need my existing laptop for a 32-bit program that only runs in a Virtual Machine so I'll keep it for that and that alone.

If you need to, move your VM on to another machine. Even if the other machine is 64 bit, it will run a 32 bit VM.

GunJack

OP, I take it you've done the old "take battery out, unplug lappy from mains adapter, hold down power button for 60 seconds, plug charger only in & start laptop. Boot up and then shut down lappy, refit battery & charger, restart lappy" ??

and both your & new batteries still don't charge?

Ageing_Stick_Insect

CardinalWolsey wrote: »

Are you sure its your existing (and new) battery(ies) that are not working here, or is it your power supply? If your power supply is failing, it might not be delivering enough power to your laptop for it to charge the battery, only providing enough power for the device to operate. Can you borrow someone else's power pack to test?

Good point but that's unlikely to be the cause because when I put my existing battery back it immediately showed as charging. It was only yesterday (after 48 hours of switching back and forth and multiple reboots) that my existing one showed 'not charging'.



Battery Info Viewer shows Wear Level at 23.7% so it's exhausted I think. Bit like me!

If you need to, move your VM on to another machine. Even if the other machine is 64 bit, it will run a 32 bit VM.

Yes, I believe VMWare v12 will do the job on Win10, thanks.

Ageing_Stick_Insect

GunJack wrote: »

OP, I take it you've done the old "take battery out, unplug lappy from mains adapter, hold down power button for 60 seconds, plug charger only in & start laptop. Boot up and then shut down lappy, refit battery & charger, restart lappy" ??

and both your & new batteries still don't charge?

So many times I've lost count. I followed a YouTube video and went through all the steps but to no avail. My original battery is 9 cell, the new one was 12 cell. Maybe that's the issue.


I've posted it back today so no further testing is possible.

Ageing_Stick_Insect

Just a related question about batteries since the tech knowledge here is pretty good...


I'm looking at a replacement and I'm impressed by the Dell XPS 15 2018 model. i5, 8Gb RAM, 256Gb SSD, 15.6" FullHD display.


The agent couldn't tell me if the battery is user-replaceable or whether it needs to go back to Dell for changing. They also only stock batteries for 5 years which doesn't seem very long for an expensive laptop.


Do any of you have laptops that have had a battery change? How much did the battery life affect your decision to buy? Do you have a spare or a reliable UK company who can supply them?

Cornucopia

I think the Royal Mail logic between cells connected to equipment and sending "loose" cells is that loose cells could conceivably short against each other or other conductive items inside a parcel, but something inside professionally constructed equipment would not do that.

The Royal Mail are also continuously reviewing and changing their instructions to Post Office staff. For example, all Lithium cells used to require a hazardous materials sticker, but they seem to have stopped doing that now.

It may be the case that Royal Mail are obliged to carry items that would be prohibited under the UK rules because the rules in the shipper's country are different. Certainly, I have received bulk quantities of Lithium cells from China that are prohibited within the UK mail system.

I'd recommend Aliexpress for Chinese purchases. They are often cheaper than eBay, and in my experience almost always side with purchasers in disputes.

S0litaire

Ageing_Stick_Insect wrote: »

Just a related question about batteries since the tech knowledge here is pretty good...


I'm looking at a replacement and I'm impressed by the Dell XPS 15 2018 model. i5, 8Gb RAM, 256Gb SSD, 15.6" FullHD display.


The agent couldn't tell me if the battery is user-replaceable or whether it needs to go back to Dell for changing. They also only stock batteries for 5 years which doesn't seem very long for an expensive laptop.

Looks like the 15" XPS 2018 has a "fixed" internal 75Wh battery held by 4 internal screws (no glue in the teardown's i've seen).
You can usually replace it if you can find a decent supplier.


https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Dell+XPS+15+9575+Teardown/111072 (Think this is the 2018 model)

Ageing_Stick_Insect

S0litaire wrote: »

Looks like the 15" XPS 2018 has a "fixed" internal 75Wh battery held by 4 internal screws (no glue in the teardown's i've seen).
You can usually replace it if you can find a decent supplier.


https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Dell+XPS+15+9575+Teardown/111072 (Think this is the 2018 model)

Thanks. I think that is last year's model. The one I'm considering is the 9570 i5. Having just got off the phone to Dell Support I did manage to ascertain that the 'Dell kit' required to replace the battery is just a couple of Philips screwdrivers.


Regarding sourcing a replacement in a few years the Dell agent said that customers can still get replacement batteries for the XPS range up to 8-10 years later. Presumably their business customers would play merry hell if the batteries were not available for such an expensive model.


The downside is I would probably pay a premium from Dell but if it means getting another 5 years out of the laptop that's a small price to pay. And no nonsense having to order via China!


The agent I spoke to said she could give me a discounted price valid for a couple of days. Waiting for that now.

S0litaire

Ageing_Stick_Insect wrote: »

Thanks. I think that is last year's model. The one I'm considering is the 9570 i5. Having just got off the phone to Dell Support I did manage to ascertain that the 'Dell kit' required to replace the battery is just a couple of Philips screwdrivers.
.

Yup I found the correct teardown video. Just a few screws and it comes out.

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Dell+XPS+15+9570+Unboxing+Teardown/111344

Give it 24-36 months and compatible batteries will probably start showing up on Amazon for slightly cheaper than the Dell original.