Laptop GPS World

I have only one real complaint about my notebook, it's battery life. This has led me to look far and wide. As an avid ebayer I've found all sorts of solutions. However, digging deeper I'm hoping that an idea of having the batteries refilled with new cells will do the trick.

It doesn't look good, the company was sold and now doesn't look like a good idea:
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/eBattery_Inc_8


Well maybe these guys located in Canada. http://www.refillbattery.com/

I found one review here:
http://www.yelp.ca/biz/refill-battery-toronto

Anyone have any experiences with this concept?

If you're using the laptop in the car, why not go with either a 12v charger or a small power inverter? Both plug into the cigarette lighter.

The battery in my laptop gave up the ghost about a year and a half ago. It stays plugged into my power inverter.

In the days of NiCad battery packs, which by the way, was many years before ultra portable laptops, recelling a battery pack was a very environmentally friendly and cost effective alternative to buying new and disposing of the used pack in the local trash can. NiCads that were not exercised properly usually did not last that long and had a much shorter service life than todays Li-ion. More to the point, Li-ion batteries generate alot of heat in their charge and discharge cycle and if the cell quality is not the absolute best, the possiblity of an internal short and serious fire is very real. I guess my opinion, FWIW, for the few extra dollars, loonies, or pesos that it costs, go for the manufacturers replacement pack and trust them to have done the engineering of cell, pack construction, charger voltages, etc.

You know what I wish laptop manufacturers would release? A blank cover for the battery compartment.

When I initially called HP about my batteries going bad, they recommended to me to not even have the batteries in the laptop when I have it plugged into AC. The problem is that my laptop is always plugged into AC. So, with the batteries out, there's a nice large hole to allow dirt in.

If the battery is genuinely dead you have a couple of options to turn it into a battery compartment "cover".

The simplest is to break the battery contacts off so there's no electrical contact and leave the battery in place.

If you would like to lighten the laptop you can crack open the battery and remove the cells, then use the empty battery pack.

Or you can go the full monty -- remove the cells and then hack off enough of the pack so that only the parts of the cover are left that are necessary for locking it into place.

Just some random thoughts.

...ken...

This is when I use it at home. I have an oem auto charger for it.

No AC charger for the house?

I know that when my laptop was new, it'd only run about 1 to 1 1/2hrs on a full battery (17" screen, dual hd's). Even the new laptops I'm looking at with an 8-cell pack only claim 2-3hrs, and I doubt that's with any real use of it.

I have a docking station for when I'm at my desk. But I use it more and more away from the desk and my battery is down to just over an hour of use. I've been reading about real world batter life and 4 hrs seems to be the average. Some say they get close to 5 or even longer while others report 3.5 hrs. I did a cycle check and mine is at 240 . I'm surprised I even get an hour out of it.

Many apparently knowledgable people seem concerned about cheap replacement laptop batteries in the age of lithium-ion construction. Apparently some of the off-brands leave out parts that may allow these batteries to overcharge or overheat. I gather that can be a very dangerous situation.

My first choice would be a replacement battery from the company that manufactured the laptop. However, it seems reasonable that, if just the cells are replaced, the control circuitry would still be present. I have read positive reviews on that company in the past but have never used their services.

Terry

They quoted me $54 I'm confirming that would be Canadian dollars and what brand cells they use. I checked IBM/Lenovo and found replacement for $130 USD plus shipping.

Sounds like a pretty good price. Here's an article by a person who replaced the cells himself. There is some interesting information about what is involved.

http://www.summet.com/blog/2007/02/1...attery-refill/

Terry

I read that article too, what's funny is that is the exact Thinkpad I'm using. The shop emailed me back and told me it would be $54.00 USD + flat rate $10.00 shipping charge. They use LG cells.

My custom Surefire 6P (P91) light is modded to run 2 AW 17670's which are just smaller size than 18650 size.

I bought my setup through https://www.lighthound.com/ they have great customer service.
I bought another light through http://www.batteryjunction.com/.

Btw the ultimate LED drop-in for a smaller size light:http://www.malkoffdevices.com/shop2/...&products_id=7

All the reading up I could find on high draw rechargeable batteries for Surefire ultra high power lamps specifically the P91 lamp directed me unanimously to AW brand rechargeables. They are astounding on performance.

These appear to be the best replaceable batteries at this time:

Li-Ion 18650 Cylindrical Cell 3.7V 2600mAh Cell---OEM from Japan
$15.95 each x6 = $95.70 + shipping.
http://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...OD&ProdID=4521

I'm tempted to do this and request that the shop purchase these directly to perform the upgrade. It would be interesting to see how long these would before needing a recharge.

On second thought, I may just buy the very slightly smaller capacity latest IBM 2400mAh battery for $129.00 http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/c...1F7C816CE00801

I figure it's either that or just have them re-cell for the $64.00.