Gone Batts (groan )

[Loose rivets]

My old Sony 233 laptop suddenly reported that the battery was 100% worn out, and it refuses to charge. Somehow I doubt that there has been a spontaneous failure of the battery, but just a clever ploy to get me to buy a new one after so many cycles (Nl ion 186 cycles–it really is that low, as I deem the battery little more than a backup power supply. Much needed in rural Texas where the power browns out every A./C cycle.)

Is there a way to disable the sensor line to the battery, or fool some software, so that what is probably a half life item can stagger on for a while? LR

[Loose rivets]

A comment just for fun.

Neither here nor there producing any tips, I took a wood chisel to my Sony battery – by pure chance, on the non technical edge. The other edge had a PCB with over 100 components on it!! And at least 4 of these was LSI. What are they thinking????!!!!!

I found that two of the cells were totally open, and they look pretty well made so replacing them is not lightly to be cheap, (great success with my shaver, but this is a new ball game.) and the firmware might not let them perform even if i did the job. It's $ 109 for a replacement clone, and the computer cost me zilch 6 years ago cos Sony wanted 1,300 pounds sterling for a part when the whole computer had only cost 999.

The guy in Brussels told me that they look for fingerprints inside as soon as it arrives for repair, and the guarantee is all over if they find any. My pal claimed on his insurance and i got a free if defunct 3 month old unit.

Sony's reply gave me a bloody-minded determination to mend it, so i did some micro surgery on the (maliciously prodded) PCB, pumped up the BIOS Batt and away it went. I've used it almost every day since. Can't give in now.

[E-Liam]

Hi LR,

Check out Ebay for a battery. You don't say what model you have, but there are Sony laptop batteries going for an average of £40 ($60???). and some are as little as £7.00.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Liam

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Loose rivets,

With all the sales on these days, why not get a new Notebook with WinXP and all the bells and whistles. Right now all the sales are on at Best Buy and Circuit City. Just as an example, Best Buy has on the front page of their website:

Toshiba Satellite Notebook with Intel® Celeron® M Processor 340 (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1093468419744&skuId=6851267&type=product) $999.99 - $50.00 Sale - $300 MIR = $649.99

http://images.bestbuy.com/BestBuy_US/images/products/6851/6851267_ra.jpg

It would save all the time and money in trying to resurrect the old Notebook. ;)

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. We could probably find even better deals if you wanted me to look into it for you. :ok:

[Loose rivets]

Thanks for the P.S., will give this some thought when I get back south.


It certainly seems cheap when I think in sterling, but then, where’s the fun?

It’s all to do with being raised in WW11…the mindset of beating the system is deep rooted.

(LR Last seen crushing individual cells in the vice, in the hope of remaking internal connections. )

[stickyb]

Certainly there is at least one shop in Hong Kong that offers a laptop battery repair service. Don't know how good they are though.

[Ausatco]

Yes, well, be careful with battery repairers/reconditioners.

My lappy battery is LI ion. It was lasting about half what it did when new. I found a local battery reconditioner via the net who said, "Yep, lithium Ion, bring it down, we'll test it and see what we can do."

Spotty faced fkukwit places test leads on 2 of 8 terminals on the battery and conducts a discharge test. Promptly blows the battery's internal electronics, having incorrectly assumed that all battery pinouts are the same.

Battery that had 50% capacity now has none, zero, zilch, cipher, ought and nought.

Little prick then says "Well how do I know you were telling me the truth when you said it had 50%? Might have been dead already."

(I had brought my lappy in, per their company requirements, but they chose not to check the batt performance in the lappy - just whipped it out and stuffed it.)

Cost me $200.00 for a new battery. Would have cost me more than that to pursue the :mad: :mad: :mad: s

Coda Batteries (http://www.codabatteries.com.au/reconditioning.htm) in Kirawee, southern Sydney, for any interested locals.

AA

[Loose rivets]

Seems this battery issue is fairly far reaching. My sister in law here in TX has a newish DELL something 1100. It’s a Celeron anyway. The batts are already very poor. While visiting her this afternoon I picked up a science mag. and pointed out to her the comment that a battery…and they sited a DELL…could last 8.5 hours, but with the wireless gizmo on and running (hers is Linksys) it brought the time down to 2.0 hrs!!

It was an article on battery development, so the details on the computer were not very well defined. LR