Replacement Laptop Batteries

Archive for the ‘Laptop Battery Tips’ Category

Sometimes new laptop batteries may behave erratically until they have been charged or discharged after several cycles. New laptop batteries are shipped out to customer in a discharged condition or with very low capacity and must be drained before use. I suggest at least a twelve hour charge but first refer to the owner's manual for charging instructions.

Rechargeable laptop batteries should be cycled (fully charged and then fully discharged) three to five times initially to make them reach full capacity. New laptop batteries are hard for the device to charge; they have never been fully charged and are therefore "unformed". Sometimes the device's charger will stop charging a new laptop battery before it is fully charged. If this happens, remove the laptop battery from the device and then reinsert it. The charge cycle should begin again. This may happen several times during the first laptop battery charge.

Try to fully discharge and fully charge the laptop battery according to the following instructions.

1. Install the battery in your laptop and power on until it powers off. In this situation, the laptop battery is fully discharged.

2. Then fully charge the laptop battery.

3. Fully charge and fully discharge the laptop battery or "cycle" at least five times to condition the laptop battery into performing at full capacity.

External laptop battery packs, also known as universal laptop batteries, are great when you need to power your laptop for an extended period of time and you will not be able to charge your computer's internal battery or power it on AC via the charger itself. This is especially true for the professional that logs his or her hours 'in the field'. An external laptop battery 'system' will include the battery pack itself, a charger for it and a cable and plug to fit your laptop's power input terminal. Most external battery packs can be used with a variety of notebook PCs (providing that the electrical specifications are met) and therefore are supplied with an assortment of adapters to accomodate a range of power input terminals. Read the rest of this entry »

Buying a cheap replacement battery for a Dell Inspiron

The basis of this article derived from the simple fact that I needed to find a replacement laptop battery for my wife's Dell Inspiron 1501. It had been operating for increasingly shorter periods of time while on battery power and the battery utility program began displaying an error message that the laptop's battery needed to be replaced. Since it had been originally equipped with the standard 6 cell battery, I was going to take this opportunity to replace it with a 9 cell battery to extend its' run time. Consequently, the search for a new notebook battery consisted of several components: find the specs for the extended life Dell Battery; determine the sources for both an OEM and generic replacement battery; and find the best price for a replacement laptop battery. The quest had begun! Read the rest of this entry »