[TriLUG] Ot: getting replacement batteries for old laptops

[Pat Regan]

Joseph Mack NA3T wrote:
> On Fri, 24 Jun 2005, James Brigman wrote:
> 
>> Batteries Plus used to rebuild packs.
> 
> I've rebuilt NiCad packs before with a bit of screwdriver and razorblade 
> foo so rebuilding a laptop pack sounded a good idea. I called up Batteries 
> Plus and they said they don't have the lithium batteries for laptops (they 
> aren't AA's or whatever) so even if I got the pack apart, I'd have to buy 
> the cells off the internet, putting me back into my original situation of
> buying from vendors and not knowing whether the batteries were going to 
> last 1yr or 3yrs.

I have been very interested lately in the possibility of rebuilding
laptop batteries, so I have been all over the Internet reading about it.
 I don't seem to have any of the sites bookmarked though, so I will have
to go from memory.

There are places to get Lithium-Ion replacement batteries, and they seem
to come in 2 major styles.  One style is about the form factor of a AA
battery (I believe they are slightly shorter).  The other is kind-of a
rectangular shape.  (Notice I do not know the technical term :p)

For kicks, I took apart an old dead lithium battery to see how it
ticked.  It was a little tough to pry apart, I would have to be much
careful with my own.  It had 9 AA style batteries.

I am mostly interested in this because I am lucky to break 5-6 hours of
light use out of the two batteries in my laptop, when I used to be able
to get 8+ hours out of it before I tightened up the power management.
New batteries are 100-120 a piece, and I would really prefer to pay less :).

Also, it seems like you can usually get away with slightly larger
capacity cells, which would be nice.

Pat
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