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why laptop batteries die all of a sudden!


techywiz2007

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have you ever been working with a perfectly good laptop with a perfectly good battery, and one day you take it off the charger after charging it up, and your battery lasts only a couple minutes and dies?

it's cause it's a scam!!! :o

the company that makes batteries, program them that after a certain amount of charges, it turns itself off!

and the battery is still good! yet they have made it so it self destructs itself! (not really explosion... but it kills itself...) they do that so you have to spend money to buy another one!

me and a couple others are experimenting on trying to reprogram the perfectly good batteries so they'll work again. does anyone have any suggestions on how to do it? there's no switch or anything, it's just programmed that way! :huh::}:no:

Edited by techywiz2007
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have you ever been working with a perfectly good laptop with a perfectly good battery, and one day you take it off the charger after charging it up, and your battery lasts only a couple minutes and dies?

it's cause it's a scam!!! :o

the company that makes batteries, program them that after a certain amount of charges, it turns itself off!

and the battery is still good! yet they have made it so it self destructs itself! (not really explosion... but it kills itself...) they do that so you have to spend money to buy another one!

me and a couple others are experimenting on trying to reprogram the perfectly good batteries so they'll work again. does anyone have any suggestions on how to do it? there's no switch or anything, it's just programmed that way! :huh::}:no:

Aha... jcarle's right. Get the facts straight. I've been taking chemistry for the last three years and even I have a proper explanation as to why this can't be done. As a matter of fact, I was discussing it with my chem teacher just the other day.

Ever heard of redox reactions? They are pretty much the reason why batteries work. http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~cchieh/ca...23/battery.html

When a rechargeable battery is recharged (usually) before it is completely drained, there is a chemical reaction within the battery that produces another chemical substance. Over time, all batteries (rechargeable or not) accumulate this chemical substance, leaving a limited amount of the actual stuff that causes ions to flow within the battery. Eventually, when all of it is used up, ions can no longer flow, leaving the battery at an equilibrium where it is considered to be "dead." There is no (as for as I know) household way of reversing the chemical reaction into producing the chemicals that actually charge the battery and keep the battery charged.

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In some battery chemistries (Ni-CD and Ni-MH) you can actually "zap" the battery and burn the short off and make the battery run again. I've done this many times on AA rechargeable cells, and they're still working fine.

@ techywiz2007, I have often wondered if they were doing this kind of stuff. They do have a circuit board inside of a battery, I mean, whats the point in having a circuit board with IC's on it for a battery? Is there a board on AA or AAA or C and D cell batteries? I find that Toshiba's batteries seem to be the best as they do last a long time. I have some batteries that are about 4 years old still working, the oldest I have ever had was 11 years (I had 2 of them) and they still worked 100%. Providing 2 hours runtime on the laptop. I do agree it is a bit fishy. But to make a post about it, is very well, childish.

Try doing a load test on the "bad" battery, and see what the cells produce. If the amperage dies off quickly, the cell might be dead, but if it holds it for a bit, it's probably be fine. WARNING: Don't hold it too long as your basically shorting the battery out and can cause a fire.

Another thing to keep in mind, all the laptop batteries, that I have ripped apart, have 2 cells wired in series. Now, if one of those cells dies, the other cell basically takes the load, thus, further reducing that cells lifetime because it has to do twice the work now. Some cells will die sooner than others because of the chemistry in the cells.

Some of us have more experience with these types of things. I know that some of my information is probably wrong, but, it's what I have figured out by testing, rebuilding, and working with these batteries. So far, I have rebuilt about 10 laptops batteries. Some work, others don't. The most common problem, is the battery doesn't calibrate itself correctly. They often run for about 2 hours +, but think they're at 0% all the time. This I can see as being a bad thing as the cells could actually overcharge themselves and further reduce the lifetime anyway.

Basically, its better to just find/buy another battery for your prized laptop :)

Edited by prx984
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The circuit in a battery pack, is used to monitor the cells, there is a thermal fuse, so if the batteries get to hot this blows, thus breaking the circuit and stop the battery catching fire, (kinda what could have gone wrong in all those batteries that were recalled by dell etc) If you get two rechargeble cells and short them out, this will create a situation where the cells fuse together, and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

As mentioned above, over time particles build up around the cathode (+) (i think) and this prevents them from charging/giving current, and they die,

You have to have some kind of regulator that monitors the batteries, you have these in the batteries in your mobile phone.

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The most common problem, is the battery doesn't calibrate itself correctly. They often run for about 2 hours +, but think they're at 0% all the time. This I can see as being a bad thing as the cells could actually overcharge themselves and further reduce the lifetime anyway.

I find putting the battery on a full charge then (if the bios supports it) calibrate the battery which just runs down the battery fromwhat i can tell, but before hand uninstall the battery from windows so windows shows the correct % when it gets back, my ex's laptop would run for about 2 hours with less than 1 minute remaining!

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The circuit in a battery pack, is used to monitor the cells, there is a thermal fuse, so if the batteries get to hot this blows, thus breaking the circuit and stop the battery catching fire, (kinda what could have gone wrong in all those batteries that were recalled by dell etc) If you get two rechargeble cells and short them out, this will create a situation where the cells fuse together, and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

As mentioned above, over time particles build up around the cathode (+) (i think) and this prevents them from charging/giving current, and they die,

You have to have some kind of regulator that monitors the batteries, you have these in the batteries in your mobile phone.

Build that into the computer. They did on a few model laptops I had. Hell, I rebuilt a laptop battery with AA rechargeable Ni-MH cells and it worked 200%. Twice the battery runtime as the original battery ran it for.

That computer had just 9 batteries soldered to each other, and 2 connections at the other end. Now that's the way a battery should be built.

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  • 2 months later...

Not all batteries are made equal...

My father's laptop battery is going in its 11th year now (yes, it is a very old but still perfectly working laptop hehe) still on its original battery.

Last year we tested the battery (we do it about every year) it powered up the laptop for 2hrs 17min at constant 100% CPU use. IMHO thats very good, considering my 1yr old laptop lasts only 1hr 28min at 100% CPU :/

Granted, the battery is used for only an hour at most M-F when my father drives to and from work, and it is on AC all the time, but I still think its amazing that the battery can last that long.

Somehow I doubt my new laptop's battery will last half that much.

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