Mum's Lappy Battery

snowdog · 13 Jul 2007 at 00:11

I think I've made my mums laptop's battery FUBAR, It used to last 3 hours under normall circumstances and about 1.5 hours while gaming, now, it just killed itself after 15 mins of being idle.

Lappy is a very old compaq armanda e500, I have recharged the battery ok in my opinion. power was nearly always below 30 % before i recharged it, except in about 5 of the 20 recharges, it it possible the battery has gone fubar after just 20 de and recharges?

Everest battery monitoring starts @ 12V but nearly immediatly from disconnecting adapter its 10 V and a tiny bit later 9V.
The odd thing, windows and everest were both saying the battery was 82% 1 minute before the lappy killed itself ( as in turned off ), now restarted on adapter and its saying battery status 2% and recharging :confused:

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Is there anything I can do to save this battery from death, and anyone know a place where you can get old batz? Also any hints for my next battery, I don't want to kill the next battery again :mad:

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She'll be angry @ me if she hears the battery can't even last 15 mins anymore.

londonbairn · 13 Jul 2007 at 07:52

Try putting the battery in the freezer (its not as crazy as it sounds)

Amonlym · 13 Jul 2007 at 09:48

assuming its a NIMH or NICAD battery, and your reasonably competent electrically and have a multimeter, you can dissasemble the pack and check the cells individually to see their current charge level (put some level of load on each cell, 1 by 1 and see the loaded voltage - or even check the standing voltage)

im willing to bet the pack has 1 unbalanced weaker cell thats messing things up.

if thats the case, you can try cell-by-cell discharging till all are equal then re-charge the whole pack, or replace the cell if its turely dead, tho its best to replace all cells and balance the pack in that case.

DONT do this if its a LIION/LIPOLY pack.

doing this had resurected my old 3210 that wouldnt charge atall (or turn on) and got it to about 4 days standbuy, on the original battery that came with it.

londonbairn · 13 Jul 2007 at 11:17

Ive had 2 laptops with "failing" batteries and putting them in a freezer for 24 hours tightly packed and left in drying cupboard for 2 days made them work perfectly.

snowdog · 13 Jul 2007 at 13:38

Hmmm freezer isn't that unsafe?

It is lithium-ion battery.

split · 13 Jul 2007 at 14:24

Is there anything I can do to save this battery from death, and anyone know a place where you can get old batz?

Try the big auction place.

Around £25 + £5 P&P

Also it's a Compaq Armada E500 not armanda.

It helps your search

Jaffa_Cake · 13 Jul 2007 at 15:26

snowdog said:
Hmmm freezer isn't that unsafe?

It is lithium-ion battery.

Not unless your freezer is below -40deg c.

Amonlym · 13 Jul 2007 at 15:41

l-ion are rated to something of the order 300 full cycles / 3 years age From date on manufacture befor the capacity is notably degraded. you might just have an old battery.....

big auction is your best bet, but try the freezer trick. it may help