Help on notebook battery issue

[Nuno]

I´ve used lately my laptop instead of my main system, because a 19´´ monitor and a XP1800+ can indeed deliver a lot of heat, and that´s not really welcome on my HOT room.

It has everything that I need to surf the web and get some job done: a Compaq presario 700 with a Duron 900, 20Gb HDD, 256 Mb ram, 14´´ TFT 1024x768.

Being at home naturally I choose to have the AC power always on in order to speed up things (PowerNow runs it as low as 500Mhz to save on battery) and of course to save the battery.

Today I found the battery on charge, being at 96% and not charging anymore despite I let it be for a couple hours. I decided to unplug the AC current and let the battery run out. It did, as expected, but... after it´s empty it wouldn´t charge anymore!!

I removed the battery and it was really hot! I turned off the laptop, waited for a half hour, and then tried again. Well, luckly enough the battery charged normaly up to 100%.

Anyway I removed the battery from the compartment and I´m running only at AC power.

Is this a sign the battery or the notebook are defective?

[Wombat]

What kind of battery is it? Li-ion? NiMH?

[Nuno]

Compaq series CMB001A
Li-ION
14.8 V
3.6 AHr

[Greebe]

Yes that's normal Nuno. For the chemistry in virtually any battery type it must also be within a certain temp range otherwise they just don't won't worth a crap. Allowing it to cool off was the best thing you can do to ensuse a proper charge, not to mention draining it completely prior to recharging.

I've just regurgitated the L/ion batt in the other halfs cell phone as it developed a memory. The manufactures of such devices claim it not possible, but industry experts disagree (as do I). Fast chargers (as she uses almost 100% of the time) put a major arse whoopin on almost any type of rechargable batt made. Multiple full discharges and then trickle charging it back resolved this little headache here and I'd suggest to anyone having similar issues to do the same.

[Nuno]

Thanks, guys, I´m feeling better now! The laptop is just 6 months old and I really wasn´t very happy about having to get a new battery...

Specially after taking a look at compaq e-store and seeing this Li-ion crap for €151 that doesn´t really surprise me, they wanted ~€150 for a 128Mb SODIMM, until I realized that ordering it from Crucial + shipping was around €60

[leech]

Listen to this freak occurance. I got a laptop from a friend of mine (IBM Thinkpad 770) and the battery was already 'dead' in it. One day I'm using it and suddenly it starts to charge. No idea why, it just does. So once it's up to 100% I'm thinking, ok, do I dare unplug it and test it out? Well, eventually I did, and poof, it discharged itself down to 0%. Then awhile later (maybe a month or 2) I took my laptop over to my friend's house and did somethings there (though note I used his power-supply because I only took the laptop) and oddly, the light was on for the battery even after I unplugged it (normally since the battery is dead, there is no light until I plug it in, then it flashes saying that it's trying to charge, but the battery won't). So that got me thinking... as hard as that sounds, when I got home, I plugged it in, it finished charging up to 100%, then I shut it down, unplugged the AC and turned it back on. Woo Hoo! It worked. I let it drain down to 96% then I let I plugged in the AC again to recharge it up to 100%. Worked fine. I was shocked.

The next day I decided to take it with me on the go. Turned it on and POOF, it was at 0% again and it hasn't charged at all since. Any ideas on this? Or is my laptop simply possessed? I'd buy a new battery but they cost around 170 bucks. It's a Li-ION battery.

Leech

[Greebe]

Leech, it's possible that the PTC (breaker) in the battery is bad and thus causing the problem.

PTC = Positive Temperature Coeffecient, a common term used for this specific type of device. It's actually a resistor with a non linear curve... commonly used in modern Nicad/NiMH and Lithium Ion batteries to prevent overcharging/excessive current loads.

[leech]

Originally posted by Greebe
Leech, it's possible that the PTC (breaker) in the battery is bad and thus causing the problem.

PTC = Positive Temperature Coeffecient, a common term used for this specific type of device. It's actually a resistor with a non linear curve... commonly used in modern Nicad/NiMH and Lithium Ion batteries to prevent overcharging/excessive current loads.

So loosely translated, I need a new battery?

Leech

[Greebe]

Could be that what you have can be fixed... if replaced with the correct PTC.

[leech]

Really? uhm... any ideas how I could do this?

Leech