How often does a laptop need a new battery

thermo66

I have my laptop for about a year now and im getting notices that the battery is 'reaching the end of its usable life'. Fully charged it is lasting less than 2 hours now.

Is it normal for the battery to need changing so soon? Just looked up Dell and it'll cost about 100eur for a new one

Overheal

Thats the first time ive heard of a battery telling someone its reaching any sort of expiry: wth?

smcgiff

thermo66 wrote: »

I have my laptop for about a year now and im getting notices that the battery is 'reaching the end of its usable life'. Fully charged it is lasting less than 2 hours now.

Is it normal for the battery to need changing so soon? Just looked up Dell and it'll cost about 100eur for a new one

Yip - My Inspiron 1300 6 cell battery started to badly deteriorate after one year. After 3 years it's down to about 10 minutes charge but happy to have it plugged in all the time. Appreciate it's no longer a true lap top, but feck it. I'm not going to pay €128 for a new battery every year.

Vergast

Yup, unless batteries are maintained a bit they tend to die after 2+ years. A good way to slow that down is to never leave the battery in while fully charged, so If your at home and have your laptop charged, slide it out and just run off mains.

thermo66

smcgiff wrote: »

Yip - My Inspiron 1300 6 cell battery started to badly deteriorate after one year. After 3 years it's down to about 10 minutes charge but happy to have it plugged in all the time. Appreciate it's no longer a true lap top, but feck it. I'm not going to pay €128 for a new battery every year.

Yeah me either. Fvck that!! Ill just keep it plugged in most of the time. Hey how long do you use your laptop before turning it off for a break? Mine is on most of the day, every day and its starting to get hot .... sill working fine though!!

thermo66

Overheal wrote: »

Thats the first time ive heard of a battery telling someone its reaching any sort of expiry: wth?

Dell are probably looking for more business

Overheal

thermo66 wrote: »

Dell are probably looking for more business

Ya think!

Mines 2+ years old. Im starting to notice the battery life slipping but its not at the point of a Major ****ing deal yet. If it can hang on till next summer I plan to replace it with either another laptop or a new desktop then this one is going to become the Home Theater PC, its got enough hardware in it for hi def streaming even if the battery decides to pack it in.

smiley girl

My laptop is a year old and the battery only lasts just over an hour, its says it has 90 mins remaining power left when you hover on the icon but it never lasts that long. This has always been the case, even as brand new.
I just leave it plugged in, but a good point was made and I will do this, take the battery out while plugged in!
Can any one tell me if your laptop is not plugged in to the mains and the battery dies, will this harm your laptop if it happens frequently?

Alanstrainor

My Dell's battery died after a year, it went from 3 hours + to 5 minutes in that year. Some of Dell's machines are notorious for this. And yes i was getting those warnings too.

Voodu Child

Lithium-Ion batteries have approximately 300-500 charge/discharge cycles in them before they are noticeably degraded. In addition, they also degrade over time regardless of whether they're being used or not (thats why you should never buy an 'old' battery thats been sitting in a stockroom for months).

That means that for most people, if you're using the battery regularly, you're going to see noticeable degredation in 2 years. And with heavy use, it could be as little as a year as some people have seen.

Thats just the way it is, its an unfortunate drawback of li-ion technology, they suck in that regard. I wouldn't agree that Dell are nototious for this, for the simple reason that they don't manufacture batteries. Theres a couple of big manufacturers (Sony is one of the main ones) who supply the majority of laptop brands with more or less identical batteries.

Elara: Kin

Lithium-Ion batteries which is what is in all modern laptops also have a very step drop off, unlike batteries of old which have a gradual degrade Lith-Ion would just drop off a hill in terms of battery life as soon as it reaches it's life cycle.

Overheal

Well this is what I dont get. Everyone here on a dell is complaining after 12 months the thing can barely hold a charge. I've had mine for about 28 months and its probably only gone down from an upper limit of 5 hours to 3 and a half or 4.

thermo66

Overheal wrote: »

Well this is what I dont get. Everyone here on a dell is complaining after 12 months the thing can barely hold a charge. I've had mine for about 28 months and its probably only gone down from an upper limit of 5 hours to 3 and a half or 4.

Boasting much?? :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Overheal

thermo66 wrote: »

Boasting much?? :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Honestly no. Trying to get to the bottom of a strange situation. Its on the charger most of the time. Every once in a while I recalibrate it, and once I day I typically find myself off the wire. But thats no different to anyone else. Except maybe if youve forgotten to calibrate.

thermo66

Overheal wrote: »

Honestly no. Trying to get to the bottom of a strange situation.

:P

RoyalMarine

Overheal wrote: »

Well this is what I dont get. Everyone here on a dell is complaining after 12 months the thing can barely hold a charge. I've had mine for about 28 months and its probably only gone down from an upper limit of 5 hours to 3 and a half or 4.

when your using your laptop, do you leave it plugged in 24/7?

i bet you dont. this is the real killer for batteries.

ive killed mine, and i sourced a replacement from dell. 197 euro EXCLUDING delivery!
went to ebay, and bought one inc delivery for 47 euro.

Jarren

smcgiff wrote: »

Yip - My Inspiron 1300 6 cell battery started to badly deteriorate after one year. After 3 years it's down to about 10 minutes charge but happy to have it plugged in all the time. Appreciate it's no longer a true lap top, but feck it. I'm not going to pay €128 for a new battery every year.

Actually is much less

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=dell+inspiron+1300+battery&_frs=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m359:)

thermo66

RoyalMarineComm wrote: »

when your using your laptop, do you leave it plugged in 24/7?

i bet you dont. this is the real killer for batteries.

ive killed mine, and i sourced a replacement from dell. 197 euro EXCLUDING delivery!
went to ebay, and bought one inc delivery for 47 euro.

Good to know!! 200euro!!! Thats half the cost of a laptop! Madness!!!

Overheal

RoyalMarineComm wrote: »

when your using your laptop, do you leave it plugged in 24/7?

24 hours a day? 7 days a week? No. At some point you need to keep watching what youre watching or reading what youre reading while you go to the jacks.

Alanstrainor

Some batteries are worse than others it appears. I know with my Dell 6400, that it is widely known that the battery tends to die after a years usage or there abouts. And mine was not discharged everyday in that year, more likely once/twice a week. It did spend a lot of time sitting with the charger plugged in. But it, like most laptops in the last 5~+ years will stop charging the battery when the charge reaches 100%, so it's not like it goes into a charge discharge cycle while it sits on my desk plugged in with a full battery.
There are some laptops where i work that are 5 years old with the original batteries still in them, and they still get 2 hours +. They're all Dell Latitudes, i think they're D600's.

DirkVoodoo

I had my 6 cell battery for 2.5 years on my XPS M1210 before a 100% charge gave me 8 minutes battery life. I was quite pleased with the fact I could run it into the ground as my sister barely got 2 years before her macbook said "nope, you've reached 40% of the original charge, I've had it". While I'm not a fan of forced upgrades, this was just made worse because while I could run mine off the mains and a pulled power cord would mean I had a few minutes to save everything and shut it down, a pulled (crappy magnetic) macbook cord and all her work would be gone.

Anyway, I bought myself a new, non Dell brand battery off ebay. Yes, I know the stories. This one had the CE certification and 6 months on has been perfect. The rated capacity for it is less than the official Dell one, but at a MUCH lower price.

ED E

I stupidly burned my dell battery sitting on the desk for a year, shoulda put it in the cupboard, didnt. Price of new pack, 139.50 ex shipping. Yeah, you can shove it where the sun dont shine for that price.

I'm tempted by Chinese cells, but from what I've read they're often cack, so I just use the AC pack and screw portability(its buried under my desk 99% of the time now, connected to a 22").

Hopefully the price of batteries will drop soon with people not being able to pay half the price of a laptop simply for a new pack.

Alanstrainor

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

I stupidly burned my dell battery sitting on the desk for a year, shoulda put it in the cupboard, didnt. Price of new pack, 139.50 ex shipping. Yeah, you can shove it where the sun dont shine for that price.

I'm tempted by Chinese cells, but from what I've read they're often cack, so I just use the AC pack and screw portability(its buried under my desk 99% of the time now, connected to a 22").

Hopefully the price of batteries will drop soon with people not being able to pay half the price of a laptop simply for a new pack.

I bought a Chinese battery for my Advent 4211 from dealextreme.com and it has served me well so far, i've had it about 8 months and haven't noticed any deterioration of it so far, although admittedly it probably has lost some amount of charge, but thus far it's not obvious.

angel01

If you leave it plugged in all the time, take the battery out and just use the mains. I hardly ever use the battery anymore.

pwd

I started getting an expiry notice on my xps m1530 after about a year.
I contacted dell and asked for a replacement, saying that a battery should last 18 months. It was under warranty.
They replaced it, no quibble, the next day.

south

has anyone used http://top-battery.co.uk/ to buy a battery from? only copped on after the payment when through on paypal that they were based in China.

i bought the 8800mah one at the end of this page just hope it gets delivered first and doesn't blow up then

BostonB

Overheal wrote: »

Thats the first time ive heard of a battery telling someone its reaching any sort of expiry: wth?

Some laptops do this. I've seen it a few times on different brands.

Overheal wrote: »

Well this is what I dont get. Everyone here on a dell is complaining after 12 months the thing can barely hold a charge. I've had mine for about 28 months and its probably only gone down from an upper limit of 5 hours to 3 and a half or 4.

I suspect it because they leave it on AC most of the time and you probably don't. Regardless of brand this will kill a battery in about a year. If you never use it on battery, it doesn't matter.

One of our laptops is a Dell with an extended battery, its hardly ever used on AC as a result its battery life after 2~3yrs is still 5 or 6 hrs. Maybe longer.

Voodu Child

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

I'm tempted by Chinese cells, but from what I've read they're often cack,

Personally I wouldn't. Ive seen an imitation Dell battery swell up so much that the plastic seams split open and you can see inside the cell.

Think of it this way - even with stringent safety standards, some cells from Sony have proved to be hazardous (exploding, overheating etc) and have required massive recalls.

If that can happen to a major manufacturer, how do you think a generic no-brand Chinese battery will fare? Some of those things are probably death-traps. And you certainly won't be hearing about product recalls with them :pac:

Tbh, a battery is something that stores a huge amount of chemical energy, and may be inadvertently left plugged in overnight. In my opinion, its not worth the risk of a damaged laptop or housefire etc, just for the sake of a few quid.

Sarn

From my own experience I don't think being plugged in affects the battery that much. I had a Sony Vaio and the battery was pretty much fine for 3 years and that spent most of its life on the AC. My LG is a year old and there is no apparent change in the battery life (so far) and that is also left on AC most of the time.

ED E

Voodu Child wrote: »

Personally I wouldn't. Ive seen an imitation Dell battery swell up so much that the plastic seams split open and you can see inside the cell.

Think of it this way - even with stringent safety standards, some cells from Sony have proved to be hazardous (exploding, overheating etc) and have required massive recalls.

If that can happen to a major manufacturer, how do you think a generic no-brand Chinese battery will fare? Some of those things are probably death-traps. And you certainly won't be hearing about product recalls with them :pac:

Tbh, a battery is something that stores a huge amount of chemical energy, and may be inadvertently left plugged in overnight. In my opinion, its not worth the risk of a damaged laptop or housefire etc, just for the sake of a few quid.

Yeah, if I was to buy one it would sit in the laptop bag 99% of the time as there's no need when I have it wire in.

When it would be in I'd have it right in front of me so I'd notice quick enough, and the laptop is worth **** all. Still dodge though.

Sarn wrote: »

From my own experience I don't think being plugged in affects the battery that much. I had a Sony Vaio and the battery was pretty much fine for 3 years and that spent most of its life on the AC. My LG is a year old and there is no apparent change in the battery life (so far) and that is also left on AC most of the time.

I think it depends on the laptop in question. If the power management is correct the charger should only activate maybe every 2-3 weeks, Dells dont seem to do that though, they trickle charge all the time to keep the cell at 100%, great for when you take it out a month after you bought it as it will be fully charged, but a year later the things dead. My pack is 18months old, charge lasts 30seconds:(

Overheal

You people are weird.

You buy a laptop to have the freedom, Then you use the laptop like a desktop, leaving it plugged in 24/7 unless you have to travel somewhere?

Hell no. You leave the charger at your desk. You use the laptop in the john. use it in the living room. Use it in the kitchen! Use it in the garden! Take it to a LAN party! Thats what its there for. If I wanted a Movable Desktop I'd have gotten one of those huge 19" Motherfuckers but I didnt. I bought a laptop.

/rant

The point of having a huge battery strapped on the arse of this thing is so i dont need to reach around the back of my desk and yank out the cord anytime I want to sit down anywhere else or go to class with it. I get the feeling those here complaining about losing their battery life never really learned to appreciate it in the first place. Always too afraid of running out of power so you'd just stay plugged in. FYI it doesnt matter if youre writing a Thesis or playing Crysis, if you run out of power the Laptop can and will save what youre doing before shutting off. If you happen to have a battery with a bit of life in it learn to love it, and always ask yourself Do I Really Need to Be Plugged in Right Now? Would I not much rather post this reply while im on the toilet? Is watching The Office not the greatest thing to do while cooking sunday breakfast? Wouldnt it be great to have the videos to fix my engine right there on the toolbox?

Think about it.

Voodu Child

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

If the power management is correct the charger should only activate maybe every 2-3 weeks, Dells dont seem to do that though, they trickle charge all the time to keep the cell at 100%

No laptop with li-ion batteries, Dell or otherwise, trickle charges. Li-ion technology doesnt allow for a trickle charge.

And the notion that Dell would charge their batteries in a different way to every other laptop brand is a flawed generalisation. Dell laptops are designed and manufactured by the same 3 or 4 ODMs who make nearly every other laptop on the planet.

Dartz

My batteries manufacture date is 4/4/08, a couple of weeks before I got this thing.

Opened a command prompt in Windows:
powercfg -energy -output C:\energyreport.html

This is the result:
Battery ID 679SanyoDELL XT8168
Design Capacity 57720 (about 5400mWh x 11V)
Last Full Charge 18559 (about 1650mWh x 11V)
Last Full Charge (%) 32
It's about 18 months old, 6 cell, and has been well and truly hammered, especially in the last 3 months or so when I charged it about 2-3 times daily.

When knew, I got 3 or more hours out of it. Over the summer, it would last about 2 hours or so.... it's now dropped to below 1.

It's the charging cycles that kill the things. I did the same to another battery on a completely different laptop. I'm actually wondering if theres a way to either recover the capacity... since the actual charging capacity is determined by the batteries onboard electronics which count cycles and then cut the charge off at a determined point (planned obsolescence?). Maybe there's a way to reset them?

Certainly save me the 150 euro for a brand new 9-cell item, because I need to run it off battery regularly, and if I can't get through 1 lecture on a single charge, it's a real PITA.

Overheal

I dunno if tinkering with the control electonics of a battery is at all wise. couldnt that very well lead to explosion?

http://gizmodo.com/214322/actual-video-of-an-exploding-laptop-battery

Overcharging Li-io does not seem safe at all. And its difficult to tell if youre getting back capacity thats still there but the controller thinks is gone, or if youre telling the controller theres more capacity than there actually is, causing a runaway chain reaction.