is it worthwhile buying a new battery for my laptop?

f140

Have a Toshiba satellite laptop now with about 5 years. it has everything on it that I need- word, powerpoint and all my files.


Don't really want to buy a new laptop as this one is doing me perfect. Since having it I have replaced the charger.


Now the laptop is telling me that I need to replace the battery. Is it worthwhile replacing the battery or is a laptop of this age half on its last legs anyway. basically I now more or less have the charger stuck in to it the whole time whereas a year ago I could go 3 hours without the need to plug in the charger etc.


Am I wasting my money buying a new battery or would it be a good investment. What should I be paying for a decent one?

machiavellianme

Depends on the spec of the laptop, i.e. Ram, cpu, hard drive, etc and how much care you've been giving it. Does it run hot?
If there's nothing wrong with it and you like it, a new battery is certainly cost effective.
You could always add an ssd to replace the hard drive too and it would run faster, or add more ram.

f140

machiavellianme wrote: »

Depends on the spec of the laptop, i.e. Ram, cpu, hard drive, etc and how much care you've been giving it. Does it run hot?
If there's nothing wrong with it and you like it, a new battery is certainly cost effective.
You could always add an ssd to replace the hard drive too and it would run faster, or add more ram.

it works plenty fast enough for me. the fan does start to rev up a bit alright every now and then alright but again works again perfect.






any recommendations for a crowd to buy a battery from. computer was originally bought from Harvey normans

Capt'n Midnight

Post the model number of the Laptop.
or google the model number of the battery.
and then google the reputation of them that sell the battery

There are plenty of places that will overcharge you for the battery. If you don't mind waiting a wee while it's usually a lot cheaper to get one online.

don't bother with second hand batteries in this case unless very very cheap as batteries have a shelf life and after 5 years they'd be on their last legs anyway It's a real shame that Windows lies about batteries. In the linux world you just type acpi -i and it'll tell you how worn out your battery is.

It would be nice if there was a sticky with recommended places to buy batteries and places to avoid.

steve_r

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

It would be nice if there was a sticky with recommended places to buy batteries and places to avoid.

+1 on this.

I've had this issue with a few (Dell) laptops and its really annoying, especially when the laptop is otherwise fine

purpleisafruit

I've got a 6 year old HP I still use. Replaced the battery 2 years ago with a double sized battery. It's a great idea if the specs are up to how you use it now.
With regards the fan noise, might be worth investing in a can of compressed air to blow out the fan, they just collect dust and the extra heat caused can be very detrimental to a laptop.