Laptop battery replacement

[Achika]

So I've recently decided that my laptop battery needs replaced (Seeing as how, even plugged in, it won't stay on for more than 10 minutes.). I looked at the manufacturer's website, but it's $150 there.

I know that's probably the best place to buy it to make sure I get one of good quality, but I figured I'd take a chance and post here and see if there might be anywhere better to buy them.

Also, what would I do with the old one? Are there places out there that recycle old laptop batteries?

Edit-Oops...Didn't even see the sticky up top. D= I'll go check in there and see if I find any answers too. XD Sorry.

Edit 2-Never mind, seems to be mostly about buying. XD

[Scuzzelbutt]

I had that problem with an old laptop of mine, I went on eBay and some Korean company sent me a replacement battery and it worked just fine.


Edit: It was much cheaper than the OEM battery.

[Gippo]

So I've recently decided that my laptop battery needs replaced (Seeing as how, even plugged in, it won't stay on for more than 10 minutes.).

even if your battery is toast, if your notebook is powering down when plugged in, you could have a short on your ac jack, or it could be overheating. While its not recommended to use a notebook with a battery fully discharged, it shouldnt shut off on ac power unless you have a different issue.

[Achika]

Do laptops normally not work if you have no battery plugged in and just electricity? =o

I'm not sure if it's a short or not. I know though that the battery is almost 3-4 years old, and semi-heavy usage.

It could be overheating though. I had to buy a cooling pad for it at one point because it kept shutting off and was hot to touch. It's slightly warm when it shuts down, but lately it hasn't even had a chance to get that warm.

[Isiolia]

Do laptops normally not work if you have no battery plugged in and just electricity? =o

No, they should work. However, depending on how the battery went bad, they may complain profusely about it. I've had some Dells that have a bad battery in the sense that the circuitry in the battery reports it as bad, not just that it barely holds a charge anymore. Some of those will give error messages if the battery is in, but chug along happily with no battery in the bay.

What's possible is that your laptop is not recieving consistent power from the AC adapter, and so once your battery no longer has enough of a charge to keep it going during the interruptions of it, it cuts off.

[Gippo]

we know the battery is toast, but that only serves to eliminate one cause of it shutting down.

check event viewer for system errors, sometimes pcs wont display blue screens if its not set to show them. start > control panel > administrative tools > event viewer > system tab.

if you believe its a power issue, you have 2 unknowns. it could be the ac adapter itself, or the pc not taking the charge. The only way to troubleshoot that is with a different compatible adapter or a different pc that will take your adapter as input. . if you use a different adapter and it shuts off, its not your adapter, but that doesnt necessarily mean its NOT overheating. It just helps you eliminate something. if you use your adapter on another pc, and you notice the other pc switches to battery power, its your adapter. Just because theres a light on your adapter, doesnt mean its working correctly. Power issues usually wont show up in event viewer as its not an os error, although you may get the "load windows normally?" "last known configuration" screen.

it could be bad/failing ram. this will usually show up in event viewer as system error "random hex code" (doubtful, but possible)

do you hear your fans spinning? Is it really loud? If it does end up being a thermal issue, usually you get a message from bios upon restart indicating previous shutdown due to thermal issue. go to walmart/radio shack and buy a can of air. remove all back covers, spray air into the cooling vents to try to get dust buildup down.

getting a new battery will indeed help you troubleshoot, as you will then see if its taking the charge, and if it switches to battery you'll know its not all the time. All else fails take it to a repair facility, but be warned, if they arent reputable, they may be quick to give you the "motherboard is bad" excuse to cover their own ass when they dont know what the fuk is wrong with it.

[Achika]

Only reason I asked about the power working without a battery is that my laptop doesn't let me do that, so I dunno if something's wrong in that aspect. =x

I was going to open it up and dust it out, but I couldn't figure out which screws I needed to remove to get the case off. I might take a look again though. The laptop fans are quieter than my cooling pad, and I can feel the air going in and out.

I never noticed anything odd in event viewer, but I could attempt to copy the last few lines after it shuts off to see if anything is wrong.

Also never get a message regarding RAM.

I'll take the first step and try with the battery, I found one on Ebay for a decent price, hopefully will get it soon. If it's still shutting off, I'll take a look into other issues as well.

Thanks for helping. =D I'll be back if it's still being stupid.

[levish]

if its shutting off while being plugged in the ac adapter plug or the receptacle for it (on the laptop) is no good and that could lead to charging problems and even battery death.

For a battery test leave it plugged in overnight, unplug the adapter and turn on laptop leaving it to idle. if it stays on for 1-2 hours the battery is fine, if it doesn't it could be either the adapter / battery / receptacle