Lap top battery Longevity

[Johnny B Good]

I'm pretty certain I didn't spot the battery state led turning red ('out of the blue' as it were) until after a few years of ownership. I was already aware that the battery had, contrary to most laptop users' experience, retained pretty well most of its original capacity. It was a 'half celled' battery pack so only offered an autonomy of 100 minutes or so to begin with - not a problem since I wasn't anticipating any need to use it untethered for any longer than half an hour or so any more frequently than maybe 10 to 20 times a year.

Since that laptop was rarely disconnected from its charging brick, my discovery of this 'topping up' charging state made me reconsider my preconceived assumption that the battery was on a continual float charging regime where the cells would be held at 4.2v all the time it was connected to the charging brick.

Topping the battery up with a ten minute charge every few weeks rather went against the notion of a constant 4.2v per cell float charging regime and since the battery condition was so good after several years' worth of 'float charge abuse', I was forced to conclude that 'float charging' was most definitely 'off the menu' in this case.

The big problem with that Acer Aspire 3660 is that the 32 bit Linux distros don't play nicely with whatever gimmickry Acer have applied to the Intel chipset they've used.

I can install and run Linux ok, along with Kaffeine, but instead of a mere 20W idle under win2k (I ripped out that s**te winXP MCE it had originally been afflicted with within the first week of ownership), I was seeing an idle consumption of 30W along with the need to manually intervene on shutdown with the 4 second press and hold of the power button after allowing sufficient time for Linux to flush cached data back to the disk.

I'm now considering buying a refurbished dual HDD laptop with 1920 by

1080 HD screen sans the Microsoft tax from one of the more specialised suppliers. I don't want to be stuck with a "Wintel" only laptop, particularly when Microsoft have taken their ownership of *your* PC to the even greater outrageous levels of windows 10 making the winXP 'piss take' look like a harmless prank.

The modern day laptops currently available around the three to six hundred quid mark (I paid a mere £399.97 at the Tesco Superstore for that laptop 11 years ago) all have displays little better than the 15.4 Inch

1280 x 800 TFT Screen of that 11 year old laptop (typically with screen resolutions of 1366 by 768 which, although sporting an extra 25Kpxel over and above the 1024Kpxel of that ancient Acer, is actually an even less useful display format - progress *not*!).

I was looking at upgrading to a better laptop about 3 months ago but since I needed something guaranteed to work with a modern Linux distro, the choice went beyond merely picking out the best bang for my buck model from the likes of Argos and Tesco Superstore so the the upgrade 'project' got shoved onto the back burner. It looks like I'll have to google for the thread I started in the uk.comp.os.linux way back then to remind myself of the excellent advice and several recommendations I received in regard of trustworthy suppliers. :-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

This is being written on a toshiba C55-C laptop/linux Mint17 that I got from curry's for a couple of hundred.

Cheap shit but works.

[whisky-dave]

And that might give you a clue.

If the ship ran on batteries I might decide to gibe a samsung boat amiss and chgoose an iBoat.

That would be the safest option butt are you now saying that only one manufactuerer can make decnet working batteries ?

Which is, can do, is that a measure of what it can do, or a guesitmate of how many they hope it can do.

which you won't

or perhaps days.

That is a problem, which is why if you want to aviod such problems get the prodcuct from a relible source. If you want to risk ebay then go for it.

I'd prefer a bettery I could use rather than a cheaper battery I'd have to keep sending back, in fact I;d be willingot pay more for a bettery in a laptop than I wopuld for one being posted back and forth :-)

[whisky-dave]

Is there much point in having that sort of setup. Surely it would have been cheaper and better to have a desktop computer. If it never moves or is never removed from its power.

but it hasn't been used so I don't see the point.

I have old cardboard boxes in that state too.

[Davey]

Searching online for a replacement for my Samsung comes up with: LaptopsDirect.co.uk offering an OEM battery, at £82. For my use, that is a lot of money, which is not to say that it is also a lot for somebody who needs to use his PC in the field, as I did when I was working. But then, my employer always provided the laptop.

I have never had to buy a replacement battery before, so is LaptopsDirect a reputable company, if I decide to get a new battery?

If not, who should I try instead?

[whisky-dave]

me niether.

From looking they seem OK, you could try asking on a computer group see if anyones delt with them before. They 'look' ok having a phone number. If I were buying a battery I;'d consider them above someone on ebay with ne xt day despatch from china, even if they were half the price. I've never brought a laptop always a desktop to use in the home or even at work.

[Davey]

Yes, I'll ask in one of the computer NGs. I agree that China and battery technology would appear to be a dubious mix, hence my search for a good reputation supplier.

Thanks for thoughts.

[Bod]

Will there links help? :

Laptops Direct Reviews - 100% Real Reviews from Shoppers Who ...

? Home ? All Retailers Rating: 94% - ?3,134 votes Read Laptops Direct customer reviews, written only by people who bought at Laptops Direct online. No fake reviews. All reviews are unedited and published ...

Laptopsdirect Reviews | Customer Service Reviews of Laptopsdirect ...

? Categories ? Electronics Rating: 7.5/10 - ?1,702 reviews Do you agree with Laptopsdirect's TrustScore? Voice your opinion today and hear what 1702 customers have already said. |

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If they actually made one as compact as a laptop with the same size screen, yes. And one designed to be folded up flat and moved when not in use. In the same way as you might use a laptop on the kitchen table, etc, then move it when eating.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Really? Best to stick to an English make, then. ;-)

[whisky-dave]

Like a mac mini or even a raspberry pi.

Like an iPad you mean or other tablet device or like a notebook.

Wnhy would you want to move it while eating can't you put it on your lap. The clues in the name.

[Davey]

Yes, thanks. I had to work a lot harder to find the review on the revoo site than on the trustpilot site, maybe I can review revoo's website for them. So essentially, they look ok, and they say that they offer an OEM battery, which is an advantage (if true). Thanks for help.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You'd call them desktops? You obviously don't expect much from one.

And an iPad or notebook doesn't have a built in battery?

I'd guess you don't own a computer. Hence only posting from work. Otherwise you'd not post such s**te.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Just make sure wherever you buy it from has a decent returns policy and warranty. They're not going to have either if selling rubbish batteries.

[Bod]

[Theo]

LaptopsDirect is the same company as ServersDirect, AppliancesDirect, Direct. It's reasonably well known, based in Huddersfield.

However they're only as good as the manufacturer they choose to source their batteries from. They appear to sell several different makes - you should look up the one you want to buy.

Theo

[James Wilkinson Sword]

I buy batteries from Ebay and have very often got money back for them be= ing utterly s**te (as little as 20% rated capacity!). I always perform = a capacity test on a new battery (well not the alkaline ones!)

The other thing sellers lie about is the brightness of LED lights, espec= ially torches.

-- =

You can ship a 40 lb child UPS 2nd day air for around $60.00, but don't = forget the air holes.

[whisky-dave]

ng utterly s**te (as little as 20% rated capacity!).

So what;s the point in buying s**te battereis then waiting to get a refund and doing the whole process over and over again ? Why not learn from your own experiences and of course others.

Hoep yuo're not planning a trip on southern rail in the next few days.

ally torches.

orget the air holes.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

being utterly s**te (as little as 20% rated capacity!).

fund and doing the whole process over and over again ?

If I just want a battery for whatever, I don't really care if it's not a= mazing, I just get some money back or get them in trouble with Ebay and = delight in the seller realising he's selling s**te. I do buy decent one= s for something I want to last for ages, like a torch to go camping. On= ly Panasonic batteries are any good. Other makes (including decent bran= ds like Samsung) are only 80% of what they claim. Only Panasonic I've t= ested as 100% of what it says on the tin.

?

-- =

I can kind of understand why Muslims get so frustrated. I mean, how many more people are they going to have to murder before everyone understands that Islam is the religion of peace?

[Johnny B Good]

I'd bought it as a diagnostic aid for call out work, usually to sort out network connectivity issues. Rather than let it languish unused in between call outs, I decided it could act as a TV Recording Scheduling conflict resolver by plugging a DVB-T usb stick into one of the usb ports on the rear panel and running DTVR as my most basic of basic PVR software.

Running DVB-T recording software in a windows environment involved many compromises and limits (such as the need for one tuner per scheduled recording to resolve any scheduling conflicts and not being able to specify a globally set in and out padding whenever there was a string of back to back programmes to be recorded from a particular "TV channel").

The work-around in this case being to treat the whole period as one huge programme to be split into its seperate programmes *after* the whole recording had finally completed, sometimes a whole 5 to 7 hours later!

The point being that the laptop can (and did!) manage battery care rather better than I ever could. :-)

Unlike EoLed laptops, they do at least retain their one and only function (assuming they've been stored in a dry location) so may eventually prove their worth perhaps even decades later. If you have a big enough collection you can simply 'flat pack' them and tuck them away somewhere dry and out of sight. :-)