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Laptop batteries

622 views 23 replies 6 participants last post by  Retronerd 
#1 ·
ive read a frightening story online about laptop batteries exploding if they are too old and I have 2 vintage machines, one 19 years old and the other being around 14 years old and my most modern laptop being 5 years old running windows 8.1.

The one I most cautious about is my laptop which is 19 years old. (Fujitsu Siemens lifebook s6010) , It still runs off battery but I feel like I'm using a computer with a bomb inside. The laptop has never got hot whilst I used it but none the less, i don't think the previous user has ever changed the battery once since it can't last even an hour. The computer is not slow in any way either until I took out the battery and used it as a desktop pc which it gave me errors on start up and worked slow after that, I've not switched it on since... I'm wondered whether to put the battery back in and see if the problem happens after . I think I should buy a new battery and try it out in this laptop.

The other pc is a Dell Lattitude from 2004-2007 which is quite a clunky laptop. I got it refurbished last year where it originally ran windows vista and got XP put on it which runs like a charm. The battery life is decent, lasting around two hours on full charge, but then again, I'm conscious about the age of the battery. The laptop has got warm but it's got a good fan in it which quickly cools the system within a minute. I'll elaborate that this laptop runs very well and hasn't froze on me so far much, I use this laptop as normal with the battery in. Should I carry on with this battery as I have been doing?

The other laptop which is a Toshiba satellite which is five years old and it runs windows eight, it does get hot especially when I play sims three but the laptop manages and this doesn't happen often. We never changed the battery. The laptop is gettting a tad slow since I've not had virus protection on for a while , I've always use the laptop with the battery in which now the battery lasts about an hour and a half with the battery on full charge but It charges back up quickly. The fan work but isn't noticeable until I went into bios to check the battery health and when I went out of it to boot it into windows, the fan went crazy so I switched it off at the button and took out the battery. This computer freezes quite a bit. Is it time to replace this laptop battery as they are going quite cheap?
 
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#2 ·
Almost everything I can find relates to Lithium Ion batteries which are radically different than Nickel Metal Hydride or Nickel Cadmium batteries. As a note neither of the last two are even remotely as dangerous as the Lithium batteries.
Can you post a link to the article (story) you read? (Most of them are junk, these days.)
 
#7 ·
I never even gave that a thought about the batteries exploding from age. I have a 17" Toshiba Satellite from 2003 which still runs great. If I recall, I purchased a new battery from Toshiba in 2006, and it still charges and lasts for about 45 mins. to an hour, never gets hot, no issues ever. Not even sure how that is possible. It runs Windows XP. Same with my 17" Macbook Pro, also from early 2008. Now that battery was replaced once, and I did read about those batteries exploding, not from age though. That was a manufacturer defect. Thankfully, that never happened but it does get hot and the battery life is not good anymore, maybe an hour, if that. I'll take my Toshiba over a Mac any day. That Toshiba was built like a tank! For the most part, I use both laptops with their power plug, not on battery.
 
#8 ·
Laptop batteries are very unlikely to explode, what happens is they lose the ability to hold as much charge as they age. Any heat you feel is more likely to be caused by the cooling fan outlet becoming clogged with dust and hair etc.

If you don't need portability use the laptop(s) with the battery removed, which will actually prolong the battery's useful life.
 
#10 ·
In many modern devices (ecigs, phones, tablets, etc.), every fraction of a gram that can be shaved off of the final weight is precious to the manufacturer and some (not all) of the Lithium Ion batteries are encased in extremely thin plastic akin to the weight of a fold-top sandwich bag. A few years ago there was not an emphasis on preventing thermal runaway so, if that occurred, there was little or no barrier to the failing cell preventing it from melting it's way into adjacent cells and then we had a fire.
At this point, virtually none of the battery manufacturers want the liability so, as long as you stick with primary manufacturers (i.e. Fujitsu, Toshiba, HP, Dell, etc.), you're pretty safe.
 
#11 ·
I'll get getting a new Fujitsu battery
I have my doubts that you will be able to find a new Fujitsu battery for a 17 year old laptop.

I had to replace a battery in 2016 for an Acer netbook purchased in 2011 and could not get a new battery from Acer.
We have a Battery Warehouse in the area and he had nothing. He told me to look on the internet.

I had to put in the part number and found that a chain in the US called Batteries + Bulbs
https://www.batteriesplus.com/
would build one for me and guarantee it for a year.
Since I have a store not too far from me, I ordered it in the store and took my laptop for them to install it. I wanted to be sure it worked.
Actually the first one would not charge after 3 weeks. I took it back to the store, they tested the battery, found it was at fault and ordered a FREE replacement. The replacement had a 1 year guarantee and has been working fine for almost 2 years.

If you can purchase one locally, I'd encourage that because if you get it by mail and it doesn't work, it is a hassle returning it and finding another battery from a different seller.

Also, don't buy a used battery! You have no idea it what shape it is in.
 
#15 ·
I have my doubts that you will be able to find a new Fujitsu battery for a 17 year old laptop.

I had to replace a battery in 2016 for an Acer netbook purchased in 2011 and could not get a new battery from Acer.
We have a Battery Warehouse in the area and he had nothing. He told me to look on the internet.

I had to put in the part number and found that a chain in the US called Batteries + Bulbs
https://www.batteriesplus.com/
would build one for me and guarantee it for a year.
Since I have a store not too far from me, I ordered it in the store and took my laptop for them to install it. I wanted to be sure it worked.
Actually the first one would not charge after 3 weeks. I took it back to the store, they tested the battery, found it was at fault and ordered a FREE replacement. The replacement had a 1 year guarantee and has been working fine for almost 2 years.

If you can purchase one locally, I'd encourage that because if you get it by mail and it doesn't work, it is a hassle returning it and finding another battery from a different seller.

Also, don't buy a used battery! You have no idea it what shape it is in.
A company built a battery for your laptop? They're molded plastic for the specific model and include heavy metals. How would a third party company build a laptop battery on demand?
 
#12 ·
One I've been looking at on the internet says that it's brand new or original, you're right about not knowing the state of the possibly new battery.

One thing is that it's hard to find a Fujitsu Siemens laptop charger as they obviously havn't sold the laptop and manufactured the part for 2 decades now. I'll be lucky to find one but I'm still searching on eBay and various laptop battery sites for reasonable priced good quality batteries. You may never know as when I bought the laptop, they had a few vintage laptops going still but most of them didn't work to some degree, it would of otherwise been easier to get a PC and tower and the parts to build a new windows 98 pc from scratch but unfortunately I don't have the room for it until I move out of my parents place, at least I know I don't have to replace the battery which makes desktop pcs safer. (I want to build my own vintage pc one of these days) :)

But laptops take up less space...
 
#13 ·
I have to admit the batteries I've posted pictures of don't look that there is anything wrong with them at all, judging by the second article image I posted, I'm guessing the battery casing would of dismantled itself if the components inside had swollen.

I have to admit, I worry a bit more about things that may be trivial than the average person...
 
#22 ·
I put it inside the biscuit tin and left it in the place where there was the least flammable materials, but chances are we would hear a bang and get the f out and call the fire brigade! It's still not perfect, I couldn't get into the shed...

So I'm still a little worried but from what I've been hearing it's to be stored for a few weeks, I'm calling the dump nearby to see if I could dispose of it safely. I'm most likely able to dispose of it Friday. I'm just reminding myself that it's not a bomb and just a battery gone dead.

I had to basically place it with tools so nobody would question why the tin was there but they could still ask.
 
#23 ·
It's fine, I've took to a local shop which gets rid of old batteries, so the contacts were taped over and it's fine now.

They are proberly going to ask why it was their but I'll just say I was trying to get rid of a old battery and I needed to remind myself that it was there to get rid of.
 
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