Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PCs Forum

Scott, do you think it would be a good idea for one to replace a laptop's lithium-ion battery after two or three years regardless of whether the battery is functional or not? Should one go by the battery's manufacture date?

No. One should go by the battery's performance. For example I just used the ThinkPad Power Manager to check my battery and here is the data it reports:



As you can see this battery is over 7 years old, has over 500 cycles and has only lost about 14% of it's total capacity. Why would you throw away a potentially good battery based on some arbitrary amount of time? I would only replace a battery when the current full charge capacity falls well below the design capacity. In this case I might end up replacing the computer before I change the battery. Scott.

Well, Scott, is there software comparable to the ThinkPad Power Manager that can be used on an HP EliteBook 2540p with a Windows 7 Professional installation?

I believe there is. Let me know what you find and how well it works. Scott.

Scott, check out this piece.

When was it written? It looks to be quite old and out of date. Let me know what software you end up using. Scott.

Scott, I've come across this piece, which was written less than a year ago. Which piece of laptop-battery-testing software recommended in the piece appears to be the most comparable to the ThinkPad Power Manager? Perhaps it is BatteryInfoView, but...

Let me know what software you like and end up using after you test them all. Scott.

Scott, do Li-poly batteries deteriorate in a manner similar to Li-ion batteries?

What does your research show? Scott.

Scott, I've purchased a lithium-ion battery for the aforementioned HP EliteBook 2540p laptop that's supposed to arrive today or tonight. The price for the new battery is $19.99. However, the laptop's current battery might be good at the present time. Do you think I should bother returning the new battery? I do realize, of course, that lithium-ion batteries have a limited lifespan.

The last 9-cell (extended) battery I purchased for my ThinkPad cost $100 from ServerSupply and that was $70 less than the standard Lenovo price even though it was a proper Lenovo branded battery. That was in 2011, I'm still using it today and it is currently performing at 92% of original capacity while having 528 charge cycles. I'm impressed.

Let me know what you decide to do with your battery and why. Scott.

Scott, this is the battery I purchased. It didn't arrive today, and Amazon has been apologetic. It will now arrive tomorrow or Thursday.

Scott, I received the new battery today. It has a smaller capacity than the old battery. The new battery is physically smaller than the old battery. The old battery, a genuine HP battery, is rated at 93Wh. The new battery, which is not a genuine HP battery, is rated at 5200mAh/58Wh. With the new battery, I would need to use a laptop cooling pad. Keep in mind that the HP EliteBook 2540p isn't used all that often. I tend to use it when at least one person is staying in my older sister's old bedroom, which is where my usual desktop PC is located. I am certainly worried about battery deterioration, and I'm worried that I might not use the new battery often enough to justify the $19.99 that I paid for it. Scott, do you think I should keep the new battery? According to BatteryInfoView, the new battery was manufactured this year (2018).

Let me know what you decide and why. Scott.

The T420 Battery. Scott I know you like to order the stuff from Lenovo website. I was wondering if I was to order a new Battery for my T420 thinkpad how can I tell if it is fake or the real deal.


The computer saying I should replace this battery soon.

Thanks.

once again I thanks for the help in having a different point of view on SSD.
and also with the new caddy and the hard drive it nice not having the cd/dvd drive keep popping out all the time lol......................
I been doing stuff the old school.

take care
hope you got a new book computer coming soon and video.

I never ordered a battery from Lenovo. Scott.

Where do you order a battery from for a T420 thinkpad then.?

You'll find the answer in what I posted above. Scott.

Scott, I decided to return the newly purchased Li-ion battery to Amazon. The old Li-ion battery is apparently still good. Also, I don't use the HP EliteBook 2540p laptop all that often. I have thought that maintaining the newly purchased battery would be too much hassle for me.

Scott, what if a laptop's battery indicator initially shows that the battery level is at 65% or so but later increases abruptly to 84% or so without actual charging?

Sounds like either an improperly designed or defective battery. Let me know what you find. Scott.

In hindsight, it was apparently a mistake to return that one battery to Amazon.

The real mistake was buying it in the first place... <g> Scott.

Actually, Scott, it's the old Li-ion battery that seems to be defective.

So the original and replacement batteries were defective? That sucks. I've had great luck with ThinkPad batteries, which is just one of the many reasons I only use ThinkPad laptops. Scott.

Actually, Scott, the replacement battery wasn't defective. I didn't get a full refund because I told Amazon that I didn't need the battery anymore. However, Amazon did refund me about 70 percent of what I paid for that battery.