laptop battery replacement

[snowyskiesau]

The battery in my Thinkpad R50P is, like me, starting to show it's age.

It takes longer to charge and the charge isn't lasting as long - about 2.5 hours tops.
It's an old laptop, still with pretty decent specs, but not worth spending $250 for a genuine IBM battery.

Does anyone have experience with after market, none genuine batteries in a laptop?
At the price some of them sell for ($25 is lowest so far) I'm not expecting miracles but any extension on usable time will be welcome.

[BlackWidow]

My advice would be to find a Batt Re-Packer. In Adelaide we have Andy the Battery Bloke.. You will be able to get better quality cells fitted into your battery. Some of the lower cost items have poor or low spec cells.. Still it all depends on price really.. If they are cheap enough you could get a few. However thier is nothing worse than having to shut down during an image event to change a battery... Have a look in your local yellow pages..


Seeing Stars
Mardy

[snowyskiesau]

I'd considered repacking but it's a sealed case so wasn't sure if it was possible.

I doubt I'll be in situation where having the battery go flat is a major issue. It just that I'm taking a trip and wont always be near power.

[erick]

Ebay is your friend. Lots of third party products available. I've bought replacement batteries from australian-based suppliers for two different IBM laptops and they have worked well enough. I think for around half the price of the genuine IBM product. Buy a couple?

If you have a big battery or two to power your rig, a DC-DC convertor to change the battery's 12V into what your laptop requires isn't too expensive from Jaycar, eg:-

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MP3463&keywords=dc+dc+power&form=KEYWORD

On special at Jaycar for $30 now. I use this one.

[snowyskiesau]

Ordered a couple of eBay cheapies, plus a power supply that will run off 12V (laptop supply is 16V).
The batteries have a 3 year warranty but I doubt it would be economical to take the supplier up on that seeing you have to pay all the freight charges. Not at $40 a battery :)

eBay has been getting a hammering from me this week :lol: