Dissecting a Laptop Battery
 

Well, my good 5+ year old laptop is getting nearly 20 minutes of battery life.

Popped out the battery (PCGA-BP2NY 14.8V / 4000mAh Li-Ion), and appears to be just 4 Li-Ion cells (14.8V by 4 cells = 3.7V).

I'm positive it would just be as simple as popping the battery casing open (safely), and replacing 4 little batteries.

Problem is, I don't wanna die.. just yet.

Has anyone opened up a laptop battery before? And pictures of the insides and what I might be expecting?

Or any suggestions on what I should do? Pretty sure the cells in this puppy are dead!

you can buy the individual cells from all-battery.com or some other place and you can just cut out the old cells and solder the new ones in. it's not as hard as you would think. i'm going to be doing the same thing with my laptop battery soon.

Exactly what I was thinking, just kinda scared considering this IS the only battery we have...
You going to do some documentation when you rebuild yours?

I'm sure the cells inside are 18650's.

18mm in diameter X 65mm long.

Hmm, yay.
18650's are fairly cheap, got a 6600mAh 3cell pack for $20!

Be careful.

You will need 8 matched cells I'm sure.

Back then, the highest capacity cells were 2000mah each.

I'm sure you are dealing with a 4S2P setup.

So that's what, 8 cells?

Just ran the part number.

It's a Sony Laptop right?

You can get a NEW Laptop Battery for it, for $30 shipping on Ebay.

Would be much easier. :yes:

The new Ebay ones are 4400mah.

4400mah = longer runtime. :yes:

Yup, Sony VAIO PCG-K33.
Hmmm..
I don't know how long we're keeping this laptop.
I may have to crack for a new battery..

4400.. / 4000.
More runtime by 400mAh!
:lol:

Hmmm............

Processor Type: Intel Pentium 4 Type: Laptop/Notebook
Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz Screen Size: 15.4 inches
Processor Configuration: Single Core Operating System: Windows XP Home
Memory (RAM): 512 MB Primary Drive: CD-RW/DVD Combo
Hard Drive Capacity: 60 GB


Not too shabby.

I would spring for the $30 battery if I were you. :yes:

Not too shabby?
This thing is super slow!
:lol:

Took it to the library, to write up some word documents, take notes, and the such.
Froze up about 2-3 times.
Given, it has been through a lot..
Thinking about putting xubuntu on it.

I'll think it over!

When was the last time you ran Defrag?

Best way to speed it up is:..........

Go to Add/Remove Programs and remove all the games and junk that you haven't used in the past year.

Then run Defrag.........this will take hours if it's really messy.

Then install more RAM. The little laptop is doing alot with just a little RAM.

Cleaned it out about a year ago or so.
It's been stowed away in the bag sitting next to me.
Never really used it for much.
I still need to fix the partitions.
I don't really want to wipe (format) and start over again, as my dad said finding the drivers were a real SOB.

Since that today I realized it was a pig, I'm gonna start running my stuff all over it.
Gotta fix this sucker up!

I see a few of these going for 150+ on fleabay.
Perhaps I should wipe it, and just sell it (well, boot n nuke this thing first), and just pick up a newer laptop.

But I don't think my parents would be willing to do that, working towards my MBook Pro for college! 3 more years...

That's actually a good laptop for road trips, running Castle Link, etc. My laptop is not much better except it does have 1GB of RAM. It's my workbench PC, so it has CLink, Eagletree software, etc. And I take it with me if I happen to be on the road. I certainly won't be encoding movies, or playing games, but it works well for what I use it for. You could sell it, but I still think putting a couple bucks in some more RAM would be better than selling it. And maybe BatteryJunction would be a good place to get some raw cells (and they usually have the protection circuit on them).

Hmm.
It really is quite hefty.
A good ~15lbs it feels like.
Hard to stash in my backpack for note sessions.

Though, I may have to see if more RAM will help improve the speed.
I'm gonna be doing said scans tonight, defrags, clean everything up.

My dad had also partitioned the 60GB into two partitions, I know with Vista/7, it has the ability to combine two together, C being the OS, and D being misc. programs that are replaceable.

Anyway to do so without having to reformat entirely?
Driver searching is no fun.

It's been a looong time since I've needed/wanted to partition a drive. I find it better to just use directories for organization - after all, what benefit does partitioning provide?

Anyway, I remember using Partition Magic, and it worked well IIRC. There's always a risk, so back important stuff up if you can.

And drivers shouldn't be too hard. Just go to the laptop's site and search for them...

Yeah..
I'm thinking this may be my last summer project before school starts (A week left =/, screw changing our old schedule).

If I find all the right drivers before hand, may just save em and re-do everything!
I gave it a thought about putting W7 on this...but I think that just may be overkill, and be even slower.

As far as backing up, it's a temp computer, so nothing important is ever stored on this..

I recently did a pc with a very basic copy of xp. 1 gig hard drive, so I just did the OS, no programs or anything. Runs like a champ, much faster on the internet than anything else I have... I did this a few years back with win98, man did that sucker run fast on the internet...

I am not a pc nerd though, so what do I know?? I did stay at a holiday inn last night, so keep that in mind.

Yep.
I think I'm gonna go ahead, find the drivers, then reinstall.

---

It appears that this machine reaches 74°C.. This is usually where it slows down, looks like the heat is bogging something down...

Probably just a weak/dead fan...

Grrr.
I do not want to open this cinderblock up to replace a fan..

Just get a screwdrive and get after it. 70c is pretty damn hot...

Finished reinstalling, got all the drivers except "Mass Storage Controller".
Will be checking that out a little later, but I have a weird scenario.

Good ol' function keys, function scroll lock, works, break, and pause, but not volume control nor brightness control, ideas?

Can you find me a battery for a HP 6715b? BatteryMon reports the current one as 1730mAh and I've seen 6000+ on ebay(with my model in it)

Is it a hit and miss situation with chinese versions?

Pop the battery out, and find the model number for the battery, then froogle it (Google's Shopping).