Saturday, October 29, 2011

Hows your laptop battery doing?

By Edward Prackle


Most modern laptops use li-ion batteries to give you long lasting performance and if you have a low powered netbook you can squeeze eight hours or more out of a single charge. However, laptop batteries degrade in quality over time, leaving you with a computer that does not retain its power for long enough when you are out and about.

In the past li-ion batteries have been less common than they are today and in earlier laptops both nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal-hydride batteries have been used. However, both of these technologies are less desirable than li-ion batteries because you cannot recharge them as many times and you are unable to get enough power out of them to handle the modern components found in contemporary laptops.

People who use relatively modern portable PCs will probably have li-ion batteries powering their daily activities. This means that if your battery begins to behave erratically or dumps its stored energy considerably quicker than in the past then a li-ion battery replacement will be necessary. A multitude of e-commerce site sell affordable laptop batteries, but learning a little more about the options is sensible before you start shopping.

Unlike AA batteries there is no guarantee of broad compatibility for laptop batteries. This is because manufacturers deliberately make their computers so that only specific types of li-ion batteries will be compatible. You cannot just pop in a store bought battery and hope for the best, as is the case with AA batteries. This means you need to do some research when buying a replacement.

The diverse shapes, sizes, capacities and power outputs of lithium-ion batteries means that careful examination of the instruction manual that came with your laptop is necessary. If you no longer have this document to hand then the manufacturer will almost certainly have support pages on its official website for further details to be found.

One sure fire way to find the right replacement battery is to examine the current cell attached to your laptop and find any product or serial numbers it may possess, along with details about the capacity and output of the battery and the model of the laptop with which it was sold. Use an internet search engine to check for availability of replacements and, if you are having real problems, consult help forums where solutions will almost certainly reside.

The good news is that once you have discovered the right laptop battery for you it is possible to shop around to get the best deal. There are manufacturer-approved replacements on the market, although you do not necessarily have to stick with these if there are reputable alternatives from mainstream companies that catch your eye. This is where laptop batteries are similar to AA batteries because there is plenty of competition and so you do not have to rely on one official replacement if you do not wish to do so.

Users who are sick and tired of their laptop batteries sucking up power from the plug and then providing pathetic performance when you are away from home should definitely splash out on a replacement. It is easy to detect when a battery is on its last legs and because the process of decline can be quite speedy it might be worthwhile getting a spare before your current cell has gasped its last as it is always useful to prepare for the worst case scenario. You would buy spare AA batteries so why not spare batteries for your laptop?




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