T430 Battery cell replacement.

[Sined_121]

So I have an old t430 and a 9 cell battery which doesn't hold much charge anymore. I wanted to ask if the battery could be opened without destroying the plastic case in the process. If anyone has done something like this please give me some tips.

[atagunov]

Reportedly replacing the cells requires some care and effort. For one thing there is no space to do soldering - you can only do spot welding. Secondly the battery has got a full blown microcontroller - it's a computer of its own. And if the controller gets upset it just sets a flag in its EEPROM and switches off the MOSFET-s - the battery becomes dead. It can also intentionally blow a fuse. So you need to take care not to "upset" the controller (or else find a way to reset it which is its own kettle of fish). The way not to upset the controller is: first you connect a temp. cell in parallel to a pair of cells you plan to remove, so called "bridge" cell, then you remove the original cells, then you add new ones and then remove the "bridge" - the trick is that the controller never sees 0v on that pair of cells. Or else it gets upset. I've opened one battery so far myself, a T61 one. I don't think I'll be able to close it back neatly Also care needs to be taken never to connect together cells that are charged to significantly different voltages - or else you will get a rapid strong flow of current from one into the other - which is a fire hazard. I guess connecting them initially via a power resistor would be a wise idea.

All in all probably makes sense to splash out on a proper replacement. My KingSener from AliExpress for X230 hasn't been horrible - I will keep using it - though it did start to tank down after 30% - much to my upset. There's also GreenCell. The original batteries on my T520-s are still okay-ish, so maybe you can be lucky and find a good original possibly on ebay.

[Sined_121]

Thing is batteries are quite expensive for me and needing to only change a cell or two would have been a big saver. Thanks for the info tho.
Edit: Is it better to buy an original (probably used) or just a 3rd party brand like greencell?

[atagunov]

Edit: Is it better to buy an original (probably used) or just a 3rd party brand like greencell?

Good question to ask Unfortunately I don't know the answer. Some people are super-happy about their long-lasting original batteries. My own T520 9-cell batts are in a decent shape for their 8+ years of age - but then I normally run my machines plugged. The original batteries did come from different manufacturers, I understand some are regarded higher than others but the sellers typically don't know which one it is. For me the way to find out is to attach to a machine with Linux and TLP and run "sudo tlp-stat -b". There must be some way in Windows, but I have never yet seen a seller on ebay that would be telling this info. So there is an element of a gamble in buying an original.. You can ask what the remaining capacity is as reported by battery itself.. Again not sure how many sellers will answer.

On the other hand 3rd party batts seem like a gamble too. I was super-happy about KingSener and advising everybody to buy it until it started tanking at 30%. But then an old original batt I have did tank as well on a couple of occasions I haven't yet seen anything bad written about GreenCell - and they seem to have been on this market for longer than KingSener. What I will most definitely advise against is buying a no-name 3rd party, some £10 on ebay - I would have too little confidence that such battery has got enough of safety features implemented and the cells could well be reused cells. We have a guy from Greece on this forum who has been buying from some shops locally in Greece (over the internet still) and he says those shops offer a 1 year warranty on no-name 3rd party batts, so he was reasonably happy with them. I don't know. I'd choose from original from ebay/King Sener/GreenCell, that's my personal list of preferences now.

[Ignorant]

go toa tinkering electriciam,the cells they use are panasonic/chinese 18650 cells.The electrician will tell
you how many cells are to be replaced...
you will keep the electrical/battery replacement expert happy and save a packet.They warranty their service.
they l use the original circuit board inside the battery pack...

[cadillacmike68]

Thing is batteries are quite expensive for me and needing to only change a cell or two would have been a big saver. Thanks for the info tho.
Edit: Is it better to buy an original (probably used) or just a 3rd party brand like greencell?

That's not the way the manufacturers look at it. They don't you you messing around the inside of the batts and want you to buy complete new batts. It's better for their profit margins.

[Ignorant]

IN my village (mumbai/India) a lot of these cheaper batteries are actually just refurvished originals by replacement of dud cells by new panasonic cells.They use the original circuts. They work well .!