is it safe to use generic battery with my t40?

[msafi]

i think it's time for me to replace my battery.

i'm really bad at caring for batteries. you could say i'm a battery abuser. for that reason, i don't wanna spend too much on something that i'm gonna abuse. i wanna buy a generic battery at 1/3 ibm's list price and use it 'til it's no longer functional, then dispose of it.

i'm only afraid that it would harm my system.

any advice on that?

i found 9-cell and 6-cell each for ~$60

[keku]

There is this retailer that will sell you 9 cell T40 series battery for 90 bucks + free shipping. IBM sells it for 160 around

I bought it from him ... it was sealed brand new.

[keku]

sorry forgot to put link

http://www.ptusainc.com/ProductInfo.asp ... 08K8197-08

[matrix]

sorry forgot to put link

http://www.ptusainc.com/ProductInfo.asp ... 08K8197-08

This battery is ok for my T41 2378xx4?
They ship in Italy?

Bye

[eric530]

maybe it sas new when you bought it, but the listing says refurbs

[Vindicated]

Buying refurbished might actually be a smart idea. I bet 95% of the time all that needs to be done to the batteries is for the lithium packs inside the cartrige to be replaced. If they can do that I bet the batteries would be as good as new.

[GomJabbar]

While I don't know about this particular vendor, I've read that one way they 'refurbish' IBM batteries is by disassembling dead IBM batteries and taking the good cells out and combining them with good cells from other dead IBM batteries to make a 'good' battery. Each laptop battery is composed of several identical lithium cells.

I read this a couple of years ago when I was looking for a battery to go in a 600E. Somebody had posted the question of why people on e-bay were buying and selling dead laptop batteries.

[Vindicated]

I thought about this some more and did a google search. I found this interesting artical that claims all refurbished batteries are a scam (link).

[msafi]

interesting, i hope one of the experts here can enlighten us

[anthony]

Not to worry... Generic batteries are fine. If it is the proper voltage, no harm can be done. IBM does not have a battery factory. Batteries of all brands all made by just a few companies and labeled with the brand names. They are manufactured to pretty standard industry specs. One difference is the capacity, or length of time it can go between charges. The 6 cell ones come 4400mAh and 4800mAh. I decided, it was OK to sacrifice 12% less operating time, since I'm only paying 1/3 the price. Some of the old bsatteries were only 3000 mAh. But you can use any mAh in your T40 as long as it is a 10.8v battery with the Tseries form. mAh is a measure of capacity, not power. The hi-capacity is usually 6600 mAh.

eBay is full of both generics and IBM branded for $45-$75. (Watch those shipping costs on eBay) Online stores usually drop 4400 mAh IBM brand them for about $70 and generics even cheaper.

I agree with msafi. Buy 'em cheap, use 'em and get rid of 'em (in an environmentally sound manner of course....).

[GomJabbar]

Interesting article Vindicated. After I read it, I decided to check and see if anyone was still selling dead laptop batteries. I found 2 vendors on e-bay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/BATTERIES-3-IBM-380 ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Latitude-Lapto ... dZViewItem

(For the first time, I tried to hand code the above links so that text would appear in the post instead of the entire URL. I see other users here who are able to do that. When I tried it, my " changed to " and it didn't work. Obviously I'm missing something here.)

[anthony]

Strange... You're probably just missing a slash or bracket or something.

To get ThinkPad.com user forum

Put this whole url inside square brackets "[ ]" in this format - url=http://forum.thinkpads.com/

Then add the text you want to show. e.g.,- ThinkPad.com user forum.

Then close the string with [/url] .

Note: it is the regular slash, all the slashes go the same direction. That is sometimes my problem. I also sometimes use "{" instead of "[". It doesn't like returns within the string, so let it wrap and don't hit return until after you close the string with [/url].

Those are my common mistakes. Give it another try. Good luck.

Apologies msafi. Not intending to hijack your thread....

[GomJabbar]

I got it now anthony. Thanks for the mini tutorial!

I was making it entirely too difficult. I was viewing the web page under 'page source'. There, I was seeing more codes, brackets, and such. I copied verbatim from someone elses post, only substituting the actual link and text I wanted displayed. Apparantly however, the software that runs this forum, changes what you type into html code. This code within a code wasn't working. One has to use the format that this forum's software recognizes, not straight html code. - At least this is how I am understanding it.

[msafi]

i bought one 9-cell. original.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %3AIT&rd=1

next time i will buy generic. since it's like $60.

thanks all,

[rockyp]

Do any of you try to determine the manufacture date of the battery before you buy it on eBay? I noticed one guy had a picture of the box of the 9-cell he was selling and the label clearly showed that it was manufactured in 12/2003. That seems a bit stale to me. It may be new and unopened, but having it sit on a shelf for a year or two... I have no idea what the shelf life of these things are.

[msafi]

Do any of you try to determine the manufacture date of the battery before you buy it on eBay? I noticed one guy had a picture of the box of the 9-cell he was selling and the label clearly showed that it was manufactured in 12/2003. That seems a bit stale to me. It may be new and unopened, but having it sit on a shelf for a year or two... I have no idea what the shelf life of these things are.

good point. i haven't checked into that. i will when it arrives.

[beerak]

Do any of you try to determine the manufacture date of the battery before you buy it on eBay? I noticed one guy had a picture of the box of the 9-cell he was selling and the label clearly showed that it was manufactured in 12/2003. That seems a bit stale to me. It may be new and unopened, but having it sit on a shelf for a year or two... I have no idea what the shelf life of these things are.

The life cycle of li-ion starts when manufactured ... immediately. Lithium is very aggresive and its lifetime is short, apx. 2-4 years used - or not used - no matter.

[anthony]

i bought one 9-cell. original.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %3AIT&rd=1

next time i will buy generic. since it's like $60.

thanks all,

Not a bad price when you consider the spare AC adapter. Congrats!

[msafi]

so i checked the manufacturing date of the battery. it was manufactured in july of this year. pretty recently

i fully charged the battery then i tested it. it indicated that it can give 7:40 hours without wifi, slow CPU, and screen brightness on level 4.

awesome. i don't think i'll be needing to lug my ac adapter to school this semester.