OEM IBM battery or Generic Replacement?

[ARD]

Hi.
I recently bought an A31 2652 and it only has one original IBM
battery.
I have been looking in Ebay for an extra battery for my A31,
and all I see are generic batteries.
Is it a good idea to get a generic or buy from IBM?
Thanks for your help.

[ElbertR]

Hi.
I recently bought an A31 2652 and it only has one original IBM
battery.
I have been looking in Ebay for an extra battery for my A31,
and all I see are generic batteries.
Is it a good idea to get a generic or buy from IBM?
Thanks for your help.

Be careful with those 'generic' batteries for the A31. Ordered one for my A31P and it didn't work. Also wasn't a perfect fit compared to the IBM original battery. Exchanged the generic battery for another one which also didn't work. Had a hard time getting my money back.

There are a lot of stories going around about fake batteries for cell phones and laptops that have poor quality cells in them that can catch on fire or even blow up. Warranty doesn't cover any damage caused by these fake batteries.

Every once in a while you can find original IBM batteries for sale on Ebay. Would stick with those. You can also get a battery for the (left) ultrabay. Make sure those batteries from Ebay are new (still in the box)! Many people dump their poorly working old batteries on Ebay.

[ARD]

Thank you for your reply, Elbert.
I will order a battery from IBM.

[danieldavid]

Hi ARD,

For the last month I've been using a generic replacement battery on my R31 (model 2656 77U with 384 MB Ram) bought for slightly under $70 from http://www.camera-battery.net . In my case, I could not justify the cost of an original IBM/Lenovo replacement part, nor wanted the risk of purchasing on eBay from dealers usually situated in Hong-Kong.

As far as I can tell, the new battery pack is just as good as the original IBM battery pack, and I haven't had any problems with it so far.

Whatever you decide, I strongly recommend setting your power management profile carefully. In my case, I've chosen a slow processor speed, my LCD will switch off and my HDD will go into standby mode after 3 minutes of inactivity. For my use there is no noticable drop in performance, however the battery will actually power my R31 for slightly over 3 hours, and it runs cooler and quieter - the cooling fan very rarely going into action.

When I'm working at my desk, I usually remove the battery and use the R31 with the AC power supply or charger thus avoiding unnecessary charge/discharge cycles and prolonging battery life.

Please keep us informed about your progress.

-Daniel

[ARD]

I purchased a battery from IBM/Lenovo and all is well.
Thanks for your tip.