Laptop battery question

Early B.

I bought a Compaq nc8230 laptop a couple of years ago for my wife. The battery drains within minutes. It's been doing that since we bought it, but since my wife never transports the laptop and keeps it plugged in 100% of the time, it hasn't been a concern. I downloaded a battery bug fix for XP2, but it didn't fix the problem. The power meter always shows the battery charged at 100%, but as soon as I unplug the cord, the battery drains in a couple of minutes.

Before I fork out the cash to purchase another battery, is there a way to determine if the battery is the culprit or if there's another issue going on?

Thanks.

Knucklehead

99 % sure its your battery, i have an inspirion that did the exact samething, replaced the battery from http://www.batteriesplus.com/, solved the problem!:D

SKsolutions

In quite a few models, if the battery is in, it's being used to some degree. It may be just a trickle the whole time, but it will kill them over a year or two whether you use it or not.

brettw22

Batteries that go unused in laptops that are always plugged in do die. The only thing you can do is that cycle thing a few times, but if you're not getting more time out of it, then it's shot.

John30_30

What they said. Supposedly laptop batteries don't develop a memory either...supposedly. It's possible that battery was junk from the getgo.
There's all kinds of tricks saying drain it completely, do this, do that. Life expectancy is 4-5 years at best anyhow.
I wonder if there's a tester for laptop batteries?

mantis

John30_30 wrote: »

What they said. Supposedly laptop batteries don't develop a memory either...supposedly. It's possible that battery was junk from the getgo.
There's all kinds of tricks saying drain it completely, do this, do that. Life expectancy is 4-5 years at best anyhow.
I wonder if there's a tester for laptop batteries?

possible but I believe batteries have memory. If you fully charge a battery new and fully drain it, then fully charge it, it lasts a long time, if you charge it up new , then recharge it when it's down some, it doesn't seem to hold as long as charge.

I have had many laptops over the years and this is what I have learned. They say it doesn't matter but I have had mad battery problems just like this right from new when I didn't fully charge/Discharge then fully charge again.

Dan

Early B.

Thanks for the responses, fellas. This laptop is gonna be used for the new 2-channel system, so the battery life needs to last at least as long as the jam session.