Stationary computers, which were incredibly widespread at one time, are gradually beginning to recede into the background more and more, and modern people are increasingly using specialized portable devices such as netbooks and laptops. However, given the constant movement and conditions of use of such equipment, various components are often broken in it, and in particular, it is necessary to repair the laptop battery with your own hands.
When should it be repaired?
The main advantage of laptops is that they are mobile, but this advantage disappears completely if for some reason the battery has completely exhausted its resource. Once a mobile device ultimately turns into an ordinary desktop computer, which has much lower characteristics compared to those parameters that a PC with a similar price has. Attempts to find a completely new battery in the majority of cases result in the fact that either such devices are no longer available at all, or their price is approximately 25-30% of the total cost of the device. Hand-made buying is also not the best option, because the battery you bought could already greatly develop your own resource.
For this reason, a much better option is to repair the laptop battery with your own hands, because it is not only economical, but also a fairly quick solution.
How to prevent possible malfunctions?
Today, it is very, very common to use specialized nickel-metal hydride batteries, as well as lithium-ion devices, while the latter are most often installed in modern laptops due to the fact that they are more capacious, and they also lack the so-called “effect” memory. " But this option also has its drawbacks, and in particular it relates to vulnerability to high temperatures, deep discharge or too much charging current. At the same time, the capacity decreases significantly over time, and it’s almost impossible to try to sway such a battery to its previous parameters, even if you thoroughly understand how to repair your laptop battery with your own hands.
What does the manufacturer take into account?
To ensure the long-term operation of the battery, a specialized microcontroller is used that carefully monitors voltage, temperature data, eliminates the possibility of overcharging or severe discharge. Such microcontrollers use in their work many special algorithms that ensure the long-term operation of various batteries. For example, often these options are supported by Energy Star laptops, which maintain the battery charge at the level of 70-85%, not allowing to reach the limit value, and also completely turn off the device after it is discharged to the level of 5-9%. That is why the owners of such devices are much less likely to need the information needed to repair their laptop batteries with their own hands.
What should the user consider?
Users should pay attention to the fact that in the process of working with various multimedia applications or demanding games, modern laptops begin to emit a sufficiently large amount of heat, which negatively affects the battery life. In other words, if you will actively develop the resource of your computer, then in this case you may need to repair the laptop battery yourself before. HP, for example, produces gaming laptops that have specialized means of protection against such consequences, but in reality they are not able to provide the desired result.
The best thing you can do for your own battery using a laptop in standard PC mode is to completely disconnect it and reconnect it only if you really need it. In this case, you do not have to often repair the laptop battery yourself. Sony, for example, uses specialized batteries in its laptops, which, if they are disconnected from the device, can last especially long.
How to store it?
The self-discharge of such a battery is approximately 4-6% every month, but you can reduce this indicator if you store the battery in a temperature range from +5 to +8 ° C, and at the same time provide protection from light, as well as all other heat sources. Thus, you can significantly increase the durability of your battery, as a result of which it can work for you up to 10 years without the need to regularly repair your laptop battery with your own hands. Toshiba released a number of laptops at one time, in which batteries even crossed that threshold.
How to carry out repairs?
First of all, you need to completely discharge your battery, that is, turn off the power and wait until it is completely discharged. Now you can disconnect the battery and begin to disassemble it.
At first glance it may seem that this is a monolithic piece of plastic, but in reality this is far from the case. There are a lot of fastening screws that need to be unscrewed and then gently knock on the device with a hammer at the seam. It is worth noting that the hammer should be wrapped in a soft cloth, because otherwise you can split the case, and in this case you can hardly expect that this DIY laptop battery repair will benefit. Acer often produce laptops with batteries that have a weak body, so this is very important to consider. You can help yourself with a thin screwdriver or a knife blade. The main thing is to do everything very carefully so as not to damage the electrochemical elements or directly to the controller board itself.
Testing
Now you will need a multitester, with which you can easily find the element that has broken. This is done by standard measurement of the voltage of all components of the battery, since a strong dip in it clearly indicates a malfunction of the cell. Of course, you will immediately have the desire to replace only this element, but in reality this is also far from the most optimal solution. With such a replacement, you will need to extremely carefully calibrate the charge controller, which is almost impossible to do if you repair your laptop battery with your own hands at home. Asus is particularly distinguished by this feature, so the entire set of elements must be replaced immediately.
Batteries today can be bought in almost any store that sells various computer components. You can also order all of these items online.
Useful Tips
There are several important things to consider when buying accessories in specialized stores:
- All elements must have the same capacity and type, which must completely match the original elements in the disassembled battery. Ideally, you need to buy items from the same batch to increase the chance that they will have the same internal characteristics.
- Components should be distinguished by extremely close internal resistance. Checking this is quite simple - you need to charge each of the elements to a voltage of 3.8, and then do the following procedure with each individual element: connect a load whose resistance is 4 Ohms and the power dissipation is 10 watts, and then measure the voltage. The voltage drop should ultimately be the same for each individual element.
- All installed elements must have the same voltage. Few people know that the vast majority of components are sold half charged, since deep discharge is fatal for them, but components can only be installed in a battery if they have been previously discharged to 3.1V.
If you immediately install the elements directly from the store, there is a possibility that the controller will consider them to be malfunctioning, as a result of which they either completely refuse to charge them or charge them incorrectly, which can ultimately provoke overheating or even explosion of the battery.
Finishing work
After you replace all the batteries, you will need to thoroughly solder the contacts, as well as the final assembly of the battery in its previous state. The battery must be charged, and you must independently control this process and do it very carefully. In the event that the battery temperature starts to rise too much, and at the same time you begin to hear a crack that is not typical for the normal operation of the device, you should immediately turn off the external power and remove the battery from the computer.
After carrying out such manipulations, you will need to measure the operating time of the laptop before it is completely discharged. In this case, you will need to understand how quickly the device discharges during operation, and if this time has increased from several minutes to several hours, you can congratulate yourself, because you have successfully repaired the laptop battery with your own hands. Samsung and some manufacturers often provide users with detailed instructions on how to carry out such procedures with their own hands, but in any case they recommend contacting specialists.