Saturday, October 29, 2011

Hows your laptop battery doing?

By Edward Prackle


Most modern laptops use li-ion batteries to give you long lasting performance and if you have a low powered netbook you can squeeze eight hours or more out of a single charge. However, laptop batteries degrade in quality over time, leaving you with a computer that does not retain its power for long enough when you are out and about.

Li-ion batteries have not always ruled the roost in the world of laptops. Users were lumbered with Ni-Ca and then Ni-Mh cells which were far less efficient and far more prone to problems than modern alternatives. Li-ion batteries benefit from being able to take charge at the mains many more times and output greater amounts of power to keep the hardware whirring within today's laptops.

The prevalence of li-ion batteries means that almost any device manufactured in the past half-decade will use this technology. As a result when the time comes to replace laptop batteries you will not be hard pressed to find options that will help revive an ailing computer. Online retailers stock wide selections of laptop batteries, but before you take the plunge and buy a new one here are a few things you should know.

The first is that while AA batteries you put in things like remote controls for the TV and portable game systems can be swapped between different devices while remaining compatible thanks to a universal form factor; the same is not true of laptop batteries. You must treat each laptop battery as an individual device as, unlike AA batteries, there is no generic shape or size. This means you have to search carefully when shopping for a replacement.

Because li-ion batteries can be created in a number of different shapes and sizes as well as to a number of different power specifications, you will need to consult your laptop's handbook carefully or, failing that, head online to the manufacturer's website to get the low-down on which battery you need to buy.

Look carefully at the laptop battery itself to reveal the number or product name which will help you identify a compatible replacement if all else fails. A quick internet search will almost always point you in the right direction as other users will undoubtedly have encountered similar problems.

Finding laptop batteries is actually much easier than it sounds and there is little risk involve if you do enough research. The market is competitive enough to mean that you do not just have to buy officially sanctioned replacement li-ion batteries if this does not suit you. It also necessitates affordable pricing because of the number of retailers supplying replacement units, just like you would expect when buying AA batteries for your portable music device.

Users who are sick and tired of their laptop batteries sucking up power from the plug and then providing pathetic performance when you are away from home should definitely splash out on a replacement. It is easy to detect when a battery is on its last legs and because the process of decline can be quite speedy it might be worthwhile getting a spare before your current cell has gasped its last as it is always useful to prepare for the worst case scenario. You would buy spare AA batteries so why not spare batteries for your laptop?




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