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New Battery Runs Out Too Quickly!

post #1 of 12
11/3/07 at 1:27am
Thread Starter 
My laptop battery was lasting only very briefly, so I bought a new battery, it is for a Compaq Presario 2100. The new battery is a generic made by Panasonic and looks identical to the original.

I charged the new battery per instructions, and then planned to let it run down to ~20% and recharge it a few times, again per the instructions.

Problem is that it ran down to 20% in only about 30 - 40 minutes.

So I am thinking there is something inherent in the computer that is causing this.

Could it be that my broadband wireless PC card (from my cell phone company) is causing such a drain on the battery? Or is it more likely some kind of flaw with my motherboard?

Any input will be appreciated, thanks!
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post #2 of 12
11/3/07 at 2:26am
whats your specs, and whats the capacity of the battery?
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post #3 of 12
11/3/07 at 2:29am
If it's a generic battery that you probably bought off ebay, it most likely has several dead cells. If there was a warranty, get it replaced (though shipping will be as much as the battery cost). Try a couple of discharge cycles and see if it improves.
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post #4 of 12
11/3/07 at 7:20am
You need to compare the Ampere/hour or mA/H figures on the two batteries, they could be physically alike and supply the same voltage.

But say your old battery is 800 mA/H and the new one is 200mA/H the new one can only supply 1/4 the current at the stated voltage.

Using an incorrect battery like this can cause overheating and lead to a fire take care.
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post #5 of 12
11/3/07 at 12:44pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks everyone for your input.

The specs on both batteries are identical, 14.8V, 4400mAH. There is no HP logo of course, but otherwise the labeling on the battery is almost identical, even down to the little green LED lights on the side that serve as a charge meter (I can't see those when the battery is inserted into my laptop unfortunately).

Yes you are correct I did buy it on ebay! The seller was A Plus Batteries and I figured they were OK because they have almost 6000 feedbacks with 100% positive rating.

I will try the discharging/recharging cycle a few times more as suggested.

Any thoughts on the PC broadband wireless card or some issue with the lappy itself? I just ask because this is identical behavior to the old battery.
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post #6 of 12
11/3/07 at 1:04pm
It's possible that this is normal power consumption when using wireless on battery.

I believe some laptops actually disable wireless when not on mains power so this may be why.
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post #7 of 12
11/3/07 at 1:55pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks, I just ran the battery down again, but this time I took out the PC Card for wireless broadband. I still had my ipod nano plugged in, and its screen was lit up the whole time.

I got about an hour out of it before the battery ran down from 96% to 25% this time. I will recharge and do it again.
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post #8 of 12
11/3/07 at 6:24pm
so it is improving then. do not place a lot of confidence in ebay batteries, despite ratings. most sellers charge less, ship fast, and get good impressions and ratings that way. the buyers do not test for weeks before they leave feedback. some shipments might be decent, many are not because they get them from bulk budget suppliers and there is no quality control. sometimes the cells are the ones that do not pass qc for the official batteries (since we know it is by panasonic or sanyo, etc), so are offloaded to the highest bidders. the point is, ebay brandless batteries are a cheap gamble.
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post #9 of 12
11/3/07 at 7:01pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks, this helps me understand better the situation with the quality of the battery.

I am going to continue to do the cycling a few times and will update you guys.

Quote:
Originally Posted by themessenger500 View Post
so it is improving then. do not place a lot of confidence in ebay batteries, despite ratings. most sellers charge less, ship fast, and get good impressions and ratings that way. the buyers do not test for weeks before they leave feedback. some shipments might be decent, many are not because they get them from bulk budget suppliers and there is no quality control. sometimes the cells are the ones that do not pass qc for the official batteries (since we know it is by panasonic or sanyo, etc), so are offloaded to the highest bidders. the point is, ebay brandless batteries are a cheap gamble.
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post #10 of 12
11/6/07 at 2:47pm
Remember, when your Ipod is connected to your notebook, it is charging - so all you're doing is taking energy out of your notebook battery and putting it into the one in the Nano, with some efficiency loss. Try running your laptop without the Nano connected and see if battery life improves. Even my little Sandisk Express mp3 player makes a difference in life on my notebook when it is connected.
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post #11 of 12
11/11/07 at 12:07am
you probably got one with a bad cell causing internal impedance..
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post #12 of 12
11/13/07 at 12:17pm
Here's another thought, and I encountered this yesterday. Check and see if your antivirus software is doing a scan while you are on battery. I had this happen and wondered why I had gotten down to 40% in just an hour. I then noticed my AV software had insisted on scanning the drive that evening. This caused the battery to drop like a stone with all of the extra cpu and HD load.
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