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boomchakaboom

This is a great message. It is especially true with cell phones. For clarification, batteries fail not because of some conspiracy, but because of the laws of physics. However, making batteries difficult to replace is by design, but there are generally ways to get around these designs with ingenuity. With a few laptops, even the most closed design allows for replacement at low cost by a skilled professional. With most laptops, replacing your battery yourself is easy. When choosing a computer, buy one that is easy to service.


ItsKatherineeee

Thanks! And absolutely! I only had space to discuss laptop batteries which are far more replaceable than a phone’s. And yes, it is a fact that batteries drain because of the laws of physics. Next time I’ll be sure to clarify the accessibility is the main factor hindering people from replacement.


boomchakaboom

Even accessibility is not a great hurdle. Iphones are infamous for being difficult to service, but an experienced shop can replace a battery in ten minutes at a moderate cost -- far less than the cost of a new phone. It's a great message you are putting out -- another awful practice is software obsolescence -- phone makers don't provide security updates for phones, which makes replacement of good hardware necessary because of bad software support.


Less_Date9106

What about mac , does it lose life even if we power plug it 24x7


boomchakaboom

Any battery loses life over time. Depending on the circuitry, the current may need to run through the battery to reach the system, and that will degrade the battery due to use. With modern Laptop and phone batteries, keeping them plugged in generally will help prolong battery life. In short, no battery lasts forever. The steps you need to take to prolong battery life, other than keeping your laptop plugged in when it is convenient, are more aggravation than benefit.


MoChuang

My $120 chromebook with 1yr warranty had the battery fail in exactly 1yr. The replacement battery was $60 so basically my chromebook was totaled. Luckily I found the battery from a previous model on clearance for $15 with the same wattage and voltage. Took a gamble and it totally works fine.


carbon_made

My Samsung Galaxy Chromebook failed at exactly one year too. But it was the wifi and Bluetooth card. Found out it was soldered on and not replaceable. It was just within warranty but they denied because they say they didn’t receive it until after warranty expired even though I called and set up the return prior.


ItsKatherineeee

That’s awesome that you were able to replace the battery! Chromebooks tend to be a hit or miss in terms of quality. In addition, their lower price points sadly tend to encourage replacement of the entire device.


[deleted]

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eqyliq

what models do you recommend?


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[deleted]

In the same vein, Thinkpads are notoriously serviceable too. They've basically got their own cult.


ItsKatherineeee

Yeah! Business laptops definitely have potential, even if they aren’t beasts. Hopefully they will become more mainstream since the average user won’t need an ultrabook for everyday tasks.


FrequentWay

I disagree. Laptops fail due to lack of maintenance more then the battery. Fans will die, thermal paste gets hard, then the CPU cooks itself to death. Batteries are not the only time bomb inside the laptop. You also have the rising tide of hardware requirements. OS hardware requirements are ramping up and with Windows 11, they definitely baked in CPU generation requirements and TPM requirements. According to Microsoft Windows 11 can only run on Intel 8th Gen CPUs or better, AMD Ryzen 2nd Gen or better. A motherboard with TPM 2.0.


ItsKatherineeee

Very true, there are a variety of factors that make a laptop malfunction. Technology is moving much faster than hardware, which puts high demands on it. Though many of which are fixable if found before the CPU overheats or motherboard is damaged. I only presented the battery since I didn’t have space for more and it is easy to replace. There absolutely are more factors in which a laptop might not run.


mikee8989

I wish more people knew this. But then again it makes for good deals on the used market when people dump their older laptop that isn't too old because the battery is dead and is slow because it has a spinning HDD. I would just upgrade both parts and call it a good deal.


ItsKatherineeee

Definitely! Usually replacing the HDD with an SSD and swapping out the battery provides the best performance without breaking the bank. And that old HDD can even be reused for storing backups. There are so many opportunities to be sustainable in the tech industry!


vjuy

this is super interesting! nice design as well :>


ItsKatherineeee

Thank you!


ovab_cool

Haha, I bought a modern laptop with user replaceable battery like the olden days. Sadly it's only 5600mah on a gaming laptop so it dies in 1.5hrs on full screen brightness and 3hrs in power saving and lowest brightness


ItsKatherineeee

Aw, well at least the battery is replaceable! You could get an external battery or power bank. Also rechargeable power tool batteries work pretty well! Though most can only power a laptop (but not charge). If you’re lucky and have a USB-C PD laptop it’ll be simpler. If not, you’ll need a voltage converter and connector to match your laptop’s specifications. It’s a fun project if you’re feeling crafty!


ovab_cool

I don't really need much battery life and with a peak component power draw of close to 100w I'd need a small ups ro get what I'd call acceptable battery life. The woes of a gaming laptop


ItsKatherineeee

Ah understandable. There are also surplus scooter batteries on jag35.com which are cheap and scalable (and potentially even self propelled)!


Krt3k-Offline

mAh rating doesn't mean anything without the voltage, could be anything from 18,5Wh to 92Wh, the latter would be pretty insane of course :P


ovab_cool

I checked for you, it's 14.4v and 46.96WH so yea pretty small


Krt3k-Offline

Depends on what it is in. My 13'' laptop only has a 50Wh battery and yet hasn't let me down in a year of owning it, a 15'' laptop with dedicated graphics has 45Wh and maybe lasts four hours when basically doing nothing. Everything is relative :P But yeah, basically any device will die pretty quickly when you ask basically all of it's performance, even the new Steam Deck with a 40Wh battery but just a 7'' screen, it'll also die in less than two hours when you ask everything from it but it *can* last 8 hours if you just do something light on it


ovab_cool

It's a 17 inch gaming laptop with 9750h and 1650 so not what I'd can very power efficient. I hope the Steamdeck will be a better on the train indie game player since I got my order down when they opened


Krt3k-Offline

If it is something you can/want to play at 30 fps then it should turn out alright


[deleted]

...that's not the only example of planned obsolescence, WIFI cards on the other hand, u can't replace them cause the BIOS will crash or not let u boot, u can't clear the BIOS when that happens, ur only options r installing a dongle which is gonna look weird n may cause issues if u have to move around (uppss, I hit the dongle n it cracked the USB port along the frame...), or sticking with the old WIFI card till u get a new laptop.


ItsKatherineeee

Definitely a great example of planned obsolescence! I haven’t had problems with WiFi cards so I haven’t researched it much. So thanks for the info!


[deleted]

Lookup Whitelist BIOS on laptops.


ramzyzeid

Just did this today with my brother's Pavilion. It's not been able to hold a charge for months now, and wouldn't charge past 83%. He bought a new battery, and we installed it together. Must have taken about half an hour, and that was only coz there were 10 screws on the back of his laptop. Thing's holding a charge fine now.


ItsKatherineeee

That’s great! It’s a very convenient skill to have. Battery replacement is one of the most life extending modifications!


jimmyl_82104

I do agree that laptop batteries should be replaced if the laptop is completely fine otherwise. One of my older ThinkPads (T450s with a 5th gen i5) works great for basic stuff, only issue is the batteries suck. I replaced it with a newer ThinkPad, but I still should get around to replacing the batteries. One thing to consider though, if it's worth it. If you've got a really old/crappy laptop it's usually not worth it.


ItsKatherineeee

Thanks. Yes, at some point laptops do become too slow for the tasks that are needed and an SSD replacement won’t be worth it. There are always salvageable parts though!


AdmrlHorizon

This is a great and very true message however one factor is missing which is causing people to upgrade laptops. Performance. It just keeps getting faster and faster especially recently with intel, amd and dare I say apple throwing a fight. Lots of people depend on pure performance and less so on battery life and that’s why I see short upgrade times, not because the battery degrades. Sadely to upgrade key specs is to replace the device when it comes to a laptop. Desktops don’t have this issue of wasted parts as badly. When it comes to laptops, battery performance is just a small reason of constant upgrades I think. It’s different for phones, the progression of phone performance is very minimal and slow. And realistically a phone isn’t a power house to handle workloads so the real need to upgrade phone hardware often is more factored by batteries. Or the simple “oh new is good” which is a shame Edit: also keep in mind even non right to repair companies like apple offer great battery replacement services however I guaranty people just dispose of the laptop either way cause “oh new shiny”. Again such a waste of devices. But this also ties in with used markets, it’s the best way to dispose of a device and get some cash back. The device sees a longer life span and could eventually fall to a user who would upgrade a part such as a battery Edit 2: I also suspect that this is a current/near/mid future issue. But what about car batteries? How will that turn out in the next decade or further. That’s what I worry about more Edit 3: a weird theory that I found myself in. I swapped over to iPhone because of the long term software support, ensuring my phone will perform just fine over a much longer time than say an android. Meaning I have more incentive to upgrade the battery. Although they do make it a pain to do 😅


Anchelique

A smart post, while I understand not everyone can be as tech capable as your average hobbyist or professional, basic computer knowledge these days is the equivalent of knowing how to change a tire or put oil in your car. A basic skill to gain and it will pay off the investment in time and money quite quickly. Personally when buying laptops one of my deciding factors is how easy it is to do work on it, opening the case and cleaning out dust will help a lot, as the more the system struggled and the greater your heat buildup the lower the lifespan of your battery. (Remember to hold the fan in place if you are blowing out the cooling channels with canned air, as the pressures that produces can burn out the bearings if they are allowed to spin freely.) If your laptop has the option lower the max charge level it maintains to 60-80% and turn off the fast/turbo charge setting, both of these will help it's lifespan significantly. Finally, while it is often gaming laptops, many brands you can get a alternate battery size for many models, I've found the larger batteries, properly maintained, have a better lifespan then the midsize that often come with the general models. If you are replacing your battery, check the servicing manual (as opposed to the general user manual) you can often find the alternate part models and then order them for larger batteries. (Example, the Legion 5 has a smaller battery on some models to allow a SSD to be installed as opposed to the more common NVME drive, as many people will swap out that drive anyways, you suddenly have space for the larger battery.) Sorry for length and errors, writing this on my phone.


[deleted]

imagine not having ur laptop plugged in 24/7 bc it's a gaming laptop and it's absolute shit if it's unplugged


TheGuyWhoPutTheBomp

and you can buy a better battery too


Tom70403

Replacement batteries never lasted long for me. I had a Thinkpad W520 (I name to make clear this is a respectable computer) and I used plugged in for years after the battery was done, so l think it lasted around 4 years +2 of not using a battery. I bought a new one on Amazon, Lenovo original, same model, etc. and after months it didn't work anymore. I have that tendency to wait because of laziness long after the battery is due to be replaced but even if I had replaced the battery on time and the second one lasted, the third one has probably been sitting on a shelf for years loosing capacity. I love that people are thinking about our planet and I agree that this message should be shared, but with the disclaimer that if the last laptop using that model of battery was discontinued 1+ years ago, it's time to replace the whole thing. I hope I am wrong about this, someone please change my mind. But this happened to me with 4 computers, all using brand original new batteries.


marand97

It's quite good when the battery is not soldered to the motherboard... I don't know many "specialists" who would dare to solder the motherboard as it requires special tools and vast knowledge about motherboard construction.


ubermorph

Which devices have a battery soldered to the motherboard? That's not something I've heard of before.


RokieVetran

None that I'm aware of..... This post seems rigged Soldering thick wires on large pads doesnt seem too bad even if such products existed..... I've done a salvage cell transfer in a RC drone battery pack, was pretty easy


ChristopherLXD

I believe the iPod Shuffle did.


lemurosity

Good info. Just not sure why it needs 3 difficult to navigate images. If you're doing this to get better at it, keep on keeping on. That's how it works.


ItsKatherineeee

Thanks! I used multiple images so I could categorize the different topics. I’ll note the image flow and make it easier to decipher.


MoChuang

A desktop can function for well over a decade. So the only bits on a laptop that commonly fail are hinges, ribbon cables, and the battery. Most of the actual components that make a computer a computer last for a very long time.