Info-Mac

Old laptops usually mean equally old batteries, which may be dead or on their last legs. John Hatchett points out one company that will rebuild your old notebook battery for less than the cost of a new one.

Full Low End Mac Article

Knight wrote:Old laptops usually mean equally old batteries, which may be dead or on their last legs. John Hatchett points out one company that will rebuild your old notebook battery for less than the cost of a new one.

Full Low End Mac Article

Mr. Hatchett, thanks for the article. I've eyed their site a couple of times to see about getting my PB 1400 and Libretto 50CT back mobile, and it's good to hear a positive experience. At least it doesn't sound like they're runnin' a scam!

One question, out of curiousity. Their site says...

There is a high possibility (over 95%) that your battery can be repaired & refilled to a new super-capacity battery even if it is completely dead.

NOTE: If your battery is completely dead, you may still send it to our facility for refill service. If we are unable to refill the battery, we will send you back your battery pack and credit you a full refund, including shipping. (Applicable to this battery model only.)
So, with nothing to lose, why not try our refill program today!!

Any idea why a dead battery would kill your chances of getting a rebuilt one? Seems like they're tossing all the old cells. That part always made me wonder.

In any event, thanks again, and glad to hear you're back up and mobile.

It could be the electronics in your battery pack are fried, in which case a rebuild would be futile.

Yep, I bugged them and that's the case. It's not an issue of the *cells* being dead, but some other part of the battery. The cells can, obviously enough, be deader than doornails. But if the circuitry's shot, they don't provide a replacement service; you'd have to find another battery to refurb.

Thanks!

Pismo, finally killed the third of my three original batteries last month by leaving the Pismo unplugged for a few weeks, and it's dead dead.

I bought one of the high capacity FastMac batteries, and got 18 cycles out of it in ten days of traveling, but now it's willing to "trickle" but not full rate "charge" (I left it overnight and it made it up to 30 percent charge in 10 hours).

Sigh. Replaced the PRAM battery (I had bought a spare not too long ago, figuring these coin cells ought to have a long shelf life). It seemed to help, but only trickle-charged up to 40 percent in another hour and a half.

I saved my old very dead battery.
Guess I'll try sending it to the cell-swapping service.

I realize I could do it myself, but these lithium-ion batteries are scary when aroused.

I have used batteryrefill.com several times--there are always problems and I have always had to send the battery back and forth with them several times, eating up months of time with no battery. I am not so sure they beat just buying a new battery any more because they take so much time to get things donbe right.