So it turns out it was a really common battery, they just don't list my model number as its not a popular model lol! £30 delivered for a genuine one, looks genuine as well, it's a damn good copy if not!
However..., still the same issue. I've tried the recommended 'battery calibration' (full drain, then charge and leave plugged in for 2.5 hours) but it doesn't seem to have helped.
The battery meter seems to have 'broken', shows like 50% and 2hrs left then suddenly drops to critical power and dies within minutes unless I can get it plugged in. Also claims to be fully charged within an hour which can't be enough, pretty sure it used to take closer to 2? Same with both batteries so must be something in the laptop software? It only lasts around an hour and a half doing 'light' work (facebook, forums, ebay, etc) which isn't really good enough. Any ideas?
I know this might seem like an obvious thing to look at..
but how are the power settings (fan speed, CPU voltage/clock, GPU use etc) on the system.. are you running in "performance" mode all the time? have you changed the battery saver setting to mean it isn't saving somewhere it should be?
also, did you upgrade to windows 10?
the battery life on my laptop improved significantly when I did.
I'd suggest to do an ATX reset before trying anything further as you can get some properly strange issues that are resolved by this. Just pull out the battery, unplug from the mains and then hold down the power button for a good 30 seconds, battery back in and plug back into the mains, boot it up and see what happens.
Tose, the battery life got worse upgrading to win10 for me lol. I've got screen brightness fairly low and there is some sort of energy saving programme built in, it's noticeably slower on battery power so I assume that's doing what it should.
Danny, will try that when I get home, would be nice if it's that simple lol.
Tried that ATX reset but it hasn't made a difference. Lasted just over an hour this morning then jumped from 40% down to critical battery and died. Was worth a try though!
I tried the battery health check though and it shows a weak battery on the new one? The old battery showed 'needs recalibration'. Not sure whether I should message the seller and ask for a replacement or if it's likely to be the laptop at fault, not that I can prove it either way I suppose!
My other thought was that the new battery is also a dud/has a f*cked cell but there's no way you'd know without removing them and testing which would invalidate any warranty you have. Could be worth seeing if the seller will replace
So, after a second email they replied. Wouldn't confirm they are genuine batteries, just said no-one else had complained and offered a refund rather than replacement... So I assume they're not genuine, but a good copy!
So I'll send it back and buy a genuine one, at £76. I guess that's not bad for 3 years of heavy daily use, is a lot more than I wanted to spend but I just can't trust any of the ebay 'genuine' ones now.
Well, sent it back and received a refund and an apologetic ebay message.
I have now purchased and actual genuine one, with a build date sticker of Feb 2016 which is a good start (original was Feb 2013). On full charge it shows around 5 hours, I haven't been able to test that yet but it's lasting significantly longer than both others and hasn't shut itself off at all so far. So this is something where you clearly do get what you pay for!
(20-05-2016, 12:48 PM)Toms306 Wrote: Well, sent it back and received a refund and an apologetic ebay message.
I have now purchased and actual genuine one, with a build date sticker of Feb 2016 which is a good start (original was Feb 2013). On full charge it shows around 5 hours, I haven't been able to test that yet but it's lasting significantly longer than both others and hasn't shut itself off at all so far. So this is something where you clearly do get what you pay for!
yeah it does seem that way with PC hardware tom, as a mate of mine said sometimes buying cheap you do end up having trouble. We found that out with a system that needed the ram upgrading from 64mb to 256mb.
the motherboard was the cheapest of the cheapest you could get and it only liked a certain type of ram voltage wise. which was a pain, as we had a load spare at the time.
I think I ended up buying the upgraded stuff from ebay second hand for peanuts.
we thought it might have either been an old windows 98/ME system that had been upgraded to windows XP.
Mind it ran no bother at all, and I have redone the installation a few times for him, until it was retired for a windows 8 laptop last year.