Laptop batteries are made of lithium cell which is mostly made of smaller individual cells like your AAA Energizer batteries stacked together in a circuit. They last about 2 years and slowly degrade with shorter and shorter charge cycles.
You should replace your laptop battery when a full charge does not even last one and a half hours. For this discussion, we will not discuss how to replace the inner batteries (US18650BR) of the laptop battery but replacing the entire module which a layman can do DIY.
Replacing the inner batteries will require soldering skills to unsolder and reball the inner circuitry. If done improperly can cause a meltdown and exploding batteries. Therefore we would like you to refer to this page before trying that.
Batteries can be purchased from Aliexpress as long as you know your model number which is written on the consumer website for example dell. Just key in your model number and they will show the battery with sometimes a higher capacity version or a standard version. Select and allow them to post it to you.
Once the battery is posted to you and if still can’t figure out how to get it done. Please refer to this website for some tips on how you can do it easily. But basically, it should be a unlock and pop out the battery.
- Unplug the charger, turn over your laptop and locate the battery on the backside of the laptop.
- It may have two buttons like mine. There should be a rock, push it outside. Similarly, push the other button in the opposite direction and the battery will come out.
IF
Your battery life does not increase after a new battery change. You might want to bring it to have the motherboard checked. Sometimes certain parts have shorted in your laptop and can cause the entire set to be running inefficiently. Laptop fans which also have not been cleaned in a long time can cause your notebook to be hotter, running at a higher speed which consumes more power.
IF
You don’t want to spend money to change your battery, you can try these 2 tricks and hope it works.
The Freezing Method
This method has seen a little success but apparently, you can freeze your laptop’s battery to get the most juice out of it. You might have seen similar strategies in action movies & TV shows. If you want to replicate, here is the method –
Step 1: Remove your battery from the laptop and put it in a plastic bag or ziplock and seal it.
Step 2: Go ahead and put the bag into your freezer and leave it there for about 12 hours. People suggested you get more success with keeping it in the freezer for a little longer but If I were you, I won’t put for more than 24 hours.
Step 3: Once the time passes, take out your battery and remove the plastic bag. Now, let the battery warm up naturally to reach your room temperature, you can wrap around a towel and wipe any condensation to speed up the process.
Recalibrate Your Battery
In many cases, you get the false battery percentage data on your OS. It shows 100% charged when your laptop’s battery is only 85% charge or shows your battery will last for 35 minutes while it is actually going to last just 15 mins or 60 minutes. To resolve these issues, you need to recalibrate your battery. A lot of manufacturers have provided recalibration tools for specific laptop models. Just google with computer model + battery calibration and you will find the official tool available for your laptop. Here’s an example tool from Sony.
You can also manually recalibrate, the steps are simple and straight-forward, check below –
Step 1: Perform a full charge of your laptop. Let the battery percentage reach 100% or the maximum it can. Now, leave it on power for 2 hours.
Step 2: Now disconnect the power and let the battery drain. There seem to be two views about how to do this. You can either let the battery run down all the way until the laptop dies or you can set it so that it goes to sleep or hibernates around 3 to 5%. Either way, you want to make sure the display stays on until it either dies or goes to sleep.
Step 3: Keep the laptop turned off for another 3 to 5 hours.
Step 4: Now, turn the laptop on and charge it full 100%. This battery recharge cycle will hopefully resolve the calibration issues with your battery.
What to Do with Your Old Phone?
Before you sell your phone or recycle your phone by giving it away. This is what you will need to do to ensure your data does not get leaked and any personal data were stolen.
1. Factory Reset
Simply deleting your files and data from your mobile devices does not remove the information completely. You should perform a “factory reset” to remove all files and data from your mobile device and bring it back to the state when it was freshly produced from the factory.
Check out your mobile device’s manual to find out how you can perform a “factory reset” on your mobile devices.
2. Remove your External Storage Media
A number of mobile devices allow the storage of data on external storage media (e.g. SD cards, mini SDs or micro SDs) to provide more storage space. External storage media are usually used to store files such as photos, music, videos, and many other personal information. Never dispose your mobile devices together with the external storage media. If you are not reusing them, either perform a secure erasure on it or destroy it physically!
3. Physically Destroy Old SIM Cards
Performing “factory reset” on your mobile device does not remove information stored in your SIM card. If you are not reusing your SIM card from your old mobile device on your newly acquired gadget, destroy it physically by shredding it!
4. Dispose Your Mobile Devices Responsibly
You should dispose your mobile devices responsibly in an environmentally friendly way. Or if you don’t have any ideas you can recycle your phone with BFN. They are environmentally friendly and will sometimes give you a little more cash for some models. You may also consider other recycling options; you can find a list of collectors and traders for recyclables on the National Environmental Agency (NEA)’s website (http://www.nea.gov.sg/energy-waste/3rs/collectors-traders-and-local-recycling-facilities).
5. Trade-In your Mobile Devices
Most telecommunications companies like Singtel or Starhub allow you to “trade-in”, providing a discount on your next purchase.
