Fight against laptop obesity

[cucubits]

I'm not even kidding 🙂 

 

My wife's laptop has been getting chonkier and chonkier lately. The touchpad used to be flush with the surface. Now when closing the lid there's about 2 cm gap in each side, it's so fat. 

 

Obviously it's the battery but I'm mostly wondering if there's a chance I could find one and replace it myself. It's an HP Spectre X360 from quite a few years ago. 

 

Is this a more widespread issue? On my previous work laptop, I noticed this as well after about 3 years of use. It was a Thinkpad T460s if I recall right. 

 

Neither of us have been abusing the battery, the laptops mostly lived their lives plugged in.

 

 

 

[Etern4l]

I had this on my Alienware m15 out of warranty. Contacted Dell and got a new battery delivered within a day or two for like £50, don't remember exactly.

[cucubits]

7 hours ago, Etern4l said:

I had this on my Alienware m15 out of warranty. Contacted Dell and got a new battery delivered within a day or two for like £50, don't remember exactly.

 

I'll try to contact HP. Would be a perfect time for some other upgrades too, she has quite a small ssd in there and could do with some more ram.

[hfm]

12 hours ago, cucubits said:

 

I'll try to contact HP. Would be a perfect time for some other upgrades too, she has quite a small ssd in there and could do with some more ram.

 

Definitely replace it, I've seen them ignite. It will probably just keep expanding and eventually damage it. Should probably remove it and dispose of it safely at a recycle location.

[kojack]

On 5/26/2023 at 1:58 PM, cucubits said:

 

I'll try to contact HP. Would be a perfect time for some other upgrades too, she has quite a small ssd in there and could do with some more ram.

Any update on your battery situation? 

[TreeTopsRanch]

This happened...

 

[cucubits]

lol, no no, all good.

Completely forgot about posting an update here. I ended up buying a new pack from amazon. I couldn't find anything useful on HP website and I really did not want to deal with their customer support considering the laptop is way out of warranty anyway.

 

All went well, I opened it up and replaced the swollen pack. Works like new, the case is not warped anymore, the touchpad is flush and working. We'll see how long this one lasts.

 

[kojack]

I replaced the battery in my dell as well. Not because the old one was damaged or not working, but I found out there was a bigger battery available to fit inside. It was an option that I did not know about.  So, instead of 8 hrs I now get 10-11 hrs. It's awesome that you got your system all fixed up. 

[ryan]

I was trying to find a laptop that actually gets 10hours of say moderate usage but to no avail.

 

I have a lenovo ideapad 1 with a athlon 3050u processor and I dont think anything  has a more efficient non arm processor atm. I get 7 hours and its ok. but  It would be niceto get 10hours sot, one laptop that might have a good display and battery life possibly my next purchase to replace my ideapad will be the refurbished galaxybook2 pro with the amoled display and 15hours light usage.

 

@kojackyou say you get 10-11hours? is that usage like watching a video and surfing ecetera or off and on usage?

[Vasudev]

On 10/16/2023 at 7:15 PM, ryan said:

I was trying to find a laptop that actually gets 10hours of say moderate usage but to no avail.

 

I have a lenovo ideapad 1 with a athlon 3050u processor and I dont think anything  has a more efficient non arm processor atm. I get 7 hours and its ok. but  It would be niceto get 10hours sot, one laptop that might have a good display and battery life possibly my next purchase to replace my ideapad will be the refurbished galaxybook2 pro with the amoled display and 15hours light usage.

 

@kojackyou say you get 10-11hours? is that usage like watching a video and surfing ecetera or off and on usage?

 

Unless you have an IPS panel that says Low Power the battery life should be good. 7hrs is good on 30-40Wh battery. Have you tried power saver or best power efficiency in Windows 10/11 for power slider.

[John Ratsey]

On 5/26/2023 at 6:44 AM, cucubits said:

Neither of us have been abusing the battery, the laptops mostly lived their lives plugged in. 

I would add that if the computer's power management offers a mode to limit the maximum charge level to less than 100% then use it to reduce battery wear. 80% is a good compromise.

[cucubits]

On 11/24/2023 at 7:27 AM, John Ratsey said:

I would add that if the computer's power management offers a mode to limit the maximum charge level to less than 100% then use it to reduce battery wear. 80% is a good compromise.

 

That's a great idea. There's really no reason to keep the batteries always topped to 100%. I'll see if I can set that.

[ryan]

broke down and bought a vivobook oled and now I have 4 laptops and still thinking about buying a galaxybook2 pro its a steal at 900 new. Im getting 5-6 hours normal usage and I think gunning to for 10 isnt a realistic goal. physics will play a role in longevity I think their is a limit on what a certain system is able to do I don't see this changing until graphene batteries become a thing.