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Battery Price
Ive got an inspiron 1720 in good condition and working well... Until recently when the battery has just packed in and stopped working. So after 20mins of no phone contact I came onto this site and used the talk online feature. So the person helped me and pointed me in the direction of the battery i could buy to replace my broken one, this would cost me a shocking £116.......
Yes, thats £116, for a battery.... i know right, so if i bought 3 of these batteries it would be the same payment as for a nice new spec Tosiba! now im not saying this to get to Dell on a personal level but im quite serious about that. The problem is that i would be throwing out a perfectly decent laptop just because it isnt battery powered. Im appalled that Dell are asking me for a further £116 after already paying them for a laptop in the first place, im a customer and i want some customer service! Fair enough if I had dropped it and broke the system as a whole, then id expect to be charged for a new system.... But £116 just for a battery!?
My thoughts on this is that obviously once the Dell company has you buy a laptop from them, your a customer good for milking money off.
Anyone else had hideously high prices for such a minor problem?
ejn63
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March 24th, 2010 10:00
The Toshiba battery prices will be similar.
ejn63
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March 24th, 2010 11:00
My point is that if you buy a new notebook from Toshiba, you'll be faced with the same battery expense - they're all in the same price range. Lithium ion technology is all under patent and royalties are charged for each cell produced. There are no doubt cheap cells produced by no-names in China -- but name-brand battery packs don't use them, so they will always be expensive.
Some manufacturers now design systems so that you can't even change the battery yourself - you have to pay a labor charge on top of the cost of the battery pack (Apple does this - they charge about $100US for a small iPhone or iPad battery, or signficantly more for a notebook battery.
AMBurnsy
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March 24th, 2010 11:00
yea I fully understand what you mean, i have no doubts that other brand names will charge huge aswell for parts. But i think you'd agree that buying a fully working new laptop at £300 is better value then buying just a battery at £116 wouldnt u agree?
AMBurnsy
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March 24th, 2010 11:00
Oh no I dont mean just buy a Toshiba battery, I meant that a whole new machine might aswell be bought instead of spending a ridiculous amount like that on just the battery
Mary G
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March 24th, 2010 13:00
You probably know this--you can remove the dead battery and use just the adapter which is useful if you can use it as a desktop replacement and don't need the mobility of a laptop. I agree that batteries are expensive considering laptops are selling for less than $500 now.
enigma-2
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March 24th, 2010 16:00
Amazon (US) sells a 100% OEM compatible battery (Capacity: 6600 mAh) for $40.36 (about £ 27). This site does ship to Europe, but I would imagine that Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Laptop-Notebook-Battery-Inspiron-Vostro/dp/B001QWTQ7O
DinoDirect (UK dealer) sells a 7200mAh compatible battery for £ 50.75 (VAT not included).
http://www.dinodirect.com/Replacement-11-1V-7200mAh-Laptop-Battery-for-DELL-Inspiron-1520-1720-Black/AFFID-44.html?cur=GBP
Amazon.co.uk sells a 4600mAh compatible battery for £ 38.99.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001FWP4TO/ref=asc_df_B001FWP4TO600614/?tag=ciaouk-ce-mp-21&creative=7966&creativeASIN=B001FWP4TO&linkCode=asn
Pays to shop around.
Coldquasar
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March 24th, 2010 16:00
Are you certain the battery is dead? I always cycle them five times before I give up on a laptop battery. lithium batteries do not have memory chips like the older batteries did but they do generate a memory effect, especially when the charge is repeatedly taken down only 10 to 30%.
I have regenerated my batteries by taking the charge down as low as possible (turn off the PC's power saving features for this process) and then do a full recharge (let the battery go until the PC shuts down from lack of power. You will not get more than 70% to 90% power but these batteries do not recharge a true 100% with a few weeks use anyway.
Another option is buy a refurbished (a rebuild) non-manufacturer made power pack or a good functioning used pack. Consider doing a rebuild yourself (all that means is replace the batteries in the pack. You can buy them for little money). For more detailed information about this visit thinkpads.com forum. Enter Searchers like: "battery", "battery pack rebuild" A rebuild involves opening the pack and inserting new batteries.
You may find rebuild video instructions at the instructables site.
You may want to reconsider a Toshiba. They are infamous for their lack of support.
AMBurnsy
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March 25th, 2010 10:00
Yea the battery is def dead, (used the F2 to enter setup and tested, just says 0% life)
And i have shopped around and found offers like this but cheers anyway dude, i think to be honest i wanted to rant about how much Dell waste my time. Bunch of uselss ......... in my books! haha