Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
4 Posts
0
69791
June 12th, 2006 15:00
Battery hardware reset
I am hoping that this issue can be resolved.
Just replaced the main battery on an Inspiron 2650 after using for about one year. The new battery works well. The older battery works for about 30 minutes after a "full charge" and shows a full discharge after that time. One year seems too short for a quality LI-Ion cell and I have experienced an issue with hardware on other bands of computers. So I disassembled the supposedly "dead" 2550 battery and found that the cell were almost fully charged. Only the electronics in the battery showed "dead" status. When the battery is charged in the 2650, the electronics see a limited charge rate and conclude that the battery is bad. The reason for a limited charge rate is that the batteries are already almost fully charged.
Is there a way to reset the internal battery electronics to sync with the real battery condition? The only way I have found to correct this is other laptops is to manually discharge the batteries. Then the discharged batteries will match the electronics memory. A recharge in the computer will now show that the battery is taking a full mAh charge and the internal electronics will allow the battery to provide power longer. A lot of good batteries are being replaced because of hardware memory sync problems.
0 events found
No Events found!
RCC344
4 Posts
0
June 12th, 2006 16:00
I only bring this up because the battery cells and the electronic memory do go out of sync more often than the battery fails. I understand that all batteries have a lifetime and will eventually require replacement.
The supposedly "dead" cells in this battery supplied a 1 amp for 3 hours into a 16 ohm resistive load. That's 3000 mAh, a little less than the battery rating of 3900 mAh, but still very usable. Now the electronics will see at least a 3000 mAh recharge and should reset the capacity and allow the laptop to operate well over 30 minutes. To protect the battery, the internal electronics disconnects the cells from the laptop when the logic is that the battery is close to depletion. This stops cell reversal and battery damage, but if the logic is out of sync with the real condition of the battery the shutoff will occur too early.
It would be nice to accomplish the electronic reset without opening the battery and doing a manual discharge, but if that's what it takes......
enigma-2
238 Posts
0
June 12th, 2006 16:00
Just because a Li-Ion battery does not suffer from the "memory effect" of other types of batteries, it doesn't mean it will last for ever. Chemical conversions inside the battery make it to produce electric energy but these chemical reactions aim to attenuate as time and charge cycles pass over. It's not the electronics, the battery is getting worn out. (The electronices are there as safety circuits, nothing to reset - NOR SHOULD YOU EVER ATTEMPT TO DO SO. IT WILL CAUSE A FIRE).
Consider rebuilding it instead of replacing it. Here's a website that discusses just how to do this.
http://www.electronics-lab.com/articles/Li_Ion_reconstruct/index_1.html