Aftermarket/Replacement Laptop Batteries
 

I'm looking at replacing the battery on my girlfriend's laptop. Per usual, they are quite expensive. I was looking on eBay, but (obviously), many are used, and buying a used laptop battery pretty well defeats the purpose. Do any of yall know of any good place to buy replacement batteries, since the ones straight from IBM are pretty expensive? What about aftermarket batteries?

Luck of the draw. Some aftermarket are better than OEM models. Hopefully someone here sees enough volume to give reliable brand info. I don't.

Does the laptop battery use standard cells inside the battery case? I've replaced a few with NiMH AA's. They get better runtime than when new, which is logical given the progress in battery technology. Downside is I've also ruined a couple that seemed designed to prevent replacement. If you don't have a spare to run the laptop it might not be worth the risk.

Just a thought.

I have been buying replacement parts from:

http://www.impactcomputers.com/

they have had quite reasonable prices on OEM parts including hard drives and batteries. Batteries are still a bit on the pricey side... but they are OEM and not full price either.

I bought a new battery for my IBM laptop on eBay, and it hasn't been a problem at all. Yeah, it is a crapshoot, though, on there. Interstate should have a battery for it, though. For my 600E, they wanted about $70, if I remember, right, so that's not too bad, really. Check them out, if you're truly nervous about an eBay battery.

try freezing her battery...

drain it completely and put it in a couple ziploc bags
put it in the freezer for a few days... i usually leave it a week
take it out and leave it into the bags till it has returned to room temperature
put in laptop and give it a full charge and then drain it down and see how long it lasts...

i've taken laptop batteries from 10 minutes to bout 1.5 hours....

sometimes it works great... sometimes it doesnt do anything at all..