Zapping Laptop batteries

From: Mark Tapley <mtapley_at_swri.edu>
Date: Sat Nov 16 22:39:01 2002

>From: "Lawrence Walker" <lgwalker_at_mts.net>
>
> Thanks all. There's also a PD program called "deepdran.exe" (deepdrain)
>which I can use to exercise the batteries after, if it's successfull.
>Worth a try.

        There's a similar program for the early PowerPC Powerbooks. I had a
really bad experience with it in my 3400. I took a couple of dead, drained,
and on-the-shelf for years NiMH batteries. Charged one in the powerbook for
a while (15 minutes or so) then tried this program on it. Battery ran down,
Powerbook made out-of-power noises, turned off. Plugged in and reset, the
battery charged up, no problem. (I'm using that battery now).
        The *other* battery, I figured I now knew what I was doing. I
slapped it in, unplugged the powerbook immediately, and let it run down on
the drain-dead program. About 10 seconds later, it made a weird buzzing,
and went dead. Next time it powered up was after the power supply board got
replaced. :-(.
        Exercise some caution. I don't know what happened - maybe the PS
board got fried because the battery voltage went too low too fast? Maybe it
was OK until I plugged it back in, at which point it fried trying to charge
a too-dead battery too fast? Maybe there's a problem with a PS designed for
Li-Ion batteries charging a NiMH battery (though it's supposed to be OK). I
don't know, but I'm going to charge the other battery repeatedly in the
external charger before I put it into the PB again.
                                                                - Mark
Received on Sat Nov 16 2002 - 22:39:01 GMT

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