Travelmate 340T battery totally dead

Hi,

after 2 weeks of no power applied to the laptop, the battery
of my 340T again died once again. The system works as if there
was no battery put in, Win98 constantly showing "0% charging"
however the charging LED is not lit. I have never seen this
effect before.

This is my 2nd battery that died since I bought the system
in 2000. The 1st one that originally came with degraded within
2.5 years to approx. 10 minutes. Now, the 2nd one that I had
bought in 2002 as a replacement is totally malfunctioning,
again after about 3 years.

I have already cross-checked that the m/b is ok so far, as
the charging process and capacity display is correct when
I put in the first (old) battery which I kept for reference.

When this first battery became worse, I asked a number of
people in the shops and at the local Acer service center
about how to properly treat those LiIon batteries.
One said I should better keep it outside as long as I do not
need battery power. Others claimed it would be OK to put it
in but never remove mains power unless needed to avoid
unnecessary recharging cycles.
Someone also told me that a LiIon would not last longer
than 3 years anyway...

As the 340 series batteries include the 4th rubber foot of
the system, I chose the latter variant and had the battery
in from 06/2002 until yesterday. A few times I let it run
until it was exhausted but apparently there is no chance
to increase the batteries' life. Now it is 3 years over
and the battery is dead as it would have timed out.

However that LiIon stuff is so expensive - Acer charged me
about 250 bucks for the one in 2002. One more new
battery and I could almost afford a new laptop from a different
brand...
--
Regards,
Peter

On Mon, 23 May 2005 02:25:45 +0200, Peter Wagner wrote:

Hi,

after 2 weeks of no power applied to the laptop, the battery of my 340T
again died once again. The system works as if there was no battery put in,
Win98 constantly showing "0% charging" however the charging LED is not
lit. I have never seen this effect before.

This is my 2nd battery that died since I bought the system in 2000. The
1st one that originally came with degraded within 2.5 years to approx. 10
minutes. Now, the 2nd one that I had bought in 2002 as a replacement is
totally malfunctioning, again after about 3 years.

I have already cross-checked that the m/b is ok so far, as the charging
process and capacity display is correct when I put in the first (old)
battery which I kept for reference.

When this first battery became worse, I asked a number of people in the
shops and at the local Acer service center about how to properly treat
those LiIon batteries. One said I should better keep it outside as long as
I do not need battery power. Others claimed it would be OK to put it in
but never remove mains power unless needed to avoid unnecessary recharging
cycles.
Someone also told me that a LiIon would not last longer than 3 years
anyway...

As the 340 series batteries include the 4th rubber foot of the system, I
chose the latter variant and had the battery in from 06/2002 until
yesterday. A few times I let it run until it was exhausted but apparently
there is no chance to increase the batteries' life. Now it is 3 years over
and the battery is dead as it would have timed out.

However that LiIon stuff is so expensive - Acer charged me about 250 bucks
for the one in 2002. One more new battery and I could almost afford a new
laptop from a different brand...


LiIon Bat's do only last at the most 3 years, or around 300 cycles. Never
let them go below 10% and you'll get the 3 years. Considering this
battery issue and the ram upgrade your looking at doing, buy a new laptop
and sell this one on ebay. If you don't have the cash for a new
laptop buy a battery off ebay. I've bought 2 in the last year for less
then $40 CDN and they work great. 1 for a TM240 and 1 for a IBM 570.

Dan.



----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

you can get them going again same with nicads put a 12 volt car
batterry to straight to the terminals of the laptop battery out of
the laptop with a couple of wires and hold them on there for a few
seconds to give it a bit of a tickle and if your luckky it might
start charging again when you hook it back up to the charger