[OT] -- Laptop Battery Vendor

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I don't know.... My experience with replacment laptop batteries is not very good either. Usually, if you find one, it's an old "new" one. And batteries sitting on the shelf for months on end never have the same capacity as the new one did.

Unless you happen to have a really popular laptop, or series that used the same battery. Then you might be in luck. (I am not familiar with the Dell 2650)

Option-B, would be to see if you can open the existing pack and repair it yourself with new cells. (Not an ideal option, but possible on occasion). At least you can pack it with new parts.

Option-C is to just give the kids the power cord. :) This option has the advantage of not handicapping your kids by making their lives too easy. :)

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I have a 5-year-old HP laptop that has been assigned that status. Two years ago, I bought one replacement battery that lasted less than a=20 year. It now gives about 20 minutes battery life.

Mark Borgerson

I got a battery from them for one of my old laptops, and it lasted 4 hrs per charge. (This was an older laptop - 366 MHz)

Michael

Batteries Plus will re-cell any kind of rechargable pack. It's not cheap, but you are going to get brand new cells instead of an unknown.

Batteries.com seems to work for me.

John

Load the DELL OEM version of XP from scratch. When updated and configured, make an image backup with Norton Ghost 2003 or equivalent. After he trashes the laptop (almost a certainty), restore the image. Repeat until he gets the clue.

Ebay has a bunch. Google shows a huge variety. Prices vary from $40 to $160. I would get the $40 variety from eBay. They last about a year, which is probably equal to the predicted lifetime of the laptop. Kids laptops tend to barely survive more than about 2 years. Incidentally, plan on having the kid lose the battery charger.

On the other foot, you can go the high priced route and get nothing but the most overpriced. Dell sells parts for the 2650 and others:

However, no batteries available for the 2650.

I rarely buy from the same vendor twice. They change names faster than I can keep track. As soon as they collect enough unfavorable reviews, they change names and start over again.

Good, fast, cheap. Pick two.

Amazingly, I get better service from the Hong Kong vendors than from the domestic variety. If something gets lost, arrives busted, or I goofed and ordered the wrong thing, they will rapidly fix the problem. I can't say the same for the domestic vendors, that are often only slightly better than crooks. I does vary but it's very difficult to obtain histories because of the frequent name changes. I can get delivery in about a week if I pay for shipment by air. Something as heavy as a battery might cost more than you want to pay for the fast delivery. If it has to go through customs, add about a week.

Nope. Get two of the cheapo batteries from two different vendors on eBay. Odds are in your favor that at least one will work.

I've had good luck buying overpriced batteries from APC. However, they don't carry replacements for the 2650:

Does The Kid really need a battery? Even if The Kid takes the machine to the library, cafeteria, etc., can't The Kid just plug it in?

Michael

Just an FYI, these guys are out of Lion cells. I'm told they won't get anything for 6 to 8 weeks. The cells they use are LG.

One thing to note is they use higher capacity cells than the original battery pack.