replacement battery suggestions

[ratdude747]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

I think if it were me I would have given something like http://www.ebay.com/itm/9-CELL-BATTE...438#vi-content a try first. $75 vrs $29 and the $29 has a 3 year warranty.

yeah... sure... 3 years my ass. once the seller goes bye-bye, the warranty has the value of toilet paper...

Also, good luck finding "fast shipping, USA". I have a hunch it is near "ripoff, China"

not to mention 9 cells isn't quite 9 cells if the cells are not up to par... if the chinese are fine with putting BS numbers on cheap PSUs, what makes you think their batteries are any better?

those generic batteries are trouble... heck, i couldn't even get a $99 battery to work for 2 cycles... and that one, I could go to the place in person and return it... here, I have to pay to ship it back to god knows where... after having a cheapass china batt for an older laptop form canada go poof and having to send it back a few times, after 2 tries I had made up the cost of the battery just in shipping... sure, I got my money back, but I was still out $40.

plus, the ebay officail part says 60 days... so who knows which the seller is intending to follow...

Often times you get what you pay for... If this were a POS consumer grade pIII laptop, yeah, it would be tempting... but for a daily driver quasi-critical system, I am not willing to gamble... I depend on it too much to cheap out on it.

[brethin]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

My point was for a $1500 laptop then yes I would spend $75 for a battery but for a $150 laptop I would try the $29 one.

[ratdude747]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

My point was for a $1500 laptop then yes I would spend $75 for a battery but for a $150 laptop I would try the $29 one.

umm... it was a $250 laptop when I bought it, and it was a semi-well equipped model (2.4ghz C2D, 2gb RAM, 160gb hdd, 1440x900 display). I since added a few upgrades, mainly a Bluetooth module and a draft-n module. my estimation shows it is probably worth $300.

[brethin]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

What you paid for it and what it is worth are 2 different things. Even if you value it at $300, spending $75 for a battery for a $300 laptop doesn't sound like a struggling student on a budget but more like student struggling to stay on a budget that makes sense.

[ratdude747]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

What you paid for it and what it is worth are 2 different things. Even if you value it at $300, spending $75 for a battery for a $300 laptop doesn't sound like a struggling student on a budget but more like student struggling to stay on a budget that makes sense.

no, no no.

if this laptop was only used at home then the budget would apply.

but this laptop (and the addtional capacity) will not only be used in my studies but for the one class is almost required.

In fact, on tv in the room I am posting from there is a special on countefiet chinese goods, including laptop batteries... ouch. I'd rather not have the laptop go boom on me or catch on fire... I have heard of china batts doing that.

There are places where you can go cheap, IMHO, batteries is a place where one shouldn't. too much risk of catastrophic failure.

[brethin]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

Dell has had more "Orginial Dell Batteries" Explode than all the OEM replacment batteries combined. The word "Dell" on it would worry me more than a noname brand.

[ratdude747]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

the cells are panasonic not sony. Sony was the culprit in this battery era for making defective cells. Not Dell.

I bought the battery, it is en route to me. Unless posted otherwise, further argument is a

[brethin]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

Not arguing with you, just pointing out that you have almost $400 invested in a $150 laptop and that if you had been a tad wiser you could have gotten a much better laptop for that $400.

[ratdude747]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

Not arguing with you, just pointing out that you have almost $400 invested in a $150 laptop and that if you had been a tad wiser you could have gotten a much better laptop for that $400.

at this point any of this is a , but debating can be interesting, so read on

first, your math is off. after the battery I will have $250 + $7 (wifi upgrade)+ $75 invested, which comes out to $330, which I would not call "almost $400"

issue #2:

who said it was worth $150?

$150 would be more like a D610... maybe a D620 (Core solo based) in bad condition.

OT, but why do you estimate such a low price for the unit?

It was bought in person at purdue's university surplus store; the 3 year warranty from dell was up and they decided to start selling off the fleet of late production D630s. They were beign sold as is.

Stock specs:

parts:
C2D t7700 2.4ghz
2gb DDR2 pc5300
Nvidia graphics
DVD RW drive
160gb HDD (WD, 5400 RPM)
Intel B/G/A card
1440x900 display
6 cell battery, 30% wear
Vists Home basic installed and COA'd
manufactured June 8, 2008

acessories:

90W PA-10 brick (2 prong version)
XP sp2 disc (dell edtion)
powerdvd disc (dell editon)
large blue targus case (like-new condition)


the laptop was in near-mint condtion. no scuffs or the like... It had a minor scratch on the lid, which was nearly invisible.

IMHO, for $250, it wasn't a bad deal. Yeah, I later found out about the nvidia graphics but this one had the upgraded BIOS with the new fan curves stock. Also, when I cleaned the cooling system when I got it home there was not a large amount of dust to be cleaned.

Also keep in mind that it was a "take it or leave it" situation; the party that gifted me it for my birthday did it on a surprise basis; at the time was only expecting a $100 B-day budget. I guess the extra $150 was a HS gradation gift.

Also, it was known that sooner or later it would need a new battery; such would eb part of my xmas gift, or whenever the extra capacity was needed. This is the case with any laptop older than 1 year.

Now as for my current value estimations, I did the following to it:

-installed a truemobile 350 BT module, pulled from my d400.
-alongside fedora (15, later 16), Installed Vista Home Premium
-(later) installed a dell edition intel 4965 B/G/A/draft-N card that a buddy had and sold me for $7.
-(soon) I will be installing new thermal pads next week when they come in, and at the same time will clean out the fan/heatsink. I am aiming to do such every 6 months, just to keep the temps down.

IMHO, a laptop in such good condition shouldn't be ruined by a junk battery. If it were in very poor condition and were, say, an acer aspire or some other POS made of plastic, then yeah, not justified. However, a magnesium bodied latitude d630 in excellent condition isn't worthy of such crappy and failure prone parts.

maybe you and I value equipment differently... This has been my favorite laptop and other than the battery, could not be happier... It for the most part keeps up with whatever I throw at it... unless I have 7 programs runnign and 50 zillion tabs in chrome, I can get what needs done without issues. TBH, none of my other laptops I could say that about... even the d400 had speed issues (hence why I bought the D630).

[ratdude747]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

Got the batt in the mail today

haven't had time to charge it or do diagnostics...

what I do know:

came in an unpadded cardboard envelope... grr...

but the good news:

in original OEM packaging. never opened. virgin battery.
it is a revision A02.

once I am home in a little bit I will run diagnostics to get the battery age and charge it for the first time.

edit- update:

charging the new batt, accroding to the battery info, it uses Sanyo cells.

Sanyo is good... my 2 d400 batts both use thier cells.

[ratdude747]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

good news

ran diagnostics, this battery was made 3/12/2010.

almost but not quite 2 years old.

good deal?

[ratdude747]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

so far, so good. ran for 3:48, with the screen at max brightness, wireless and bluetooth turned on... time for cycle 2...

[thesloc]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

I use D630s as paperweights these days.

[ratdude747]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

I use D630s as paperweights these days.

[thesloc]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

Actually, it wasn't unproductive. I do have a bunch of D630s, D620s and even a D610 that I'm working on right now. What I can tell you, is that I've bought all my batteries off eBay. YES, they do own up to their warranty and if they say they're an US seller...they obviously are. The rep system of eBay is pretty good at keeping checks and balances for shady sellers. Negative feedback on their transactions should be pretty telling of what kind of business they do.

I resell laptops, obviously. D630s are good work horses but they all suffer from heating issues, despite of cooling efforts. A normal laptop runs between 50-60Cs, THESE laptops run at 70C+

[ratdude747]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

Actually, it wasn't unproductive. I do have a bunch of D630s, D620s and even a D610 that I'm working on right now.

What I can tell you, is that I've bought all my batteries off eBay. YES, they do own up to their warranty and if they say they're an US seller...they obviously are.

The rep system of eBay is pretty good at keeping checks and balances for shady sellers. Negative feedback on their transactions should be pretty telling of what kind of business they do.

then say it in the first post. us viewers are not mind readers.

[shovenose]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

I might be kicking a dead horse here, but given that they sell a Core i5 laptop with 6GB of DDR3 RAM, 640GB HDD, a non-nVidia (intel) chip, Built in N wireless, WIndows 7 Home Premium, a brand new battery, one year warranty, and a DVDRW drive, etc. for $580, I think it's silly you spend so much money on that D630.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Lenovo+-...v570&cp=1&lp=1
Edit: now they sell mine with an improved 750GB hard drive, a better CPU, (i5-2430 instead of 2410), at the same price.

Not to say your D630 is a piece of crap, but for a little more $ you could have got a lot more computer

[ratdude747]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

plastic body... nuff said.

plus, $330 and $580 are not "close".

also, I wanted comatibility with my dell D series port replicator...

[lti]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

Best Buy... nuff said.

fixed

If the computer was as crappy as my old HP laptop was, then buying a new computer would be the best choice. This Dell is a decent computer and is worth the cost of a new battery.

[ratdude747]

Re: replacement battery suggestions

fixed

If the computer was as crappy as my old HP laptop was, then buying a new computer would be the best choice. This Dell is a decent computer and is worth the cost of a new battery.

agreed... I made the mistake of buying a netbook at best buy a few years back... there is a thread about my goof squad experince around somewhere.