Gaming How to Choose a Laptop Battery?

[kokye]

Hello,

I have a two year old HP Pavilion ZV5000 laptop. For the past couple of months, the battery has begun to seriously deteriorate in performance... If the laptop is switched off with full power, by the time I boot, only 5 minutes is now available before it turns off...
Hence, I am looking at replacing the battery. The following are my doubts
The laptop was purchased in the US. Will there be any difficulty getting replacement battery here?
Should I contact hp or will local stores have replacements?
Will it be possible to go for 9 cell batteries for improved battery life?
Can power surges affect battery life? Is it necessary to connect the power through a surge protector?
More often than not I use the laptop when connected to power, but regularly I need to work without power. Hence, I cant remove the battery as recommended by many. Is it better to have the power always on or regularly discharge the batteries?
I am thinking of getting a cooling pad to improve battery heat dissipation. I want one that is cheap (less than 1000 preferably) and effective. Please suggest brand and model along with approximate cost.How to Choose a Laptop Battery online,such as http://www.scontobat...ion-zv5000.html?

Thanks in advance

 

[Alex221]

Is your body ready? If it is then go on ebay and search for a cheap battery there,i bought one for around $25 and it works perfect on my hp pavilion dv6000

 

[FAST6191]

Step 2 of the ebay tango is avoid anything out of China/Hong Kong- order anything you like out of there but if it is flash memory or battery technology expect it to be junk.

I am not sure what levels of compatibility there are between models these days (one of the big differences between US models and ones you find elsewhere in the world seems to be the ease of replacement of batteries) but I mainly came here to say consider replacing the cells that make up the battery- most laptop batteries are only a custom shell plastic shell wrapped around and inside those are "standard" batteries (do a search for Saft batteries and you will probably net various ones) which you might be able to source locally or at least in country rather than trying to get something shipped or tear apart another "dead" battery and see if that has something. I do not know how far HP have gone down the path of battery management either these days (at various points companies would have little EEPROMs on there to tell how many times things have been charged and if there are dodgy cells) but they are one of the leading groups for doing nonsense like that in printers so I would not be surprised either way really (the 360 has such management onboard for rechargeable batteries it uses in controllers).

More cells- usually come in four flavours
1 is an extended battery. Assuming you get a good one this usually just means more weight and a longer charge up time.
2 is a docking station of sorts that will often have an extra batter option.
3 is a extra frame type battery (many laptops will have two slots for batteries or it can attach to the power port)
4 is ones that go in place of an optical drive.

Most are quite pricey, the era of them needing a special charger has thankfully come to a close for the most part and all will make the laptop considerably heavier and if they do not they are probably not worth the effort.

Cooling pads... for the most part I do not rate them over blowing out the dust occasionally (the bit between the heat sink and the fan I often see completely clogged but this requires something close to proper disassembly) and putting it on a flat surface that can get some air (putting it on your lap, putting it on the couch, putting it on a table with tablecloth, putting it on a bed- all bad things to do). By the looks of things temperature is not that bad either with averages similar to that of much of Europe (high heat and humidity and I start looking at things). There are occasions where they can be useful but that is usually when you have a cheap and nasty laptop with a bad frame and poor heat flow design which that was not if memory and a quick search serves.

I can not say I have tangled with the power in Angola before but if it is like the power in the Gambia (something I would bet on being the case) then surge protectors are probably a good thing and a proper surge protector/UPS is a better thing. Modern laptops usually manage charge pretty well and a run down laptop battery is nowhere near full discharge of batteries but I usually try to keep laptops powered unless there is a reason (acceptable reasons do include sitting on a balcony/porch/in the garden) so running it down not is pointless not to mention cell memory is not so clear cut if it can be said to exist at all for most consumer stuff.

Bonus although I do not suggest taking advantage of it if you can help it is it is often just a single cell that is dead (usually the one connected to the terminals but not always) and replacing that brings the entire battery back to life. Some people can also recondition them but that is a not a fun game without gear to do it with and it is not much even then.

Re: dv6000 .... you have one that lasted more than two years? Wonders never cease.

 

[Originality]

Incase that last line was a subtle jab at HP, I have 2 tx2550ea tablet laptops. That model has a known design flaw in its cooling, if you can call it that. One I tweaked to hell and is still working fine 5 years on. The other was my brother's and is practically dead.

The wonders never cease, if you know how to take care of your stuff.