Switch Battery

[bluedart]

Hello. I recently upgraded my computer to Windows 11 after installing a new mobo/cpu/ram and now I'm trying to get my cfw nand switch working on here again. I've gotten the drivers installed with NS-USBloader 7.2 and successfully gotten it to inject and boot from auto RCM as well as install over USB. My battery has been lasting less and less time lately, and I can only get about 40 minutes out of Tears of the Kingdom now on my low-ish brightness settings. (I'm assuming from percentage drop, I haven't actually let it die yet.) I have a replacement battery I got from here that I have yet to install. I was about to go for it, but when I booted back from RCM last time the battery suddenly shot up to 100% from 85%. It's been in sleepmode charging for about 30 minutes and it still says 100%. I'm wondering if there's a way to check to see via homebrew or a specific bin injection the battery health and confirm what's going on before I just go in there and possibly brick it.

The current bin I use is a modified one for 18.0.0 and Atmosphere 1.7.0 that didn't need me to setup whatever new sigpatch thing I needed and boots right into atmosphere, so I don't have the one that shows all the diagnostics. Which bin should I use if I just want to get to that, and what setting am I looking for to check battery health? Thanks for the help.

 

[thesjaakspoiler]

Hekate shows some battery statistics :

Capacity (design) is what a brand new battery would be.
Capacity full is the maximum capacity at the moment.
But it sounds like it is time to replace your battery.
What you describe are all symptoms of a lithium battery at the end of its lifetime.

 

[bluedart]

Thanks for the reply. You must be right. I googled "hekate", then downloaded and injected the "hekate_ctcaer_6.2.2.bin" that came up. There was a battery option at the bottom, and it said the Capacity (full) was 990 mAh. Oof. All right, I'll get to replacing it with the new battery I bought.

Before I start, any tips from people who have already changed their own switch battery? The exact one I purchased is linked in my first post, along with what it comes with. Screwdrivers, screws, a trowel thing, and some adhesive stickers. The instructions mention using a hairdryer on electrical equipment. Um, there's a safer way than that, right? Seems dangerous.

 

[Hayato213]

Recalibrate your battery by draining it to 0% then charge it to 100% and repeat it one more time if it still says 990mAh then you need a new battery.

 

[bluedart]

Okay, just tried that and it's down to 886 mAh now. Right, battery's quite shot. Now, does anyone here have experience with replacing their own switch battery, and if so could you point me to the tutorial you used as a reference? Again, I've already gotten a replacement from here, so I'd just like a little first-hand guidance if possible to increase my odds of success. I'm honestly not too thrilled about the idea of using a hairdryer on a battery as the included instructions recommend and hope there's a less problematic way to get the little bugger out safely.

 

[zxr750j]

Though it looks as their not any stickyness at all in this video. I replaced one it came out with my fingers and a spudger. I'd use dentalfloss and a little isopropanol (not too much) if it's really stuck in there. Use good fitting screwdrivers btw.

 

[thesjaakspoiler]

dentalfloss is indeed a good suggestion.
Do not use a driver in an attempt to pry out the battery.

 

[cybrnook]

Though it looks as their not any stickyness at all in this video. I replaced one it came out with my fingers and a spudger. I'd use dentalfloss and a little isopropanol (not too much) if it's really stuck in there. Use good fitting screwdrivers btw.

The ifixit guide is great, and they sell OEM batteries as well. Only thing I've ran into before in the past is the double sided tape behind the battery. In this video the battery came right out nice and clean, when in my case it was douse after douse of iso into the battery tray to loosen the glue underneath the battery. Then the card worked a treat.

 

[bluedart]

Just about to open it now and I see the video doesn't mention how to put it back in. There are also several adhesive things in here and I'm wondering how to apply them. The instruction booklet that came with the battery oddly enough stops as soon as they remove the battery itself. Any help here, or do I just wing it?

Out of curiousity is adhesive necessary?

Edit: I found this video that goes over it in more detail, even telling me what to do with the stickers. Should this be sufficient?

Interestingly enough, they gave me a y 2.0 screwdriver, hopefully that's the only anomaly. I have a 1.5 from fixing/reshelling joycon when I did that a few times, so I'll just use that.

Post automatically merged: Feb 22, 2025

Okay, I think I'm going to leave my switch open until I can figure out a safe way to get the battery out. It's really REALLY in there, and I'm not willing to break anything. Does anyone have a video or set of images to show me how to remove this thing for real with minimal risk of damaging the switch?