Rebuilding Batteries?

The batteries on my HP Envy 14 are getting a little bit weaker all the time. Although BatteryBar says I still have a total of 74,000mWh (between the internal and external batteries) compared to an original total around 120,000mWh if I recall correctly, my actual battery life is more like 1/3 or less of what I got when the machine was new, so I'm suspicious of BatteryBar's numbers. The external slice battery is in especially rough condition - whenever I turn the machine on I get a warning about the external battery that has to be manually acknowledged before the OS will even boot up.

Since the model was never released in China, new batteries here are likely out of the question, and a new battery for this machine would have wear from sitting in a warehouse for 2-3 years anyway. Do you know if it's possible to disassemble a battery and essentially rebuild it with new materials? I wouldn't be doing this myself, but if it's something that can be done, it's almost certain I could find someone in our local computer market to do so cheaply. Since I don't know if it can be done in the first place, I'm asking here first so I don't waste a trip.

 

For the most part, the cells inside of laptops batteries are pretty much standardized to certain sizes/charges/etc. So in theory it should be possible to rebuild a battery in the way you describe.

 

True, with one likely caveat: the chip that controls the charging will most likely lock itself out once the battery has been opened, rendering the entire process useless.

@Fat Dragon: I wouldn't be afraid to use a genuine battery that sat on the shelf for several years. It will not last for a decade, but you should get a couple of years out of it.

My $0.02 only...

 

If you put your battery model into ebay, guess where most of them apparently come from? Not saying they are original parts but compatible and most of the time they might even work.

 

You can do it, I have before. Anyway, there are both batteries for the Envy 14 on Taobao.

I've never heard of or seen that. Which manufacturer does that? What I have seen is that batteries from Dell (genuine ones) will never charge any higher than the lowest levels they got to. For example, if you have a worn out dell battery and you replace the cells inside, the battery will still only charge itself to the level that it did with the old, worn out cells. I don't know if any other brands are like this, but I think most aren't. Any 3rd party batteries will never have this problem.

 

I guess I should have taken the three minutes to check Taobao - there were sellers offering imported Envy 14s back in late 2010, so it shouldn't surprise me that they're selling batteries, but I got it in my head to try something a bit more harebrained so I asked anyway. I have a few other things I need to order on Taobao anyway so I'll probably do some research tonight.

 

A good website for help re-building your battery, and info on where to buy cells, just ask for help they are a nice bunch i have been an member for years.

Flashlight Electronics - Batteries Included

John.

 

Lenovo, on *all* 60-series and later ThinkPads. Possibly on some older models as well, going back to the IBM era.

Sure, it can be circumvented with some persistence and knowledge but unless one is rebuilding a battery for a *very* rare system, or is doing it as a hobby it's not worth their time in my book.

 

Technically, it's possible - you can even rebuild it with higher capacity cells. However, it is time consuming, you may end up with an ugly looking battery housing and you'll take a chance with the charge controller - you'll need to reset it by fully charging/discharging your new battery a few times, but that may not work and you could be stuck with the same battery life as before...