Battery testing - whats wrong?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Hi

I own an old model of Armada M700 (Pentium II 400MHz) laptop. Suddenly
it stopped to function on the battery.

Everything seems fine - the battery is charging, when I press TEST
button on it - LED indicators are glowing... But as soon as I unplug
the power cord - laptop stops functioning instantly.

Of course I can buy a new battery, but first I would like to make sure
that is solves the problem.

How can I test the battery to make sure it is unusable?

Thank you for any suggestions.


berberek

 

[Andrew]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Maciej Lankowski <berberek@priv7.onet.pl> wrote:
: Hi

: I own an old model of Armada M700 (Pentium II 400MHz) laptop. Suddenly
: it stopped to function on the battery.

: Everything seems fine - the battery is charging, when I press TEST
: button on it - LED indicators are glowing... But as soon as I unplug
: the power cord - laptop stops functioning instantly.

: Of course I can buy a new battery, but first I would like to make sure
: that is solves the problem.

: How can I test the battery to make sure it is unusable?

You could put a voltmeter across the terminals to see if the battery
has any charge left, but it might still have some charge but not
enough for the laptop's circuitry to "see" the battery as working.
You could compare the battery spec to the voltage you see - if the
voltage of the charged battery matches the spec, then maybe just
maybe, there's a very small chance the battery is OK but the laptop
has an issue.

But I DOUBT it!

Your battery, I'm guessing, is at least 4 years old. Laptop batteries
simply do not last very long. It's almost a guarantee that the
battery is shot.

Andrew
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[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Thank you for reply.

In comp.sys.laptops you wrote:

>Your battery, I'm guessing, is at least 4 years old. Laptop batteries
>simply do not last very long. It's almost a guarantee that the
>battery is shot.

You're right, this battery is the one that came with a new laptop over
4 years ago. But what bothers me is that the failure came all of the
sudden. One day the battery is OK, the next one - is dead...

I will check the voltage later.

berberek