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Would you buy a new battery for a very old laptop? (self.technology)

submitted 2 years ago by Mummelpuffin to c/technology

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I just got a pretty good deal on an old ThinkPad (think 10 years old now) to use as a beater for screwing with ArchLinux and hopefully to find a real use for. It's in great shape like it was never really used, but big shock, the battery is at 50% effective capacity and what's there disappears in less than an hour.

Would you bother buying a battery replacement for it? On one hand I want it to actually be usable on the go because that was sort of the point. On the other, while replacement batteries exist, I'm worried that they're already very old themselves and already "expired". Would you take the chance? I don't want to let this thing go to waste when it's still perfectly usable, in fact it's pretty fast.

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[–] sheinar 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I recently bought a compatible non-OEM battery for a very old laptop as the original battery was completely shot and it would only work plugged in, and it really has made it usable again. I guess there's always the risk that it has been sat on a shelf for a while, but if the price isn't bad and you can afford to, I think it's probably worth giving it a go given how degraded your current battery is.

Always worth seeing if there's an online store with a decent return policy if you're concerned about getting a dud, rather than somewhere like eBay!

Edit: I definitely understand your feelings about the wastefulness of laptops though, but at least a replacement battery is likely to keep the laptop going for longer.