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

submitted 1 year 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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[–] Dusty@l.dustybeer.com 1 points 1 year ago

This is really "it depends" territory. If it's going to sit in the same place at all times, absolutely not. In fact I'd remove the battery all together.

If I think I'll ever use it on battery where it will need to last longer than ~40 minutes? Sure, if the battery is cheap enough. I'm sure there are battery companies that can refurbish the old battery with new innards at a decent price, making it essentially a brand new battery.