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indiecast
April 17th, 2008, 01:53 AM
I have a Toshiba Satellite A85-S107. I've used it faithfully for three years I think. But lately it would appear that i only have 20% battery capacity. Linux shows that it fully charges but it only last like 8 minutes, and every once in a while I get a battery broken, 20% capacity message. When I boot to windows, the battery only charges up to 20%. This tells me that Ubuntu is right, and its battery meter is relative while window's is absolute. That's an interesting fact but my problem is my battery. Does anyone know of any way that I can reclaim the capacity of a lithium ion battery?

gn2
April 17th, 2008, 02:23 AM
You could try the freezer trick.
Fully discharge it, wrap it in a watertight bag put it in a deep freeze for 24 hours, remove, thaw to room temperature, charge fully with laptop off, run laptop non-stop till battery totally flat and repeat.

Might work, it has for me in the past with lithium ion mobile phone batteries.

Or just buy a new one on eBay.

indiecast
April 17th, 2008, 02:32 AM
Does this give you your full battery capacity back?

fwojciec
April 17th, 2008, 04:35 AM
I have a different toshiba model (M-35). Recently the acpi battery info started producing crazy results and I decided that it might be because the battery is rather old, so I bought a new one on ebay. Problem fixed and battery life of my laptop is 3 hours now, which is longer than I remember it's ever been.

Whiffle
April 17th, 2008, 04:39 AM
Sounds like your battery is gone, I'd get a new one.

gn2
April 17th, 2008, 10:34 AM
Does this give you your full battery capacity back?

No, it won't make it like new, but it can give more battery life.

Just search for the part number that's on the battery on ebay and you'll find plenty of alternative replacements that will be cheaper than going direct to Toshiba.

Check Toshiba's website though, there might be a bargain to be had, for example I got an extended life battery for my Portege 3440CT for half the cost of a standard battery.

indiecast
April 17th, 2008, 02:29 PM
K thanks, I'll take a look

Iehova
April 17th, 2008, 05:46 PM
Does this give you your full battery capacity back?

It should help temporarily. Supposedly with lithium ion batteries it is an actual chemical reaction within the cells (deposits of something somewhere) that causes the loss in capacity, so it's not feasible to fix in the long term.

mips
April 17th, 2008, 06:58 PM
If you *know what you are doing* it might be worthwile opening the battery up and replacing the cells inside it. It is a cheaper option and you can select good cells with a higher mAh rating which should extend battery life beyond a standard off the shelf pack. Will only require a bit of soldering. Make sure the Voltage of the cells are the same but try and get *good* cells with a higher mAh rating.