How to revive your old laptop’s battery

How to revive your old laptop’s battery

Laptop computers are treasured for their portability and usefulness on the go, but a failing laptop battery can make the device loose it’s potability and render it useless. Laptop batteries have a notoriously short shelf life and can only withstand a certain number of charge cycles before their capacity starts to deteriorate rapidly. In the world of electronic devices there are 4 most used battery types. Those are Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH), Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) Lithium ion (Li+) and Alkaline. Apart from Alkaline batteries which are used in TV remotes and wall clocks, the other 3 are rechargeable.

So, if your laptops all functionality is working fine but battery is dead, you don’t need to buy a new battery, because laptop batteries are expensive pieces of equipment. What can you do? Simply revive it. Although some techniques may sound impossible but go ahead and give it a try and see if it works or not.

Cooling Pad

Laptop users know that too much heat is dangerous for laptop batteries and can also decrease it’s function. When you have placed your laptop inside a hot room or doing some intense works with the laptop, excess heat can be produced inside it. One simple way you can save your battery life is by keeping the laptop as cool as possible. For the lithium users, just cool down your laptop with a cooling pad and this may help revive it and  increase the laptop battery life. It’s advisable to always use a cooling pad no matter the battery type.

Perform a full recharge

Take note that this technique can only be carried out if your laptop’s battery is draining rapidly. First thing to do is to remove your charger from the laptop’s charging port, keep your computer turned on until the battery life runs out. To make this the battery drain faster, you can play a live video or a much battery consuming project to speed up the process. Make sure your battery is completely drained before performing the next step.

Start charging the battery, allow it to charge for 48 hours, ( you can use your laptop if you need to during this process) but make sure it’s plugged in so as to speed up the charging.

Freeze the battery

Apparently you can freeze a laptop battery and get more juice out of it. This interesting method has been proved scientifically working for most number of battery types. If your computer has a nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) or nickel-cadmium (NiCd) battery, you could try freezing it. For my lithium users, please stay away from this method cos you will make your battery worse.

Let’s get into it! Start by turning off your computer, thereafter, disconnect it from the wall socket, and remove the battery from your machine. Next step is to take out your battery and put it in a sealed zip lock bag (make sure it’s placed in a zip lock bag as a regular plastic grocery bag will allow moisture to seep in, potentially destroying your battery for good). Go ahead and put the bag into your freezer and leave it there for about 12 hours. You can go as far as leaving it for 24 hours and not after cos may cause the battery to leak.

Once you take it out, remove the plastic bag and let the battery warm up until it reaches room temperature. Use a towel to dry out any moisture that may be left on the battery before putting it back in your laptop. Now go ahead and charge the battery to its full capacity. Once fully charged, unplug the power and let the battery drain all the way down. Repeat the last two steps at least 4 times to help revive and give your battery life.

Recalibrate Your Battery

With modern batteries being produced now, this may no longer be necessary, but if your battery is pretty old and dying, you may benefit from a recalibration. Recalibrating a battery is done if your computer’s battery indicator is no longer displaying the correct amount of charge. An example is when your battery indicator says you have 60% charge but your computer shuts down shortly after. This can happen if the laptop is always plugged in and never allow it to discharge. This technique is pretty simple.

Charge your battery to 100% or to whatever max percentage it can reach and leave it there for about 2 hours to cool down. Then disconnect the AC Adapter from the laptop ( never disconnect the wall socket side of the charger first, as plugging it back in while the charger is connected to the laptop could damage your computer).

Keep the laptop on until it dies automatically. Let the computer remain turned off for anywhere between 3 to 5 hours. Thereafter, turn it back on and let it charge all the way to 100%.

Voila! you have successfully recalibrated your laptop battery. Now your Operating system should be giving more accurate readings about the capacity of the battery.

Remove the Battery

Many laptops may continue to work fine without a power source but some will not. Also, make sure that there is no any sudden power cuts when performing this method as it will lead to a data loss.

To perform this method, simply turn on your laptop, connect the AC Adapter and remove the battery while it is plugged in. By removing the battery you can make the battery to be cool while the chemical reaction may continue to occur whether it is plugged into a laptop or not.

 

The above tips should bring your battery to life, although if and when you feel reviving your battery is not worth the trouble and you want to sell your laptop, we’re the right plug for you.

So, there you go. Steps to revive your old laptop battery made easy for you.   Have you used any other methods not mentioned here to increase your laptop battery life?  Please share with us in the comments.

 

 

 

 

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