Laptop Battery Question

Haunted360 · **Posted:** Thu Mar 03, 2011 10:17 pm

Hi. I have a very old IBM Thinkpad 380D laptop.

Now, the battery is of course gone as it is from 1997 and just does not hold its charge AT ALL.

My question is, can I crack it open and change the battery technology from Ni-Mh (Nickel metal hydroxide) to Li-Ion (lithium ion)?

Some general knowledge I have about batteries, is that if I do change the batteries from Ni-Mh to Li-Ion, it can cause issues in the way it charges right? Because there is a special way to charge them and the laptop will try to charge them like Ni-Mh. What will happen if I do this?

Let us know what I can do. I mean, I can just replace the Ni-Mh with the same type but Ni-Mh batteries SUCK...

Here is the battery
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Battery-IBM-Thinkpad-380ED-380X-380D-380-02K6517-/130490240305?pt=AU_Laptop_Accessories&hash=item1e61d30d31

Wiki Page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Thinkpad_380

Image 1
http://pchistory.ru/wp-content/uploads/ibm_thinkpad_380d.JPG

Image 2
http://www.recycledgoods.com/product_images/k/761/s_p_29343_1__73142_zoom.jpg

Thanks

hailrazer · **Posted:** Thu Mar 03, 2011 10:48 pm

No it's not possible to just pop in Li-Ion's.

DON'T DO IT.

marshallh · **Posted:** Thu Mar 03, 2011 10:57 pm

Get NiMH cells and put them in there.

Retrofitting it with Li-ion is going to be a HUGE mess

vskid · **Joined:** Fri Mar 25, 2005 8:25 am **Posts:** 6313

Not only will it not work/be insanely difficult, but why? Do you even use the laptop?

Haunted360 · **Posted:** Thu Mar 03, 2011 11:30 pm

marshallh wrote:

Get NiMH cells and put them in there.

Retrofitting it with Li-ion is going to be a HUGE mess

How. Explain please! Do I need to change the protection circuit parts etc?

vskid wrote:

Not only will it not work/be insanely difficult, but why? Do you even use the laptop?

Yea, I kind of use it. I mean, I need it for PS development at the moment as it has the original parallel port interface and comms.

A new battery would help so I dont have to have it plugged in all the time.

Does anyone also know how to get Windows 95 installed on a 160GB HDD? :mrgreen:

I installed Windows 98 on a gigabyte P1 mainboard etc, but SO MANY DRIVERS NEEDED! "Please insert the Windows 98 SE CD" ... Skip file, blue screen, restart, unknown device found! HOORAY!, files missing, restart, safe mode, blue screen, restart, turn into hulk, punch bill gates...

hailrazer · **Posted:** Fri Mar 04, 2011 8:07 am

Haunted360 wrote:

How. Explain please! Do I need to change the protection circuit parts etc?

You would need to add an external charging port. You would need to bypass the charging circuit in the laptop.

Forget about it.

blaze3927 · **Posted:** Fri Mar 04, 2011 8:35 am

there should be a serial or product id on the side of the actual cells, search google or ebay for a compatible cell/cells and you should be set.

Haunted360 · **Posted:** Fri Mar 04, 2011 7:35 pm

Oh ok. Thank you.

Snow_Cat · **Posted:** Fri Mar 11, 2011 1:16 am

^- - ^ I guess I've been lucky that I've never had a laptop that didn't have a serial port.
^ - -^ If you don't want to make the expansion card from scratch you could buy one (this is supposedly an actual parallel port, and not that 'compatible only with printer' nonsense)
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/pcmcia-par ... -card-6187
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/serial-rs2 ... -card-5572

^_ _ ^ ... people do change their avatars from time to time.

Laptop Battery Question

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