Battery dead?

[dgk]

Someone just gave me an HP ze5185 - good laptop for what I need, 2.4 ghz P4. Much better than my current 1.5 Celeron. Anyway, the only thing that appears bad is that the battery indicator flashes yellow instead of steady charging yellow. That means either battery fault or some other charging problem according to the manual. The former owner (my boss) never used the battery and doesn't know what the problem is.

I suppose that it is a reasonable assumption that the battery is just dead but is there some way to find out before spending $100 for a new one?

[ozzlo]

try charging the battery while the laptop is turend off... since it's a p4... it tends to get hot and some lappies have special protection circuits that don't allow the battery to charge if the lappy or the battery is warm. also try removing it and re-inserting it. get a volt meter and test the battery to see if it has a charge. does the laptop stay on if you where to suddenly unplug it???

[sunrunner20]

try charging the battery while the laptop is turend off... since it's a p4... it tends to get hot and some lappies have special protection circuits that don't allow the battery to charge if the lappy or the battery is warm. also try removing it and re-inserting it. get a volt meter and test the battery to see if it has a charge. does the laptop stay on if you where to suddenly unplug it???

Your lack of experance with laptop batteries is clear in my eyes. You will be VERY hard pressed to find the primary + and - for laptop batteries.
Not to mention, you need to know battery spesific info, like the battery may have a dropoff point of 18.1V and normally output 19v when fully charged.

[dgk]

It doesn't charge when turned off either. It won't boot without being plugged in so it seems logical that it would die if I pull out the plug when its runing.

Perhaps I can find a nice cheap used battery at a PC Fair. What is the lifespan of a Lithium Ion battery anyway? It must be 2 or 3 years old. Google. Oh, great synchronisity. Here (http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm) we see that a LI battery lasts 2-3 years. Even if it isn't being used. Ok, I think that's my answer. New battery time.

[ozzlo]

*edit* you must have posted while I was in town... i shoulda refreshed the page.

ya your right... I did not know how old it was.






Your lack of experance with laptop batteries is clear in my eyes.


First of all I would like to point out that your attack on my skillz is NOT helping getting this battery troubleshooted!!! I am posting from a combination of experience and material that I have read... true I don't have experience with this particular battery but there are hundreds upon hundreds of laptop batteries and to have personal experience and a photographic memmory on each one is impossible. I was only trying to offer general ideas how to troubleshoot if it has a charge. I am a second year electronics student and have been troubleshooting electronics for years. the first thing you learn in those classes is that the two most common problems why your circuit dosent work are a short and an open. maybe I should have mentioned That I did not want him to find the exact voltage but "A" voltage that would show the battery had some sort of a charge... I do this troubleshooting car stero systems all the time and if you don't have a spec sheet handy that says "this color wire has this voltage" then you test all the wire combinations and draw a diagram and link up what goes with what. your right that this is not specific solution for a battery but a general solution for electronics troubleshooting. after conducting further research... his particular model of battery has a tester button which will display his level of charge so there's no need to do this.




Originally Posted by ozzlo
try charging the battery while the laptop is turend off... since it's a p4... it tends to get hot and some lappies have special protection circuits that don't allow the battery to charge if the lappy or the battery is warm. also try removing it and re-inserting it.



what I said here is absolutley true... If you don't beleive me then take a gok at a snipplet from a hp service manual.

http://home.earthlink.net/~ozzlo/screenshot24.JPG

Two things pointed out in the manual are check battery contacts and remove from any heat sources... hmm i thought i said something along those lines.



Here's some addational information about a probable cuse for the battery not working... the battery may have been drained too far and a circuit that is designed to protect the battery from overheating keeps the battery from charging. It also shows that batteries experience wear and tear and after about 3 years the battery can degrade to the point of not working.

http://www.buchmann.ca/Chap5-page3.asp


also since you have an HP you should have specially designed battery recalabration software that should also do some battery diagnostics... try finding this program on your lappy.

[dgk]

Thanks for the links. I did try the HP calibration software. It told me that there was a problem and exited immediately. User Hostile software.

I didn't see anything in the links about restoring a battery that was drained too far. That would likely be the case with this one since it was pretty much ignored for quite some time. I think it needs to be replaced. Even if I can coax it back to life, it is nearing the end of the three year lifecycle.