Laptop concern and creative use?

My laptop battery only hold a charge for a couple of minutes, mostly its handy because i can walk between rooms and plug it back in when i get there. The HP battery analyzer i downloaded says that one or more of my cells are malfunctioning. Is it dangerous for me to keep plugging it in and unplugging it and using it like that? if it is dangerous, would it be okay to open it and salvage all the good cells.

Chew Socks,

In short, yes, I think it would be potentially dangerous to carry on using your battery like that. Once li-ion cells near end of life, they plate lithium metal onto the electrodes during charging (and over-charging). The metal can penetrate the separator and cause near instant self-discharge leading to the well known 'vent with flame' symptom. Personally, I would bother stripping the cells out of it either; I have done that with some newish batteries where one cell had gone but with a pack like yours it would be safest to simply dispose of it. The risk is obviously yours but take a look at some You Tube videos of laptop batteris on fire if you would like some incentive!

When it comes to lithium cells, most people here are reasonably cautious. If you take the cells out individually, you could put them on an analyser (or decent cell charger) but I certainly wouldn't use a cheap charger unless you really know what you are doing!

Andrew

Hello Chew socks,

As Andrew indicated, you can run into "issues" when trying to keep using a Li-Ion pack that has damaged cells.

As far as using the other cells in the pack, charge them up and let them sit for 30 minutes. The cells that maintain an open circuit voltage about 4.0 volts should be good to use.

Keep in mind that these are bare cells and you will have to treat them accordingly. If you have a quality charger, it shoud keep the charging voltage at or below 4.20 volts. You will have to keep the cells from over discharging. If you happen to over discharge a cell, recycle it and chalk it up to learning. This is safer than trying to recover an over discharged cell. Since the cells are basically free, this shouldn't be too hard to do.

Tom

It is actually quite easy to replace the cells in that
pack. But make sure you do them all a once.
try to get the 2600mA 18650's if you can..
PM me for details, as i have enough threads
to watch over these days..