Help! Powerbook 150 battery!

[benjgvps]

I'm im living in Canada and the last place that I could buy a Powerbook 150 battery (www.intelligentbatteries.ca) has said they no longer make the battery anymore! I want to buy a battery for my laptop because I'm sick of having to have a cord everywhere I go. I might have to try the freezer trick for the one that I have for it right now but I still want a new battery the trick is last resort because I like having the 20 second zip of power when the is apower surge and every thing else shuts off but my laptop . So Does anybody know of a Canadian supplier for powerbook 150 batteries? I'm in need of a battery here 8-o .

 

[tomlee59]

Depending on what you have available, you may wish to consider cracking open the battery case and replacing the cells. I haven't looked in some years, but DigiKey used to sell the individual cells. It might be cheaper/easier for you to go that route.

The freezer trick will likely not help here because these are "dumb" batteries, so there's no thermal sensor circuit to be fooled into waking up.

You should, however, try to recondition the battery by gently discharging the battery, fully recharging it, and discharging it again...If you're lucky, the run time will keep increasing until you get to a useful value. If not, the batt is toast, and re-celling is called for.

 

[benjgvps]

I saw somewhere a while ago that somebody replaced the batteries in a powerbook battery with nihcd c sized batteries. Is it possible? I don't trust myself with taking stuff apart much and I'm terrible with a soldering iron so I got rid of it. though I just put the battery in the freezer this morning I don't have much to lose. i might experiment and try to have fun if I kill the battery (think running a laptop off AAs).

 

[applefreak]

Replacement Laptop Battery for APPLE PowerBook 150 Series

http://www.odm-battery.com/batteryproducts.php/1+APPLE+PowerBook_150_Series

 

[tomlee59]

That's a remarkably good price for a brand new, guaranteed one (if shipping isn't too outrageous).

Still, compared to the cost of a 150 these days (~0), it's high. Cheap Bastards like me will still hunt around for bare NiCd cells at a dollar a pop (or less) and perform surgery.

 

[benjgvps]

I ordered the one from the site you gave me and it will be here in 10-14 business days I will tell you guys my experience when I get it.

 

[Quadraman]

Open it up and replace the cells. You can replace the old NiCads with high capacity NiMH cells and greatly improve the life of the battery.

 

[benjgvps]

Just got it in the mail today and its on it's 2nd discharge/recharge cycle out of 5. though so far I'm impressed I'm used to it going out in 30 sec but it's goes for much longer that that. This is my best purchase since half life 2 (best game I have ever played in my life and I hate fps games).