What to do with a "new" PB5xx Battery...?

[Tango Niner]

Hi all, first post on 68KMLA and I'm thrilled to be here. Lots of good and useful reading here!

So... I just bought a new-in-box PB5xx Intelligent Battery on eBay, for $60. (yes, waaay too much but I couldn't resist - working PB5xx batteries seem to be really hard to find!) The seller said s/he bought it in 1999, intended to use it, didn't, stored it, then they upgraded to the next best thing etc.

Box appears sealed and untampered. (see pic)

I was about to open it and try it out, but before I do I thought I'd seek advice from the wise ones on this forum.

1) What's your odds on whether it even works? 19 years is a long time for a battery...

2) If it DOES work, what's the best way to preserve it as long as possible? I've kinda forgotten my NiMH procedures.

3) Any useful utilities, etc that I should look for? I believe I have LindBU or something similar.

4) Or should I just leave it in the box as some kind of weird time capsule?

I'll be trying it on a smoothly working PB540c.

Cheers,

T9

 

[jefframsey]

According to this: http://www.pmbl.co.uk/blog/how-to-store-nimh-battery-packs, storing NiMH batteries either fully charged or fully discharged will last indefinitely, taking two to three charge-discharge cycles to restore them to full capacity.

Congrats on the new battery. I think you made a great purchase!

 

[IlikeTech]

That is actually what I noticed with my PB520c battery.  A few quick blasts at a battery with the Reconditioning software, and a few charge and discharge cycles, I had a 520 with about an hour of battery!

It took about 3 cycles to fully restore!

 

[Tango Niner]

Thanks for the info guys. Between my 520 and my 540c, I have three batteries, and I've managed to coax exactly zero hours of useful time out of them. :-/

When I've launched Battery Recondition, it says that it "cannot be used with this Macintosh." So maybe I have the wrong version?

Looking forward to trying the "19 years fresh" one.

 

[IlikeTech]

You want this version.  Try the attached file.

View attachment Intelligent_Battery_Update.sea.bin

 

[Tango Niner]

Much appreciated ILT! I'll give it a whirl.

 

[Tango Niner]

Well, the IBU that you gave me at least ran on my PB 540 & 540c machines, unlike the other version I had. But despite repeated attempts to revive my 3 old batteries, none of them are retaining any kind of charge large enough to keep the machine running without AC power. Too bad.

There's a teeny bit of juice in there - my date/time settings are preserved for the 5 minutes or less that I usually take to switch between different electrical outlets in the house. That's something.

Still haven't cracked open the "new" battery... ;-)

 

[IlikeTech]

Can you run it a few times?  I had to.

 

[Tango Niner]

I ran it about four times for each of my 3 batteries. Each time it said "The battery could not be updated. Please return it to your Apple dealer" or something similar.

I guess I could try it a few more times... :-/

 

[IlikeTech]

Mine said that same error, even thought it helped.

 

[beachycove]

Try LIND Battery Utility. Sometimes it will work when the other (Intelligent Battery whatsit) won’t, but in any case repeated attempts between one and the other really can pay off, so don’t give up too early. Essentially, you need to get enough juice 8nto the battery to wake up the little computer in the battery that controls it.

Another trick with old NiMH cells is to freeze them, which I have seen revive apparently dead cells. Somewhere like Winterpeg would be ideal for it — the colder, the better. “Dendrites” are thus broken down, apparently.  Of course, this is assuming the cells haven’t leaked. Nothing can fix that.