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>> Not a bad thing in itself ;)
>
> The entire building has very thick, very solid walls. It's a 30 year old
> block of flats, from when buildings were built properly.
Not like the building I'm sitting in right now, where the walls are
cardboard and every now and then a door handle falls off... :-P
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Stephen wrote:
> On Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:22:56 +0000, Invisible <voi### [at] dev null> wrote:
>
>> All different versions of Acer TravelMate. None of them are young any
>> more. (Maybe 2, 3 years old?) A few of them will run on battery power
>> for, like, 20 minutes. But none are very reliable. Apparently they were
>> when new.
>
> Rechargeable batteries are funny things before Li-ion batteries, the best thing
> you could do for them was is to "work" them. That is charge and completely
> discharge them regularly. With Li-ion batteries that does not work and in fact
> it is counter productive. Li-ion batteries can be kept on charge all the time, I
> believe.
> You might be able to put some new life into your old laptop batteries by
> discharging them completely then charging then again a couple of times but if
> your laptop shuts off immediately on switching the power off then I fear that
> they are goosed.
IIRC, Li-ion batteries do have a problem with building up a *resistance*
barrier inside. While researching batteries several years ago I ran
across some information, but I don't remember too much now.
If you follow a particular discharge pattern they will build up an
actual 'film' internally on an electrode. This would increase the
internal resistance of the battery. A lot of electronics detect this as
a dead battery and shut off accordingly. The problem is that the
battery still does have a good charge, just a higher internal
resistance. If you hook it up so that a current continues to be drawn
then the 'film' is burned off and the internal resistance decreases to
normal.
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On Tue, 2 Dec 2008 17:13:11 +0200, "Gail" <gail (at) sql in the wild (dot) co
[dot] za> wrote:
>
>"Stephen" <mcavoysAT@aolDOTcom> wrote in message
>news:5niaj4p1phtgnacpkb7honq0832ldbhbiq@4ax.com...
>> On Tue, 2 Dec 2008 16:12:11 +0200, "Gail" <gail (at) sql in the wild (dot)
>> co
>> [dot] za> wrote:
>>
>>>Signal's a bit low in the bedroon (thick, very solid walls)
>>
>> Not a bad thing in itself ;)
>
>The entire building has very thick, very solid walls. It's a 30 year old
>block of flats, from when buildings were built properly.
>
Jammy! (That means lucky BTW :)
In the UK you have to go back to the 1930's to get solid buildings. After the
war, {which one? I hear people say. (WWII)}, most of our buildings were put up
quickly and cheaply. I'm sure that, if I had a mind to, I could punch through
our internal walls.
I guess that your place is cool in the summer.
--
Regards
Stephen
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On Tue, 2 Dec 2008 16:05:37 +0100, "scott" <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:
>> You might be able to put some new life into your old laptop batteries by
>> discharging them completely then charging then again a couple of times but
>> if
>> your laptop shuts off immediately on switching the power off then I fear
>> that
>> they are goosed.
>
>Don't you need to maintain a minimum level of battery power in a Li-Ion in
>order to stop it completely killing itself? I believe if you drain one
>completely then you might as well just chuck it in the bin. Maybe this
>happened somehow due to a bad battery control circuit in the laptop?
>
I really don't know. It has been a very long time since I worked in the real
world. Most of my experience has been with lead acid and Ni-cads. I have ruined
a few older laptop batteries by leaving them on charge but you can overcome that
a bit by flattening them a couple of times.
--
Regards
Stephen
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On Tue, 2 Dec 2008 16:05:37 +0100, "scott" <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:
> I believe if you drain one
>completely then you might as well just chuck it in the bin. Maybe this
>happened somehow due to a bad battery control circuit in the laptop?
>
Reading Tom's post reminded me that with Li ion's there is circuitry in the
devices to stop you discharging the battery completely. And Li ion's do not have
a problem with the memory effect.
--
Regards
Stephen
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On Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:24:18 -0500, Tom Austin <taustin> wrote:
>
>IIRC, Li-ion batteries do have a problem with building up a *resistance*
>barrier inside. While researching batteries several years ago I ran
>across some information, but I don't remember too much now.
>
From what I can remember, the internal resistance builds up due to age. Whether
the battery is used or not.
>If you follow a particular discharge pattern they will build up an
>actual 'film' internally on an electrode. This would increase the
>internal resistance of the battery. A lot of electronics detect this as
>a dead battery and shut off accordingly. The problem is that the
>battery still does have a good charge, just a higher internal
>resistance. If you hook it up so that a current continues to be drawn
>then the 'film' is burned off and the internal resistance decreases to
>normal.
You live and learn :)
Again I did not know that.
--
Regards
Stephen
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scott wrote:
> "actually we think people like the old shiny reflective screens better,
> can't you make them like that". :-) Shiny things sell!
Or, as Dilbert said,
"I notice passenger-side air bag wasn't in your list."
"We find it's not cost effective to cater to those
not making the purchasing decision."
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
The NFL should go international. I'd pay to
see the Detroit Lions vs the Roman Catholics.
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Invisible wrote:
> The problem is, after 4 months the battery in a laptop stops working,
I suspect they've fixed this. It used to be somewhat the problem.
> impossible to use a computer without a mouse, so you must have a mouse
> connected too.
Most laptops have such built in these days.
> (plural)... I don't need those connected *all* the time, but it's a faf
> to plug stuff in each time I need it...
So go to the desktop machine when you need them. Share the printer and use
it remotely when you need it. :-)
I have a friend whose house is networked to the nines, and he still
complains about his flakey KVM. What??
> In short, a laptop makes no sense for me at all. And yet, I keep wanting
> to buy one.
They are indeed like that, I will say.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
The NFL should go international. I'd pay to
see the Detroit Lions vs the Roman Catholics.
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>> In short, a laptop makes no sense for me at all. And yet, I keep
>> wanting to buy one.
>
> They are indeed like that, I will say.
Heh. Well they are *designed* to be like that, eh? ;-)
There are people who have a similar problem with eating things. At least
I haven't actually *bought* a laptop! :-D
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Stephen wrote:
> Li-ion batteries can be kept on charge all the time, I believe.
More precisely, due to the complexities of charging Li-ion batteries without
making them explode, the charger has to have enough smarts to know when to
stop charging the battery even if it's plugged in. So you can leave them on
the charger indefinitely, and the charger will stop charging them as
appropriate.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
The NFL should go international. I'd pay to
see the Detroit Lions vs the Roman Catholics.
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