Filed under: Hardware, Hacks, How-tos, Cult of Mac, iBook, PowerBook
Fix Your Own iBook / Powerbook Batteries
File this one under: Only do this if your warranty is expired and you really cannot afford to just buy a new battery.Cult of Mac Blog's Leander Kahney posts about cracking open the casing of an iBook battery to discover what appears to be simple AA rechargeable batteries inside (they aren't; but they do look like them), and he notes that the PowerBook's battery is similarly constructed. Very cool to see.
But, then, it gets really cool when he links to this AppleFritter forum thread, which includes a nice discussion of finding replacements for these little rechargeable wonders and methods for repairing your own ailing batteries. Pretty cool. If you should decide to do this though, be very careful. Under the wrong conditions, batteries can explode, you know.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Callum said 11:55AM on 6-15-2005
That is so My iBook Battery. You un-crediting cc ignoring... TUAW an exception - you can use my photos anyday.
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Callum said 11:55AM on 6-15-2005
Link to original photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/88997175@N00/18505364/. Sorry to double post. I wasn't taking this apart to change cells - I was just curious. Got this baby on eBay for 10. Although it was advertised at 3hours life, I only got 1. So I mauled their 100% feedback. Take that for screwing over a mac-o-fant.
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C.K. Sample, III said 11:55AM on 6-15-2005
Hey, Callum,
I just did a screen grab from the Cult of Mac pic (so I didn't know to give credit to you, sorry), and I sampled a section of the image at 125x125 which falls under fair use, so I wasn't really ignoring CC. However, it is good to know that we have permission to use your pics. Thanks!
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Chris K said 11:55AM on 6-15-2005
Wow, there's a bunch of cells inside the battery!? That's horribly inefficient! They could save weight and add capacity by using a single, large cell. It makes the price of these batteries all the more laughable, too. That thing probably costs <$20 to make.
I'm really surprised Apple cheaps out on their batteries like this. Is this standard practice for laptop makers these days?
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teece said 11:55AM on 6-15-2005
I don't have an Apple laptop to eviscerate, but I do have a ~10 year old, dead Thinkpad battery to chop up. I haven't quite figured out how to fully disassemble it yet, but from what I can see, it is exactly the same: 6 AA-form-factor Lion cells in a proprietary plastic case to make it "IBM." This pisses me off, as it's a scam. It would be trivially easy to standardize laptop batteries, it seems, but laptop makers won't, because then they can't gouge for $100+ dollars on a $20 dollar part. I really, really think proprietary is a 4 letter word. The replacement for this battery cost about a $100 bucks if I remember right, and that was the generic knock-off. IBM's was $150.
It's also this way in other stuff. I have a $60 beard trimmer that has a rechargeable battery that died after a couple years. As near as I can tell, there is no way to replace that battery that the manufacturer endorses: their plan is for you throw it away in a year or two and buy another. Taking the thing apart, I found it was a couple of AA NIMH cells soldered into a proprietary, 5 case.
Seems to me that a class action lawsuit should be filed. This is con-man type thievery, plain and simple.
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Felipe said 11:55AM on 6-15-2005
That's interesting and a bit disappointing... I also thought that my powerbook battery was made of a large single cell. You wouldn't believe how much people I know with PC laptops whose batteries are dead and that have become "desknotes". Battery prices here in Brazil are way higher, which prevents people from spending more money to repair a 2 or 3 year old notebook.
I'm going to show that pic to them, tell them to find the cells, an electronic tech guy and repair their batteries for much less than the 300 bucks people charge around here for a couple of "AA batteries"...
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Blacky said 11:55AM on 6-15-2005
I've seen these Cells on eBay ( http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=79523&item=5207465770&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW ). I'm sure these things can also be found elsewhere. For about 7 Euros each they're not super-cheap but still a lot cheaper than buying a completely new battery.
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Stephan Hauser said 11:55AM on 6-15-2005
Lets put this in perspective. The Batteries that are in the ibook and the PBook are HiPower Lithium 3,6V 2000mAh Batteries. They go for about $10 and can be orderd at < http://www.slavin4u.com/lithium.html > you have to rember to have Tabs put on the Batteries or you will not be abel to solder the Batteries into the Package. The powerleads are Flat flexible circitboard making it extremely difficult getting everything to fit again. Part of the Powermanager which controls how tha Batteries are charged is also in the Package. So that ist $60 (6 cells) and some sweat and you have a Replacement, with no waranty and nobody you can blame if it dosent work or kills you because you solder to hot mixed one of tha poles and the Batterie explodes in your face. But hay you just saved $ 40 if you figured your own Pay at 1 cent a Hour that is. Put those Savings in a batteie that will serve another 2 years is $20 a year or one night at the Pub per year, and warranty.
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Henry Jones said 4:47PM on 7-03-2005
I agree with Stephan Hauser; and would not recommend anyone fiddles with these batteries unless they REALLY know what they're doing (FYI a battery is a collection of cells and short of putting a 12v Pb unit in the laptop this is the best option). Lithium cells are not as stable as NiCad or NiMih cells and need much more sensetive charging. I use LiPo batteries in model aircraft and there's plenty of info around on safety - loads of horror stories about things catching fire etc. Pay the extra and get a factory made one with a warranty.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151687
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