HOW-TO: Rebuild your laptop battery

Admit it. Come out of denial. You know your laptop that was supercool 2 years ago now gets 15 minutes of battery life. It sucks and we all share the same problem eventually. Laptop batteries (and many others) will start to lose their total charging capacity after awhile. It's slow so we usually don't notice it until years later. But when it happens, you can't help but go insane. Laptop batteries usually cost a fortune (my 12-inch powerbook battery is like $130). This is why you should take the road less traveled and rebuild your battery.

So what do you have to do? Well it�s not too complicated, you just have to basically replace the individual cells inside of the battery casing. Ever have an R/C car and you had to buy those $20 battery packs at Radio Shack for them? Well if you take a close look, it�s usually just 6 batteries saran-wrapped together with a proprietary plug. Same goes for these laptop batteries.

Now before we go any further, let me issue a warning. Although most of us think we�re invincible, we�re not. This is something that could lead to harm if you don�t follow everything directly. If you�re new to hacking apart electronics and what not, don�t proceed. Have a specialist help you. We�re not responsible for anything that may happen, mkay? Kay.

Allright so let�s get started. Take your fork out of the electrical socket for a moment and check it.
Remove your battery from your laptop. Try to get it drained all the way if you can. Look at the label on your battery. Somewhere near the warning where it says �Don�t do this, don�t do that�blah blah blah� you should see a model number for the battery pack. Probably something along the lines of �Lithium Ion Battery Pack No.� Pry off the cover of your battery pack like so.

....which will reveal something like below.

Individual cells.

If you have a powerbook like me, it�ll look like this:



So. Now we�ve got a bunch of cells. Cute. Find the part number for them. As you can see in the pic above the powerbook battery, the number is printed directly on the wrapping. In this case it�s CGP345010. Ok great. What�s that mean? Google it and see. Ahhh! It�s made by Panasonic. Wonderful. Now we have to go get replacements. If there�s 6 cells, you�ll obviously need 6 new ones. Try this website for ordering them.

Get out your xacto knife, wire cutters, etc. for this. You�ll need to carefully remove all the cells. Each battery pack is different so we can�t say how it�ll work out for you. Just be careful and don�t throw away the old ones.

Take out all the metal contacts etc. until you have yourself a blank battery tray.

Chances are your battery cells will come with wires on there for connecting it to something. No. We don�t want these. We need this to lay in the tray! Remove your black and red wires but keep any others left. It�s usually to keep them from short-circuiting. Next, take any coating and tops off your old batteries and move them carefully onto the new ones. After you�re done, you should have naked old batteries, and new batteries that look like the old ones.

Next, you need to get contact going. Obviously using metal. You can either solder them together properly with a metal strip on the front, or just try positioning the metal correctly inside the case with the cells. I did the 2nd method and it worked for me after some tinkering around.

Almost there. Put everything back together like it was and make sure you check out your finished product with a multimeter to make sure there�s a current. If all is well, throw it all back together and then into your laptop. Charge it up completely without using it and voila. You my friend, are set.

Much thanks to electronics lab, and reader [surfer] for the tips and pics! In my opinion, the PowerBook battery is much easier, but don�t let that stop you! Just take care!

[lupinstel @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

Don't forget to dispose of the old cells in a campfire.

[fdisk @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

Don't you have to puncture them with a sharp metal object first?

[Carl @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

Yeah... although I hardly ever without an AC plug in sight, my powerhouse vaio loses power in less than 10mins if it goes without its precious ac adapter... Definetly time to fix it.. lol thanks

[Rudy @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

Sh*t! I just threw mine away and bought a new one. This was just last week too! Ugh!

[Jeff D @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

This article is a lawsuit waiting to happen. I'm more than a little nervous about a how-to which advises "just try positioning the metal correctly inside the case with the cells." These cells are much more volatile than the old NiMH or NiCd batteries, and results of improper handling are serious. I'm not saying that rebuilding cells is a bad thing -- I'm just saying be smart, and careful, about it.

[Samuel McConnell @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

Psh, they have a rock-solid disclaimer.

[Elias @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

So how much did the new battery cells end-up costing?

-- Elias

[Buzz @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

I can't find my batteries (GAPFH3) online...*sigh*

[someone @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

The original tutorial is MUCH more detailed if you're thinking about doing this:

http://www.electronics-lab.com/articles/Li_Ion_reconstruct/index_1.html

[surfer @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

" If you have a powerbook like me, it�ll look like this: "
http://web.adu.edu.tr/akademik/uozyilmaz/rebuild

[Richard Keller @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

www.batterysavings.com

Don't forget to check out our site for NEW SAFE batteries. Battery Cells are typically matched to maximize safety and performance. The problem is laptop batteries create heat and by "rebuilding" your own you create the risk of creating a FIRE hazard that sits on your lap. Apple justed recalled 1000's of batteries because of this problem. So I would beware and wholeheartdly recommend against it. Is your lap and health worth the 20-40 dollars you'll save.

[product @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

We provide laptop Batteries information. We also provide camcorder, digital camera, pda, cell phone, power tools battery information for samsung, canon, sony and more.

[enderst @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

seen another tutorial basically the same info but, the part that concerned me was soldering new tabs on the cells. so i haven't rebuilt my packs yet. now i've found this article and i'll try it. won't be soldering but welding ;)
here is some info to build a battery tab welder
http://www.philpem.me.uk/welder/

enjoy

[Peter @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

I was looking to do this myself on a old dell, the new 2650 battery I found for about 60 bucks on ebay, and it would be ~40 bucks for the lion cells to rebuild the pack. I suggest people spend their time looking for a good deal on a battery rather than a cheap fix for 10-20 bucks less unless you have a newer laptop. Soldiering near LION incorectly can damage a cell internally, and its not like you can open a lion battery to see if you messed it up....

[Middle school teacher @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

Hmmm... I don't think it'd work with my Averatec battery based on the way it's constructed. I'm not sure how I'd get the casing open.

[Julio Poggi @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

Dear sirs:

I am interested in knowing if you can provide me with batteries to reconstruct the battery pack for laptops and notebooks. If this is so, I would appreciate your information in these regards.

It would be a pleasure tu start our commercial relationship.

Thanking you in advance for this information and waiting for your replay, I remain,

Yours very truly,

Julio R. Poggi M.

[Colin Gale @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

If you have a Smart battery the 'brain' can sometimes monitor the batteries and it may decide that the battery are past use and dissallow charging, Smart Battery workshop is one tools to 'reprogram' the brain, accsmart accsmart pro is another. I replaced my batteries with larger cap version but battery life was the same, I built the i2c (smbus interface) rewrote the specs in my batteries brain and bingo a longer lasting battery

[X @ Dec 19th 2005 2:43AM]

Cool site. A friend showed me this site and before you know it, I pryed open my panasonic lets note battery pack. Wish I could up load a photo to show you. Now the next step. Sourcing the battery.

[Joe @ Dec 27th 2005 12:55PM]

Does anyone know of another place I can purchase these batteries at a good price (CGP345010)? The site listed above has been out of stock for a while (no thanks to you readers ;) ) and I'm wanting to do this within the next week or so. Tried googling it to no avail...

any advice???