5 Simple Ways to Repair a Dead Laptop Battery

Laptops are widely considered great for their portability, the users are free enough to carry the laptop
to the places they want. The components that assists the laptop to be portable is the battery inside it.

Despite improvements in the Lithium ion technology, laptop batteries have become one of the devices which has a short lifespan, that can be 2 years or 300-500 recharges maximum. After this period the battery can be dead and demand a repair due to variety of reasons such as the Battery age, Insufficient charging, Overcharge and Overvoltage. When this happens the laptop may demand the user to connect it to a power source all the time, once the user disconnects the AC Adapter the laptop may simply shutdown. At this time it is always advisable to repair the battery for a better performance.

But imagine a situation where you need to carry out an important work with the laptop and you are outside without a power source. At this time you are forced to repair and squeeze out the life of your battery. This can be a cheaper option for you to avoid buying any new expensive batteries for a replacement. When I say the battery is dead, it means the battery is completely dead and not usable without a power source. There are other possibilities where your battery might be bad not needed any repair, in this case you will be able to charge but the capacity may be smaller. If you suspect that your battery might be just bad there are few techniques without a need for a repair to extend its hours of usage. I have written an article on how to increase your laptop battery life. Make sure to check it out.

In this article I will be listing out 5 Simple Ways to Repair a Dead Laptop Battery. At the end of this article you will be able to restore / revive / fix a dead laptop battery.

Let's get into the topic,

1. Freeze the Battery

In the world of electronic devices there are 4 most used battery types. Those are Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH), Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) Lithium ion (Li+) and Alkaline. Apart from Alkaline batteries which are used in TV remotes and wall clocks, the other 3 are rechargeable. This means the chemical process happening inside them are reversible, so that they are used most in laptop batteries.
In every rechargeable battery there is an electrolyte and a plate, when the electrolyte and the plate interacts there will be an energy released. Overtime due to lifespan and the interaction between the electrolyte and the plate there will be a byproduct be formed between the interface, this byproduct causes hindrances to the interaction.

By the method of freezing, you can form ice crystals that can crack the byproducts to expose the electrolyte to the plate. This makes the interaction between the electrolyte and the plate back to normal and helps to restore the charging process. Freezing method has been proved scientifically working for most number of battery types. If you are using NiMH or NiCd type batteries you can retain at least 90% of the power it had.

For the Freezing method,

          1. Shutdown your computer.
2. Unplug the AC Adapter.
    3. Remove the Battery.
4. Place the battery inside a Ziploc bag or Plastic bag.
5. Place the dead battery inside the freezer for about 10-12
hours. (Do not place it for more than 24 hours as it may
              cause the battery to leak)
          6. After the time period take out the battery and remove the bag.
7. Dry out any condensation left using a towel and and allow
it to reach the room temperature.
8. Place the battery back into the laptop.
9. Charge it until it reaches 100%.
   10.After it has reached full charge unplug the AC Adapter
and allow it to discharge completely.

Repeat the steps 9 and 10, 3 - 4 times, this will make your dead battery restores back to normal.

Note :- Use this method only with NiMH or NiCd battery types. Do not attempt this with a Lithium ion battery as it will cause the battery to damage further and destroyed.

2. Recalibrate the Battery

Recalibrating is needed most for an old battery that has been dying rather than a new battery. In general many users always plug in their laptop and never allow their battery to discharge. Due to this the Operating system will not be able to calculate how much charge is actually left.

When this happens the system may be showing wrong charge indications. For an example your laptop may be showing it has full charge but it will get shutdown at 10-15 minutes of short time. These are the indications that your battery needs a calibration. Many manufacturers have come up with an automatic calibration, but you can do it manually.

To Recalibrate the laptop battery,

1. Charge the laptop to 100% or reach the full charge limit.
          2. Unplug the AC Adapter from the laptop.
          3. Keep the laptop turned on until the battery completely drains.
          4. Shutdown the laptop and keep it for around 3-5 hours.
          5. Turn on your laptop normally and charge it to 100%.

That's it, you have successfully recalibrated your laptop battery. Now your Operating system should be giving more accurate readings about the capacity of the battery.

3. Cool down the Laptop

Heat can be one of the causes for a dead laptop battery. When you have placed your laptop inside a hot room or doing some intense works with the laptop, excess heat can be produced inside it. Because the laptop batteries are one of the prone devices to heat, the heat produced can directly affect both the lifetime and the performance of the battery.

So in this case use a cooling pad to cool down the surface of the laptop. And also make sure that the Air vents that releases heat out are not obstructed. By this way you can make sure not to damage the battery further.

4. Perform a Full Recharge

Like every other electronic devices in the world, battery too fails overtime. When this happens the battery drains too fast and the ability to hold the charge decreases and ultimately the battery become dead. By performing a full recharge and discharging it often, you can significantly boost up its life.

While recharging and discharging often is considered a life reducing task in new lithium ion batteries you can try it out for the dead laptop batteries to make them function normal.

To Perform a Full Recharge,

         1. Turn on your laptop.
         2. Remove the AC Adapter.
         3. Allow the battery to drain until it reaches less than 5%.
         4. Connect back the AC Adapter.
         5. Charge it for about 48 hours continuously for a Full Recharge.

5. Remove the Battery

The reversible chemical reactions inside the battery makes the laptop battery rechargeable. External factors such as Heat can obstruct the chemical reactions. So by removing the battery you can make the battery to be cool while the chemical reaction may continue to occur whether it is plugged into a laptop or not.

Many laptops may continue to work fine without a power source but some will not. And make sure that there is no any sudden power cuts when performing this method as it will lead to a data loss.