We buy laptops for mainly for the mobility it provides us. Laptops have allowed us the opportunity to work even when we’re away from our desk, which gives us a big boost in productivity. But over time the reliability of laptops becomes affected due mainly to the batteries failing. It’s inevitable that the life of a laptop battery will slowly diminish until it reaches a point where it will only carry a small charge and will provide power for such a short time you’ll need to constantly plug into an outlet.
The expected life of a battery is usually only up to 800 charging cycles, which is roughly equivalent to two to three years. It’s a fact – batteries also expire. Even if you take all the necessary steps to protect and take care of it, your battery will just die. Most people whose laptop batteries go dead will just chuck it away and buy a new one without thinking about reviving the battery. The common belief is that reviving a laptop battery takes a lot of time and effort. But the truth of the matter is that reviving a battery is not that hard. All you need is to follow these simple steps.
First, make sure that you remove the laptop’s AC adapter from the electrical outlet and use up all of the power stored inside the laptop battery. You can either go low tech and just use your laptop until it refuses to turn on anymore or you can use tools like multi meters to determine the remaining voltage left in the battery.
Remove the battery from the laptop and wrap it with old newspapers. After you’ve wrapped it (a couple of layers will be sufficient) put the wrapped battery inside a zip lock bag. The plastic bag will help keep out moisture from entering the battery terminals and contact points. This is very important because moisture inside the battery will definitely ruin it so make sure that no moisture enters the bag when you close it.
Put the wrapped and plastic-bagged battery inside the freezer and leave it there for a minimum of one day. Different batteries will have different freezer storage requirements. In fact, there are some batteries that will need to be stored in the freezer for a week to revive it.
After leaving the battery in the freezer for the required time, take it out and leave it until it reaches room temperature. Wipe the battery to remove any beads of moisture that develops on its surface. You can leave the battery out in the sun to hasten the drying process if you want.
Now put the battery back into the laptop and charge it until it is fully charged. Drain the battery once again and then charge it again to its full capacity. Repeat this cycle for at least four times and then check if you’ve successfully revived the battery. If it doesn’t repeat the whole revival procedure .
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