Toshiba Libretto eats batteries!

[Gordon S. Hlavenka]

I've got a Libretto 50, with the original battery and AC adapter. Not
surprisingly, the battery runs down in about 15 minutes -- actually, I
guess the miracle is that after all this time it holds any charge at
all. Point is, though, that I can charge that battery and run off it
just fine, so that leads me to believe that the AC adapter and whatever
charging circuitry may be in the Libretto itself are OK.

So I bought a new battery. It worked fine, but after an overnight
charge it was completely dead. The Lib won't even power on if the
battery is connected. If I connect the AC adapter and pull the battery
the machine powers up just fine but if I then hot-plug the battery it
immediately powers off. So I RMA'd the battery.

Battery #2 worked great for about three weeks, then in the middle of the
day while running without the AC adapter and 80% charge remaining, it
just quit. And we're back to the same symptoms as the first
replacement. RMA #2...

Yesterday battery number 3 arrived, and after an overnight charge it's
dead. Same symptoms. The battery LED flashes yellow, and it looks like
it's blinking out a 5-3 code, FWIW, but I can't find any documentation
to tell me what that code means. I would guess it means "the battery's
shot".

My plan at the moment is to send this battery back and ask for a refund
rather than a replacement (I'll have paid as much in postage to return 3
batteries as I paid to buy the first one) and then try buying a battery
from a different supplier. But I fear they're all sourcing batteries
from the same manufacturer and so I'll have the same problem yet again.

Has anybody else seen this behavior or am I just abusing the batteries
somehow without knowing it?

[Paul Rubin]

Post by Gordon S. Hlavenka
Has anybody else seen this behavior or am I just abusing the batteries
somehow without knowing it?

Lithium ion batteries lose their ability to hold a charge after a few
years, whether in use or sitting on a shelf. Those batteries you
bought probably date back to when the L50 was made, so are dudded out.
Your best bet is to replace the cells in the battery. You can do this
yourself or find places online that do it. Here's a DIY page:

http://www.summet.com/blog/2007/02/17/laptop-battery-refill/