my old'ish laptop battery life sucks

[baxtej44]

computer:
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name JARED
System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
System Model Presario R4000 (PX353UA#ABA)
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 15 Stepping 0 AuthenticAMD ~1994 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Hewlett-Packard F.1C, 8/24/2006
SMBIOS Version 2.31
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)"
User Name JARED\Jared
Time Zone Central Daylight Time
Total Physical Memory 1,024.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 574.16 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 1.41 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys










bought about 4 or 5 years ago, can't really remember...

but i mean we're talking less than an hour when just surfing the internet, simple stuff you would think.


any other time it spends it's life plugged in 24/7, but every once and a while i wish i could unplug it and not have it die in less than an hour.


i know to like close anything i'm not using, dim the screen, etc, but i want some long life battery that will help me when i go off to college in the fall.


so hit me with the best long life battery that fits this computer please.

also if anyone can find if it would be easy for me to install some additional RAM in thing, that'd be great. it only has 1GB, and it just tends to run a little slow some times.

 

[red93terror]

laptop batteries arent like cell phones. when you keep em plugged in it kills it. i learned the hard way. im running a 2008 toshiba satellite with vista and on a FULL charge it goes 5 minutes until it shuts down. i aint droppin 119 bucks on a new battery. especially when i plan to upgrade this year

 

[COPPERHEAD85]

Yep,Gonna eat up a $100+ for a good one
Ill check tomm at work and see what I can get it for if you want.

 

[baxtej44]

laptop batteries arent like cell phones. when you keep em plugged in it kills it. i learned the hard way. im running a 2008 toshiba satellite with vista and on a FULL charge it goes 5 minutes until it shuts down. i aint droppin 119 bucks on a new battery. especially when i plan to upgrade this year

can anyone back this up? and is there any type of battery (like how there is alkaline, lithium ion, etc) that can handle being plugged in almost 24/7? i don't really plan on bringing it with me to classes... but idk maybe i will if i see that i need to. and well i'm gonna be a college student, i won't have the cash to upgrade, so i'll probably upgrade before med school tho

Yep,Gonna eat up a $100+ for a good one
Ill check tomm at work and see what I can get it for if you want.

well it's a price that would be worth to pay i suppose.

that'd be great btw.

 

[mjonesjr]

I can back that up. Any time you keep a laptop plugged in consistantly, it will kill the battery. Laptop batteries need to be cycled (charged, depleted, and recharged) to keep their life long.

You need to buy a new battery. You should look to shell out $100-$200 for a GOOD battery.

 

[baxtej44]

what about features on the battery? how many cells am i looking for? does that pertain to how long it will last?

 

[mjonesjr]

I would get a 9 cell battery if there is one available for your model.

 

[baxtej44]

I would get a 9 cell battery if there is one available for your model.

i think it's worth it to spend some quality money on a good battery, especially now that i know the proper way to work with my laptop.






also, any insight about the memory on my model? how much can it hold? i've heard some have the expansion slot at an easy to reach location, and some models have the stock memory tucked in a hard to get to place. how much of an improvement would i notice if i could double my ram? (1-10 ten being the best) what about just adding a 512MB stick? (1-10?)
i could probably look on google



just looking kind of to do a tune up on the computer i guess before i go off to college... any free diagnostic programs that someone can read the results here and let me know what's bad/going bad on it etc?

i use:
CCleaner
Avast! Antivirus (Free)
Ad-Aware (Think it's for spyware and stuff) (free)
McAfee Security Scan Plus (Free, not sure this really fixes anything, just kind of lets me know if something is wrong)

 

[COPPERHEAD85]

Didnt get a chance to look it up today,had inventory and was busy as hell.
Ill hit it up first thing tommorrow.
We rolled our laptop battery sales to a new company the first of the year and they are great to deal with.Their costumer service is awesome!

They freakin speak english lol!

 

[Ranger Dave (B25)]

also, any insight about the memory on my model? how much can it hold? i've heard some have the expansion slot at an easy to reach location, and some models have the stock memory tucked in a hard to get to place. how much of an improvement would i notice if i could double my ram? (1-10 ten being the best) what about just adding a 512MB stick? (1-10?)
i could probably look on google

Go to TigerDirect.com and sniff around under Memory until you find the memory configurator or whatever the hell they call it. It'll ask you for the name and model of your laptop, and voila, comes up with a max capacity.

CDW.com might have the same thing.

HP's website certainly will.

Found it: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/campaigns/campaigntemplate.asp?CampaignID=576

 

[88_Eddie]

laptop batteries arent like cell phones. when you keep em plugged in it kills it.

exactly right, pretty much ANY rechargeable battery is this way. if you arent gonna take your laptop to class with you, see if you can removed the battery and just run it off the charger. i could do this with my IBM i used to have, but i know some laptop batteries are internal.

$100-$150 for a new battery is better than $500-$700 for a new laptop right? just get a new battery. same thing with RAM, just make sure you have available slots to install more

 

[baxtej44]

http://www.buy.com/prod/compaq-r400...e/q/listingid/47802523/loc/111/211830958.html

12 cell... this would theoretically be better than a 9 cell right? you know how wire manufacturer's can kind of lie about the true gauge of their wire (by like adding more insulation instead of wires, etc)? can they lie in any way with laptop batteries? are all 12 cells the same?


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...e3242ba&itemid=320487524195&ff4=263602_263622

i mean 30 dollars? this has to be a scam right? it can't be as good as a battery direct from HP... what is the difference though? why is it so cheap?

 

[mjonesjr]

Buy a battery direct from HP. You will get a MUCH better battery.

 

[baxtej44]

Buy a battery direct from HP. You will get a MUCH better battery.

alright, if i can find an HP produced battery online, other than the HP website, would that be alright?

i mean if it's labeled as HP, it has to be HP right?

it's just like buying from the ford stealership (that's HP's website) or a auto shop (a different website) but if i can get the same OEM specs and what not, it should be hopefully okay? I will look into buying directly...




http://www.shopping.hp.com/store/product/product_detail/DP390A
^^people don't seem too pleased with the battery....

 

[mjonesjr]

Seems like the reviews I was reading on that battery seem good. There is always going to be people who don't have anything good to say.