I have noticed that my secondhand HP OmniBook's battery only partially recharges, giving less than 20 minutes usage. Do I need a new battery or charger, or is there some other reason for this?
You probably need a new battery. All rechargeable batteries have a limited life of a few hundred charge/discharge cycles. However, NiCD (nickel cadmium) and NiMH (nickel metal hydride) batteries lose capacity if they aren't allowed to discharge fully before being recharged. So if they aren't looked after properly, their lifetime can be even shorter.
Most people don't want to wait for the batteries to run out before recharging them. That's understandable, but the batteries become useless after a few dozen charge/discharge cycles.
To avoid this problem, buy a laptop computer that uses a li-ion (lithium-ion) battery, or ensure that you allow the battery to run down before recharging it.
|
Introduction | General
