I would love some feedback on an old PII compaq laptop. Until recently it
worked great, but now it will not charge properly. It's a Compaq 7400 PII
366 running XP and the Compaq battery utility. It runs fine on the ac
adapter and it will run on the battery, but the battery will not charge
above 18%. If I let the battery discarge it will shutdown when it gets too
low, and will start to charge when I plug it in, but only to 18%. I have a
second matching 7400 and I have tried swapping batteries and ac adapter but
to no avail...what works fine in one armada does not work in this one. I
have read lots of info on the web about broken laptop power sockets and this
seems to be a possibility but I don't want to tear it apart while it is
still working except for the charging. Any tips or trouble shooting ideas
would be great!

Thanks in advance,

Cliff

Cliff, I think your battery is bad. I think your battery is Li_Ion, and
most laptop are powered by six Li_Ion cells in pairs (each pair
generates 3.6V). In your case the smart charging system has detected
the cells are no longer able to reach full state, hence the 18%. Get a
new one from eBay ( cheapest route). Rebuilding is not an options as
the cells are expensive and not guarantee that the programmable memory
within will recognize it as having new cells. Also, cell pair matching
is needed and most people will not have that capability/tool.
(Speaking from experience with my thinkpad 366 MHz batteries). I've
been through the above route).

Cliff M wrote:
I would love some feedback on an old PII compaq laptop. Until
recently it
worked great, but now it will not charge properly. It's a Compaq
7400 PII
366 running XP and the Compaq battery utility. It runs fine on the
ac
adapter and it will run on the battery, but the battery will not
charge
above 18%. If I let the battery discarge it will shutdown when it
gets too
low, and will start to charge when I plug it in, but only to 18%. I
have a
second matching 7400 and I have tried swapping batteries and ac
adapter but
to no avail...what works fine in one armada does not work in this
one. I
have read lots of info on the web about broken laptop power sockets
and this
seems to be a possibility but I don't want to tear it apart while it
is
still working except for the charging. Any tips or trouble shooting
ideas
would be great!

Thanks in advance,

Cliff

But I have two matching Armada 7400s and this battery wil charge to 100% in
my second machine . Also the battery from that second machine will not
charge in my problem machine. Actually the symtoms are similiar, but not
identical....

One battery will charge normaly to 18% (but no further), and machine runs
great on AC. Will also run fine on battery, but not for long.

Second battey causes the on screen charge indicator to flicker on and off,
and the screen will flicker in brightness as if it's switching back and
forth between battery and AC power.

Neither battery is NEW, but both batteries charge normally in second
machine. I agree that I would like to try a NEW battery just for grins, but
does that still seem a likely solution?

Thanks much,

Cliff

"cmdrdata" wrote in message
oups.com...
Cliff, I think your battery is bad. I think your battery is Li_Ion, and
most laptop are powered by six Li_Ion cells in pairs (each pair
generates 3.6V). In your case the smart charging system has detected
the cells are no longer able to reach full state, hence the 18%. Get a
new one from eBay ( cheapest route). Rebuilding is not an options as
the cells are expensive and not guarantee that the programmable memory
within will recognize it as having new cells. Also, cell pair matching
is needed and most people will not have that capability/tool.
(Speaking from experience with my thinkpad 366 MHz batteries). I've
been through the above route).

Cliff M wrote:
I would love some feedback on an old PII compaq laptop. Until
recently it
worked great, but now it will not charge properly. It's a Compaq
7400 PII
366 running XP and the Compaq battery utility. It runs fine on the
ac
adapter and it will run on the battery, but the battery will not
charge
above 18%. If I let the battery discarge it will shutdown when it
gets too
low, and will start to charge when I plug it in, but only to 18%. I
have a
second matching 7400 and I have tried swapping batteries and ac
adapter but
to no avail...what works fine in one armada does not work in this
one. I
have read lots of info on the web about broken laptop power sockets
and this
seems to be a possibility but I don't want to tear it apart while it
is
still working except for the charging. Any tips or trouble shooting
ideas
would be great!

Thanks in advance,

Cliff