I just got a pretty good deal on an old ThinkPad (think 10 years old now) to use as a beater for screwing with ArchLinux and hopefully to find a real use for. It’s in great shape like it was never really used, but big shock, the battery is at 50% effective capacity and what’s there disappears in less than an hour.
Would you bother buying a battery replacement for it? On one hand I want it to actually be usable on the go because that was sort of the point. On the other, while replacement batteries exist, I’m worried that they’re already very old themselves and already “expired”. Would you take the chance? I don’t want to let this thing go to waste when it’s still perfectly usable, in fact it’s pretty fast.
You don’t buy a genuine battery, they are indeed too old. There are third party manufacturers making new batteries for old thinkpads, kingsener and greencell are two. I have kingsener in my homelab X230(Arch) and T440p(NixOS/Silverblue) and am very happy, basically better than new(more recent battery tech).
Me, who uses a 15-year laptop, when seeing you mention yours is very old:
Depending on price I might go for it
I did spend like $40 on a battery for a 10 year old laptop a few years ago so that I could keep using it for troubleshooting a remote network I setup up awhile ago because it’s cheaper than a new laptop.
Personally I’d see if you can find a new compatible battery not necessarily an OEM battery though as being new it’s probably going to last awhile.
How would you know if it’s actually new, though? I’d assume even third-party replacements have been sitting on a shelf for years.
It’s really just making me think that laptops are terrifyingly wasteful and I’ve been right to not bother owning one.That’s a good question
For me it was looking on Amazon for batteries compatible with my laptop and only looking for new ones.
I ended up getting one from Ninja Battery, it worked great.
My idea was that if I could find a 3rd party battery for it on Amazon with a decent amount of reviews then it was likely being purchased fairly regularly so it was more likely to be new not new-old-stock.
typing from my 2012 MacBook Pro
Yes. Yes I would.
Edit: If it’s a 10 year old laptop maybe get an SSD too. SSD, more RAM, and a new battery and this thing is still pretty great for anything but gaming
I’d do it, even with the risk of buying a crap battery, especially with Arch. I’m typing this on a 2014 Lenovo with Arch and XFCE. The main thing it has trouble with is the external 4K display which is a bit sluggish–I turned compositing off to make it a bit better. The battery health is about 80%, last I checked, so I haven’t bothered to replace it. (Also, full disclosure, this is effectively my “desktop”, so it stays plugged in all the time; I keep the battery charged to 50%.)
But I tend to run computers until they die die, getting a perverse kick out of maximizing the use of old hardware. This machine used to be a Windows machine until it became so sluggish as to be unusable. Putting Linux on it was like dropping the lead weights in a sprint.
I just got old T460, exactly to screwing around with linux. yes, display is scratched, yes touchpad is shiny and battery last barely one hour and unfortunately joints are little bit loose. I was so excited, I installed linux on it right away but got really disappointed by the battery. whole idea of buying this was to be able to be in the living room with my family and still be able to play with linux.
so I ordered new battery, not oem, it costed me 40 euro and if I get 3 hours from it I will be happy.
thinkpads are great, I love the keyboard, linux hardware support is great and you can replace pretty much anything in them. I’m considering buying new trackpad from aliexpress (for $15) and I could even swap display (little bit more expensive).
honestly worst thing about old laptop (particularly one I bought) is that horrible smell of years being owned by chain smoker.
I have a tendency to keep old computers going as long as possible. I’ve replaced batteries, screens, RAM, hard drives, and cooling fans. I’ve had pretty decent experience with the batteries. If you go in expecting about 80% of its former life, you probably won’t be disappointed. I have a 10 year old machine that still runs great too!
For the price of a battery for an old laptop, you could probably find an SBC like a raspberry pi with about the same specs as the laptop. Unless your use case includes portability, it doesn’t seem worth it.
Knock off new batteries for old laptops are fairly easy to find on amazon, even. They wont be as good as an official battery of course, but they do the job. A lot of the time refurbished laptops will use this kind if battery.
As a Linux toy, I’d absolutely replace it. I have a Zenbook from 2011 that still works fine enough for desktop apps with Mint after a battery swap.
At minimum though, I’d open it up to make sure the battery isn’t a bloated spicy pillow waiting to blow.
I just got a pretty good deal on an old ThinkPad (think 10 years old now) to use as a beater for screwing with ArchLinux a-
it begins.…God you’re not wrong. I’m even considering diving into NixOS now that I’m reaching something like a usable build and want it reproducible. Part of me hopes that estrogen tablets mysteriously appear on my doorstep like I’m summoning Beetlejuice.
I’ve got a couple of machines that I put new batteries into not long ago. If it’s solid hardware, throw Linux in there and give it new longevity.
I recently bought a compatible non-OEM battery for a very old laptop as the original battery was completely shot and it would only work plugged in, and it really has made it usable again. I guess there’s always the risk that it has been sat on a shelf for a while, but if the price isn’t bad and you can afford to, I think it’s probably worth giving it a go given how degraded your current battery is.
Always worth seeing if there’s an online store with a decent return policy if you’re concerned about getting a dud, rather than somewhere like eBay!
Edit: I definitely understand your feelings about the wastefulness of laptops though, but at least a replacement battery is likely to keep the laptop going for longer.
One of my biggest pet peeves with devices these days is nonremovable batteries. I’m still using my little red GBA SP because I can get replacement batteries.
I will be more nuanced. If it is fast enough yes. If not no. My experience is computers have about a 10 year useful life before speed is a problem.