Long story short, my laptops DC input is no longer working. Yes, I’ve tested every aspect of the power supply. I even measured the motherboard input voltage, and it is being properly fed. I suspect a faulty DC-DC converter.
So, I had this idea of removing the battery permanently, and instead emulating it with a power supply with matching voltage. I don’t really need the battery anyway (I mostly use a laptop for the form factor).
In theory, the laptop will then think it’s running off of battery power. Permanently. Are there any consequences in terms of performance that could arise from this? Of course, the power settings will need to be adjusted, but beyond that I’m wondering if there’s a hardware aspect that I cannot control.
The consequences is that the laptop battery percentage will not be accurate
they gotta write a script to make the battery % display the infinity symbol ha
Good idea. That is exactly what I’m gonna do if this works.
“It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.”
Set-ItemProperty -Path “HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons” -Name “Battery” -Value “C:\Path\To\InfinityIcon.ico”
Change the path to what ever the infinity .ico icon is going to be. Edit: …oh you’re on Linux. Hang on, that’s way easier lol. Use custom themes.
you are probably better off taking it to a computer repair shop to have the issue fixed or replaced, for peace of mind and probably liability reasons
I would venture a guess that as long as you match the voltage and current ratings of the battery then power itself wont be an issue, but there may still be some specific (possibly proprietary) data exchange that happens between the battery and the mainboard — depending entirely on the model of laptop — that confirms that the battery is legit, or to get diagnostic information. I don’t really have example of a laptop that does restrict the battery in such a manner, but this is just a concern that I have off the top of my head that I feel could be in the realm of possibility, and is worthy of concern. Potentially, it could function similar to how Apple iPhones will complain if third party components are used [1].
References
- “About genuine iPhone batteries”. Support. Apple. Accessed: 2024-10-25T20:27Z. https://support.apple.com/en-ca/103269.
This was a concern of mine as well, but from the looks of it, the battery is really simple with no apparent on board intelligence.
I’ve seen battery to wall power conversions before. As long as you’re feeding the laptop the power it expects from the battery, I don’t think it will care.
Why not replace the dc-dc converter? Seems like a much simpler fix.
I live in the middle of nowhere, so getting a new one with the right specs could take ages, same goes for the tools needed, as all I have is a crude soldering iron.
What I do have, however, is a place where I can get an adjustable power supply with the right voltage. They had to ship one in with enough wattage from a nearby warehouse, though, so they said they’d have it for me on Monday.
What I also have is ability to get a new laptop if all this goes wrong s9mehow, so I’m not that concerned.
If you are as handy as you say you are, just solder in a new jack. I’m guessing this is a Lenovo Legion based on the voltage. They are replaceable. I work in a PC shop and do them all the time.
He did say the jack is working, likely culprit is dc-dc converter, which is harder to replace.
Ooh, yeah, that changes things a bit for sure. I have seen services for motherboard repair on eBay. Maybe that’s worth a look?
It depends on the laptop. My old Thinkpad had a removable battery, and it actually ran fine without the battery installed. My Surface Book 2 has a completely broken battery stuck at 0%, and there’s basically nothing I can do except run it off the wall plug until the batteries start expanding and prying apart the computer.
I mean, I believe in you. You technically CAN do something about that. It will probably break in the process though.
Since laptops are equipped with a battery anyway, they lack of a coin cell (mostly a CR2032 cell) to keep track of time. This means that your laptop will not be able to estimate the correct time and date when powered with energy outside of the original battery, and these settings have to be made manually each time your laptop will be used.
It will work fine without the correct time set, but you might have issues with files that are created “in the future” (from your laptops perspective).
I have an old laptop (still in use occasionally, because I have a scanner that is too old to be operated with current software) where I replaced its battery once. The sign the battery was dead was that the OS issued a warning the laptop was not able to tell the correct time.
A lot of laptops still have a coin cell
Really? My laptop doesn’t. Maybe it depends on if the battery is designed to be removed by customer or if it is hidden inside the laptop, making it accessible only with tools.
Actually even a lot of laptops with non easily removable laptops still have coin cells. My work requires me to sometimes to repairs and I’m surprised by how common it still is
that’s more likely the deciding factor yeah
that and whether or not you’re me. I always seem to have the bad luck that whatever model want to buy doesn’t have a coin cell lol
I was surprised to stumble across a BIOS battery yesterday when I was taking out the drives to copy out some data, so I guess that aspect of it all is OK.
The battery is DC. How do you plan to provide DC to the battery connection from AC outlets without a convertor?
Using a DC power supply, I assume.
Okay but why go through the battery interface and not try the old converter cable one? Much easier to splice the cable past the box than try to rig a connection to the underside of the laptop. Would also prevent any ‘no battery’ issues too.
I’m pretty sure OP had that converter in mind when writing “[…] emulating it with a power supply with matching voltage […]”.
