New laptop battery - so happy

I'm sure a handful of the regulars here will remember this thread: Windows 7 battery (Consider replacing)

As I stated on the thread, the only thing that causes the massage about replacing a battery is when the batteries long term life is starting to come to an end. My battery was in far worse of a state. It would still work for about 30 minutes, but the computer would not recognize that is was there and the battery meter built-in to the battery did not function properly any more (more proof that it was the battery, and not an OS bug). As a college student I tend to stay rather poor. It seems like school is always forcing me to pay money for something. As such, a $135 battery from Dell was out of my price range, at least until some extra birthday money rolls in (but I'll probably have to spend that on books a professor suddenly decides we need, which has happened more than once in the past).

I did some looking and came across a battery with the exact same specs as the battery from Dell on Amazon for $28 with free 2-day shipping . Got it today, charged it up all the way before using my computer (I stuck the old battery in the fridge), and tried using it for a while. Windows reports 3 hours and 25 minutes battery life. And thats after I had been using it without being plugged in for over 10 minutes. I'll admit the time shown might be off because I haven't fully cycled the battery yet, but it seems to be accurate so far (dropping by the same amount of time that has gone by). Something else I like is that the battery fits nice and snugly in the battery bay. The original jiggled a little bit (you can find complaints about this online). The battery has a one year warranty and it came with a pre-paid return label in the box in case I want to return the battery for what ever reason within that one year.

Just goes to show that this is not a problem with the OS and people shouldn't complain as much as they do about having to buy a new battery. Remember, the message is a suggestion, and like me, you can find batteries for any laptop for $50 or less. And having the chance to multiply your battery life by (in my case) 7 fold, it's definitely seems worth it.

In case anyone is wondering, the battery is a Dekcell brand battery.

Similar search on Amazon for my daughters laptop charger got a good deal and very decent shipping.

Laptop batteries usually only hold a full charge for about 1 year. After that, they just begin to dwindle. It's something that i don't think people are made fully aware of before they buy their laptop. A new battery every 1-2 years is more or a necessity than a nicety.