Dead laptop lesson.

MAK DADDY

Moderator
I know this isn't a bbq subject but it keeps me from posting on pelletsmoking.com!

I have a 3yr old Sony viao, bought a new battery from an online store back east. Seems simple enough right? I look up the number for the battery and match it to their listing by make and model number as well. The battery arrives with this letter and CD stating that the new battery will not work until you run this update BIOS disk on your computer with the old battery installed still. OK, sounds easy enough, I follow the instructions it does it's thing, then on reboot (which it does automatically) I get a blue screen... Worse yet the laptop won't power off as the update disabled the on/off button. So I remove the old battery to kill the laptop, put it back in and no power, I mean the switch doesn't work anymore WTF??? I call Sony, they give me the lecture on only buying batteries from them and send them the computer for repair. Sure enough, the BIOS upgrade the company had me run toasted the systems board and cost me 600 bucks! Multiple emails to the battery company with no reply of coarse.

Long story short, don't buy after market batteries for your laptop, or I am just extremely unlucky...
 

Jessie

New member
Similar thing happened to me with my Vaio.

I actually hated the laptop the ENTIRE time I owned it. It never held a charge, I always had to plug it in, replaced the battery twice, and then it totally shut down on me. I gave up and tossed it and bought a different laptop.

Customer service was awful, completely put me off from buying another Sony laptop.

I'm sorry you have to deal with Sony too!
 

scooter

Moderator
Bought a no name large capacity (twice the cells) battery for my Compaq just after I bought it to replace the one that came with it. It's been working for years now. Guess I'm the lucky one from what I've been reading above. Sorry to hear of your troubles MD!
 

ht01us

New member
You can consider me a "Mac" owner for life! Switched to Apple 3 years ago; I'll never look back.
Soon to be a "Mak" owner for life as well.
 

TentHunter

Moderator
You can consider me a "Mac" owner for life! Switched to Apple 3 years ago; I'll never look back.
Soon to be a "Mak" owner for life as well.

He he, I'm quite the opposite (but that's an issue for another forum).


As a computer tech for a local computer shop I hear nightmare stories like Bob's on a daily basis. Hopefully someone will find this info helpful...

Laptop batteries are funny things because NOBODY makes their own laptop batteries. They are ALL made for them by third party companies. Example: remember the Dell battery recall a few years back? It affected more than just Dell notebooks. We had scads of customers with other brand notebooks who's batteries were from the same manufacturer and were also affected.

The best thing to do is search by the part number printed on the battery itself and not by the laptop/notebook model number. Usually an original replacement will have the same part number and not a different Mfg's. part number.

AVOID batteries being sold on that "oh-so-famous-online-auction"!!!!

Its the same with notebook power supplies. Search by the part number on those as well if you need to replace one.


Hope this helps! ;)
 

jimsbarbecue

Moderator
I do hard disk recovery as part of my business, I need to tell you I have recovered hard drives of politicians to software writers. Who didn't have proper backup procedures in place. Be smart and backup. I use and recommend Acronis for personal backup. Recovery of a hard drive that still turns I can do. When the hard disk doesn't turn it can involve wheelbarrows.
 

TentHunter

Moderator
...Be smart and backup.


I will second that. Jim's advise is very wise indeed!

Every day we get people in the shop, including business owners, who never backup their data. Then when their hard drive dies they always say the same thing, " I can't loose my data!" They expect a tech to wave a magic wand and make it all come back

Another wise practice is to be sure and keep track of your software licenses! Same deal; we get people who throw away their MS Office product key (or other software) then get mad at us because we can't install a new free copy for them.
 

MAK DADDY

Moderator
Lucky for me I do back up and since the hard drive was not effected by the BIOS disk (only the systems board) i didn't loose any data.
 
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