[plug] Any low-level hardware hackers on list?

[simon]

Hi all

A while back I bought a celery 466 laptop (a Gateway Solo 2150) which is
currently running Mandrive LE 2005. When I bought it the battery was stuffed
(they were ex-work laptops, and people generally kept them plugged in and
never cycled the batteries). A few months ago I managed to buy a new battery
from the US at a decent price, which worked fine for about the first 4
charges, but now the machine refuses to charge the battery and refuses to run
off it (I believe it is partially charged, before it went bung it was charged
to 18% or something).

Upon investigation, I found this is a design flaw with this model, and there
is probably nothing wrong with the battery, but rather the charging unit
inside the machine. The problem appears to be with the 'intelligent' Li-ion
charger, in that it isnt very intelligent. Or possibly there is a suicide chip
inside the battery which the machine activates when it believes something is
beyond spec (eg temperature) for 'safety' reason (ie, to sell more batteries).

Since the laptop is useless to me without battery power, Im gonna open it up
and hack around inside it. Has anyone on-list had experience with such things?


Please reply off-list or OT.

Thanks

--
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Simon Scott
simon at plumtek.com
mob: 0409113359
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