Replacement Battery Won't Charge

[zandre88]

Hey everyone,

So I bought a Lenovo Ideapad Y550P about a year ago. I use it for a lot of things but mainly as my school/college laptop. I was one of those people who was always to lazy to take out my battery even though I nearly always worked on it, at least at home, while plugged in. The old battery still holds a decent life about an hour and a half. However I figured I mine as well get a new battery/2nd battery because I rarely have an outlet I can use while in class to charge my laptop.

So I went ahead and bought a new battery but I didn't buy it directly from Lenovo. For one I didn't want to pay the inflated price and figured it wouldn't make any difference anyways. I purchased my battery from BattDepot.com and followed the whole Brand, Model, etc in order to purchase the correct battery. I went ahead and bought it. So it arrived today and I popped it in to charge it up. The problem is it won't charge. While reading some troubleshooting ideas to fix this I read that some companies, or maybe all of them, build in protective measures so that only THEIR batteries can be used with the laptop or I guess be charged. I am using a Lenovo A/C Adapter. So I am wondering if that is the problem. Since I purchased the battery from an outside company that the A/C adapter is not recognizing the battery as a Lenovo one so it will not charge it. Or I guess it could just be a bad battery.

I am just wondering if anyone has any advice before I have to go through the process of returning this battery. I have tried a couple methods with no success thus far. If it is because the Lenovo A/C adapter is not recognizing the battery as a Lenovo one and will not charge it because of that is there any hacks to get around that? Just anything you can do to help me would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

 

[MindoverMaster]

That is all false. A battery is a battery, it doesn't care what it powers. I bought a battery off eBay for my Dell Vostro 1500. Works great. As long as it meets your desktop's power requirements.

Do they have any warranty on this? The one on eBay had a 3-year warranty. Could just be a bad battery.

 

[zandre88]

That is all false. A battery is a battery, it doesn't care what it powers. I bought a battery off eBay for my Dell Vostro 1500. Works great. As long as it meets your desktop's power requirements.

Do they have any warranty on this? The one on eBay had a 3-year warranty. Could just be a bad battery.

Yes I am able to return it for a full refund within 30 days or have an exchange/repair within 1 year of the date of purchase. I just was hoping there was maybe something I could try that I hadn't seen looking for but I'm thinking it is most likely just a bad battery. The problem is the company is located in Canada and they only allow for USPS standard shipping return shipping so obviously it will take quite a while to get back to them. Then for them to process it and finally send me another battery. Just a major pain in the arse because I ordered it with overnight shipping and now have this problem.

I was originally going to ask for an exchange but I may just ask for a refund and order a battery from another website.

A couple more quick questions that I don't think matter but might. The original battery that came with the computer is a Li-ion00 while the replacement battery I bought is just a Li-ion battery. I don't think that makes a difference but does it?

They are both 11.1v batteries but the new battery is 49Wh and my old battery is 57Wh does that make any difference? I think that just means, from what I've read and my limited knowledge, how many watts it can handle over an hour or something. I know that isn't right LOL but something like that. Could that be the problem?

Thanks for any help.

 

[MindoverMaster]

That should not matter. the Mah matters more than the watts.

I bought from this company:

Battery for LENOVO IdeaPad Y450 Y450A Y550 Y550A Y550P - eBay (item 290521069712 end time Feb-08-11 02:42:32 PST) (in your model)

 

[zandre88]

That should not matter. the Mah matters more than the watts.

I bought from this company:

Battery for LENOVO IdeaPad Y450 Y450A Y550 Y550A Y550P - eBay (item 290521069712 end time Feb-08-11 02:42:32 PST) (in your model)

Thank you. I think either the battery is just bad or it isn't the right battery for my laptop. I'm just returning it from a refund and going to buy from another company after making sure that it will work with my laptop.

Where I read that the A/C Adapter detecting that it wasn't an actual Lenovo battery wasn't actually with a Lenovo. The forum I read was regarding a Dell laptop and many people confirmed that it was the case so that is why I was under that assumption. Maybe Lenovo doesn't do that but I could see Dell doing it.

I just definitely need a second battery because this laptop has an Intel i7 in it so it burns through batteries pretty fast. I bought it because I wanted to be able to game on it as well which it does well since it also has a mid-high end video card. However I just built my first computer and use that mainly for gaming now. I am considering buying a new laptop that is more power friendly but may not have the funds for that for a little while.

Does anyone know of good companies to buy batteries from? I'd prefer to avoid eBay just because I like being able to have things shipped overnight most of the time (I have no patience). BattDepot.com I no longer want to buy from after this experience. Also I appreciate you providing the link to the eBay store you gave me MindoverMaster however I live in the US so I don't believe that would work but I'm sure I could find a similar eBay store in the States.

Thanks again all.

 

[MindoverMaster]

eBay does do overnight, you know. I do live in the US... That is a US eBay store....

 

[zandre88]

eBay does do overnight, you know. I do live in the US... That is a US eBay store....

Well thank you for the link. After looking a little closer I did see that they ship to the US and for free. What threw me was the currency AU and not US but after looking closer I noticed they do ship to the US and for free. I didn't see an option for overnight delivery while going through the payment process but oh well I will live. I made sure to check the battery model number (on my original battery) and it matched the one I just purchased so I am assuming it should work fine. The battery I ordered from BattDepot.com does not have the same Replacement Model # as my current/old battery even though that is the one that was supposed to work for my laptop. What a joke.

Anyways just a quick question for you MindoverMaster how long did it take for the battery to get to you with the normal shipping option? Also how do they ship it (ie. UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc) and do they provide a tracking number for you?

Thanks for the link by the way. It was definitely the cheapest I've seen thus far and they have plenty of positive feedback so I'm sure I won't have any problems *knocks on wood*.

 

[MindoverMaster]

I do not remember when I got it. This was Fall 09 when I got it. I think I got it within 3-5 days. I think they shipped UPS. Can't remember. They should give you an option to ship with who, and they have to give a tracking number.

btw, call me MoM. Even Trotter does.