Almost hit a jackpot

[Dr_Evil]

My 9-cell laptop battery decided to go tits-up on me. I found this out after unplugging my laptop to move it off the table to eat a few days ago. It didn't even last 1 minute. I was thinking WTH since it was at 100%. It said it was at 3% and charging after it booted up while plugged in. It then jumped to 100% after it sat at 4% for a little bit. Appearently that particular battery has a problem. That what I found out while reading reviews for the battery at Dell's website.

I decided to take it apart after driving back home after Christmas. Turns out there is 9 18650 batteries in it. My first thought was "JACKPOT!" So I took it completely apart so the batteries were useful in my RPL and soon to be 18650 405 build using jayrob's kit. The dissapointment came after checking the voltage on each battery. Six of them read between .9 and 1.2v. No wonder the battery didn't work.I was hoping the circuit inside the battery pack went bad. Not the batteries. I'll post some pictures later on.

 

[Cyparagon]

six of the nine were bad? All the 9-cells I've disassembled had exactly three bad cells. Presumably this has something to do with the fact that it's three in series and three in parallel to get 11.1V @ six-point-something amp-hours.

Have you tried charging them anyway? I've found they're generally not dead unless they read at or near 0V.

 

[Dr_Evil]

That was one of the first things I tried.

 

[rangedunits]

Dell gave you a free battery?

 

[Dr_Evil]

No. I have to pay if I want another 9-cell battery pack.

 

[Dr_Evil]

Here's the pics.