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Ask HN: How to charge a battery outside of a laptop?

3 points by giantg2 ↗ HN
How can one charge a battery that is outside of the laptop it came in? It appears the charging circuit in the laptop is dead, but it still runs on the battery. It would be nice to use it by just charging the battery externally.

3 comments

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solardev
It would depend on the specific laptop and battery, usually. Some but not all manufacturers make external chargers. Otherwise you might have to try to replace the laptop charging parts, or find another laptop that uses the same battery (but maybe has a broken screen or whatever, for cheap).

There's also third party adapters, like https://www.direct-charging.com/en-us/collections/external-l... (never used them, not a recommendation, just a google search)

giantg2
Thanks! This is an HP internal battery. I think I found a variable voltage charger that will work (battery says it's 11.4v). Unfortunately, it looks like charging circuitry is on the motherboard, and the CPU is integrated with it. So that would be very expensive to replace.
solardev
I'm confused. You both said the battery is outside the laptop it came in (suggesting a removable battery?) but also that it's internal.

If it's external (ie it can be detached from the laptop and the charging prongs are accessible), check out those adapters. They have their own charging circuit that mimics what the motherboard would do. It's just a question of whether they made one for your specific battery.