Charging a laptop battery, without a laptop

Question

I have an old-ish laptop that only works on AC power because the battery is old and no longer holds a charge. I live in Christchurch New Zealand where there has recently been a number of very large earthquakes. During one of these earthquakes my laptop was thrown from my desk to the floor and now does not respond at all when the AC adapter is connected.

Given that the laptop is not responding to power, is there another way I could charge a replacement battery for it as I don't currently have funds to repair the AC adapter on the box.

My research would suggest that this isn't possible as chargers need to take into account the specifics of the model of battery being charged

Solution

It is possible to charge the battery without a laptop. But doing this is dangerous.

You would need to Google the make of the battery and find the pin out diagram of the battery in question. What you are looking for is the + and - terminals on the battery. But this is something I would definitely not recommend.

What I would suggest though, is that you take apart the laptop and see what is broken in side the laptop. There may be a change the socket where the AC goes in to has come loose and that you can simply solder this back on to the circuit board.

There isn't much else you can do though, I wouldn't recommend charging the laptop battery without a laptop though.

Comments

[Admin]

How do you know the laptop isn't just broken ? If your battery is flat, and the AC dosen't work ?

[Admin]

It's possible the box is broken in other ways, but not having any power source means I can't even try to boot, so I'd still like to find a way to charge the battery though

[Admin]

Suggest "earthquake" tag.

[Crippledsmurf]

Accepted because it provided an answer to the question, and a somewhat less dangerous alternative

[Yogesh Dube]

Good luck with it. You can survive Earthquakes don't go getting electrocuted!

[oldmud0]

Some laptop batteries (HP) in fact do have a charging port on the side that connects directly to the adapter. I've yet to see one again though.

[Jamie Hanrahan]

@mickburkejnr There is utterly no danger of electric shock at the battery terminals or from the output terminals of the AC adapter (the "power brick") The voltage is too low. To charge the battery safely without the laptop requires an adjustable-voltage, current-regulated DC power supply - the OP is not likely to have that, but as long as you keep the charging current low (under about 1/20C) there's no danger of lithium battery issues.

[Yogesh Dube]

@JamieHanrahan I never at any point referenced that electric shock was the potential danger, you're quite right that the voltage used is fairly low. The problem comes from the battery chemistry and how there's a potential for the battery to damage itself, combust or expand.

[Jamie Hanrahan]

What was "don't get electrocuted", then? I'm glad we agree.

[Yogesh Dube]

I don't know, but it's not in the answer I gave.

[Jamie Hanrahan]

It's in your comment, which shows here as being entered at 22:59 on Jan 5 '11.

[Yogesh Dube]

That wasn't a serious comment. If electrocution was an issue it'd have been part of the answer.