CQ ELECTRONICS BLOG

Laptop & Console

Laptop Battery Replacement Brisbane: Signs, Checks and Swollen Batteries

A laptop battery that lasts an hour, dies at 30 per cent or lifts the trackpad needs replacing. Here is how to check its health yourself, how to tell a worn battery from a charging fault, and what to do if it has swollen.

Laptop batteries wear out. Every charge and discharge uses up a little of their capacity, and after a few years a battery that once lasted a working day may last an hour. That is normal wear, not a fault, and a new battery fixes it. What matters is telling a worn battery from a charging fault, and knowing when a battery has become unsafe.

Signs the battery is the problem

  • It runs for a fraction of the time it used to
  • It drops from 30 or 40 per cent to empty in minutes, or switches off without warning
  • It works normally on the charger and dies the moment the charger is pulled out
  • Windows shows a warning on the battery icon, or a Mac shows "Service Recommended"
  • The base or the trackpad is bulging (this one is urgent, see below)

Check the battery's health yourself

  • Windows: open Command Prompt, type powercfg /batteryreport and press Enter. Windows saves a report and tells you where. Open it and compare "Design capacity" with "Full charge capacity".
  • Mac: open System Settings, then Battery, then Battery Health. It will say "Normal" or "Service Recommended".

If the full charge capacity is well below the design capacity, the battery is worn. If the two numbers are close and the laptop still dies early or will not charge at all, the battery is probably fine and the fault is somewhere else. Our guide to a laptop that is not charging covers that side.

Two bars comparing a battery when new, holding all of its design capacity, with the same battery after years of use, holding only part of it When new Design capacity: all of it After years of use (example) Full charge capacity Lost to wear A battery report shows both numbers. The bigger the gap, the more worn the battery. The percentage on screen is a percentage of what is left, which is why a worn battery still says 100%.
A worn battery still shows 100% when full. The report shows how much that 100% is really worth.

A swollen battery cannot wait

As lithium batteries age, or after they have been damaged or overheated, gas can build up inside and the battery swells. In a laptop you see it as a trackpad that has risen or become hard to click, a base that rocks on the desk, a gap opening along one edge, or a keyboard that bulges in the middle.

  • Stop charging it and stop using it.
  • Do not press it flat, puncture it or try to let the gas out. A damaged lithium battery can catch fire.
  • Keep it away from anything that burns easily, and do not leave it on a bed or sofa.
  • Do not put it in the household rubbish or recycling bin.
  • Bring it in as it is. Tell us it is swollen when you contact us.

What battery replacement involves

On older laptops the battery unclips from the outside. On most current laptops it is inside the case, held by screws or, in MacBooks and many thin laptops, glued in. A glued battery has to be released without bending or piercing it, which is the careful part of the job.

We match the battery to your exact model, fit it, and then check that it charges, that the laptop reports its capacity correctly and that it runs on battery power. If the old battery turns out to be healthy and the real fault is in the charging circuit, we tell you before any major work starts.

Making the new battery last

  • Heat is what ages a battery fastest. Keep the vents clear and do not use the laptop on a bed or cushion.
  • If the laptop lives on the charger, switch on the maker's battery-care setting so it stops at about 80 per cent.
  • Do not store it flat for months. Leave it around half charged if it will sit unused.

What to tell us

  • The make and exact model, usually printed on the base
  • How long it runs on battery now
  • What the battery report or Battery Health screen says, if you checked
  • Whether the case or trackpad looks raised

See everything else we fix on our laptop repair Brisbane page, including MacBook repair.

5% off every repair, or a 5% price beat

No competitor quote needed for the discount: every laptop battery replacement booked with CQ Electronics in Brisbane comes with an automatic 5% discount off the quoted price. And if you find a genuine lower price for the same job elsewhere, we will beat it by 5%. The price beat can't be combined with the 5% off, so you get one or the other.

Laptop battery not lasting?

CQ Electronics replaces laptop and MacBook batteries in Brisbane, for every make. 5% off every repair, automatically applied to your quote.

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