So I modded my laptop a bit yesterday – replaced the keyboard & touchpad with parts out of an identical broken portege. Sooo much nicer to type now.

And then I swapped my battery cos the original one was fried – the replacement isn’t much better – about half an hour battery life but oh well.

So here’s a photo of the old battery disassembled – I would try replacing the dead cells but I don’t think I can get lithium ion cells in NZ :S

Any ideas? (Short of buying a new laptop – cos that’s what I should really do, just need money first)

Update: I retreived the battery from the broken Portege and have been running unplugged for about an hour So now I’ve got a working battery – and a semi working backup. Still keen on ideas for reconditioning batteries though.