Replacement battery advice

[GotNoRice]

I have a Compaq X1000 from mid-2003. It’s a Pentium-M 1.4, 1.5Gb Ram, 60Gb hard drive, Mobility Radeon 9200 64Mb. I’ve kept it in great condition and it still suits my needs just fine for now but the battery life has gone from 5 hours to about 2.

I’d like to get a replacement battery but I’m not sure which route to take. I appear to have two choices.

There are many like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300232165290

This looks just like the battery pack I have now, and most of the auctions claim that the batteries are “new”, but beyond that I fully expect that these batteries are all from the same ~2003 era as the laptop is. I figure that if I’m lucky then they are unused batteries, but worst case it is a used battery and it would be no worse than the one I have now, and I’d just end up with another 2 hour battery; at least it would be a legitimate HP/Compaq battery…

Then there are a bunch of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280235684161

These appear to be compatible but are of dubious origin. I have less doubt that they were manufactured recently and are new batteries but I’m more worried about my laptop exploding or catching on fire with one of these.

What would you all recommend?

 

[averagejoe]

Just recived a batterie from what I belive to be thr same manufacture but differnt Ebay seller. Ottoman Trade ships very fast from the USA for just a little bit more cash. It holds a charge well, dose not over heat or seem to have any other problems. I used to race battery powered remote control cars. So know a little about batteries. These seem to be working very well. Fresher is better with fruit, vegitables and batteries. DId not buy the exact battery you need but one for a Sony Vaio PCG-FX340. So take this review with a grain of salt.

 

[j-dawg]

I bought an OEM battery for my old laptop after its original battery conked out on me, and despite being five years old it still gave me three hours on a charge. It cost me five dollars more than one of the newer "compatible" batteries from Hong Kong and may have given up half an hour to them, but the peace of mind was worth it.

 

[vipinc65]

stick with OEM