That may seem like an oddity. A laptop without a working battery. As it turns out many people don't care about the battery in laptops. Out of 1403 responders to our most recent survey only 30 or 2% indicated that the battery was the most important factor. Many people use them plugged into AC power. They like the small size and wish to move them around.

We have been in the laptop business ten years, yet until the last six months we never, ever tested batteries.

A main reason is that it is very labor intensive. You need to plug it in, charge it overnight, have a laptop available and a place to test it, turn on the battery meter and then watch it to see how long it holds a charge. Since, we have no idea how old the battery is there can be a lot of time just plugging in and checking laptops with a dead battery.

Differing applications mean that differing amounts of juice are consumed. As an example, when you type on the keyboard it uses a lot less juice than when using a wifi card.

So, you might wonder why not replace the non-working batteries. They are expensive and would add significantly to the cost of the laptop. If we had to buy one for every unit.

Batteries are unique in that most every laptop. They are different shapes, voltages and sizes, even amongst the same manufacturer. There are thousands and only those that specialize in batteries can cost effectively carry them for all laptops.

About six months ago we started a program in selective cases to test batteries. We do this when we buy a large number of laptops and know there are working batteries. In these cases we warranty that the battery will hold a charge for an hour. If you really want a working battery it is best to purchase a new one. They have one year warranties and typically hold a charge for 2-3 hours.