Where can I find a decent yet inexpensive battery for my E6400?

Any advice? Thanks!

 

Try finding one on eBay.

 

There's essentially 4 kinds of batteries you can get on eBay (no particular order)...

1. New China-made aftermarket "replacement" batteries
2. New "Genuine OEM" Dell batteries that are merely counterfeits and the same as #1
3. Genuine Dell batteries that have been used (to varying degrees)
4. Genuine Dell batteries that are new

#1 and 3 can be had fairly cheap, I'd recommend you go with #3 if you can find a lightly used one for cheap. The E6400 batteries still incorporated the LED check lights which have a "flash back" feature.

When the button is held down for more than 3 seconds, it shows the remaining useful battery life % instead of the current remaining capacity. When this feature is used the more lights that come on, the LESS the remaining battery capacity is. So if 3 lights flash back, half the battery's useful life is over. If only 1-2 lights come back, then it's not badly used. Zero lights flashing back means it's pretty much new, however there's two problems with this. One, if the battery is totally defective, it may not flash back anything either. Two if the battery is counterfeit it probably doesn't support the flash back feature.

The other problem is people selling used batteries often don't know about the flash back feature and never post those details (however you can ask an individual seller to perform this at least and see what they say).

#2 are more expensive than #1, usually by about $10; but, are pretty much just the same thing with a fake Dell label.

#4 are most expensive, though sometimes you can get a steal on one. You can usually tell the real from the fake OEM batteries from who is selling them. If it's some mass-seller from overseas or a mass-seller that also deals with non-Dell branded batteries, it's more than likely it's a counterfeit "OEM" battery. If it's an individual selling them or someone that sells a few other Dell parts that are obviously genuine, then they're probably the real thing.

The good news is Latitude parts in general are plentiful. You can usually find batteries in #3 category for the same or lower prices as #1 category, that have been very lightly used, are off lease, etc. I've bought a few Dell batteries in this category and have had good results with them. I recommend you do the same unless you can find a #4 for cheap.

 

I will also suggest #3. I had decent luck with #3 the first time I did it for my M4400 (same batteries at the E6400). I bought a #2 off of Amazon. #2 was a great way to describe that battery. It worked OK for perhaps 2 weeks then was giving me an error.

WR,
Thanks for the 3 second button tip about battery condition!

 

In my part of the wood (malaysia) there is someone that I know that do recell. Basically he will split open the casing and replace those old cells with whateva that we choose. The best are them panasonic hi capacity cell rated at 500 cycles. Then he will reflash the chip so the the chip will recognise them cells as new. Practically one can get a battery better than new that way and I have done it a couple of times with Elitebooks. It works great.

 

Pretty cool. Most of these Dell batteries seem pretty hard to crack open without damage though...guess he might have special tools/methods though? Flashing the chip is also a big thing. In fact, I wonder how much more life you'd get out of the battery if you just reflashed the chip and left the cells the same? A lot of people speculate that Dell's programming essentially shortens useful battery life in order to sell more batteries and new laptops!

 

There are issues with just reflashing the chips only because of them unbalanced cells. They dont all degrade at the same rate. Manufacturers has been cramming more and more capacity into them cells that makes them longevity suffers. Standard Latitude batteries can last two years with slight degradation when used in our hotter tropical climate. I suspect that can last a bit longer than than when used in a more temperate climater further from the equator. Now when i get replacement for my Dells I opt for them 3-year batt. The slight max capacity loss is a small price to pay longevity. I also disable express charge regardless of types of batteries that I use.

 

Thanks for the info guys! I'm not gonna lie, im a little uncertain about the used OEM batteries...