MSI replacement laptop batteries for Canadians?

I have a GT70 2OC. I contacted msi directly and they cannot provide a replacement battery from a warehouse located in Canada. This means the $180 they charge would blow up to $240 after paying import, duty and brokerage fees.

Does anyone know where to buy msi replacement laptop batteries in Canada?

I've seen lots of bogus answers in other similar threads such a Staples, Amazon, random msi retailers... it's all false information.

I'm looking for the BTY-M6D battery specifically.

 

Have you tried contacting the US office?

 

Yes I have. I've been in contact with Tom from the US office. That's where all the dollar figures come from in the my original post.

 

Yes I have. I've been in contact with Tom from the US office. That's where all the dollar figures come from in the my original post.

 

Okay, he's the right person to talk to.

 

I've bought a couple of these last year and they seem to be just as good as the originals.

 

Yup, those are fine, but make sure to buy it from a reputable seller.
By the way, this battery pack uses 18650 cells so you can go for a DIY if you want to tinker with a rebuild.

 

I'd like to try that, but getting the plastic case apart without destroying it beyond usability kinda mystifies me.

 

Here are two youtube videos for your reference.

 

Not sure about the second dude...wanting to bypass the protection. Bad idea with a $1000+ laptop. Individual batteries are reasonably cheap.

Anyway, the electrical part doesn't worry me too much (I'm an engineering tech by trade), just getting the plastic case apart without destroying it will be the trick. The first video has a Sony battery with Torx screws holding the case together. Man, I wish the batteries for the GT70 were that easy...been wanting to experiment by rebuilding the worn-out original battery with some of the best high-capacity 18650 cells I can get. Not gonna happen till I get the case apart, but I'm torn over what method to use to get it done.

 

Use a dremel for glued packs myself. A little duct tape and it's good to go. Only thing is to be a little careful when cutting into the sides; the cells are snug against the edge, so too much and you'll scrape the aluminium container. A little further and it'll short the cell, so a good precaution is to drain the battery as much as possible before starting. Clean method to do so is booting into bios menu and leaving it like that until it shuts down; no software-set 'reserve-levels' to get in the way.

That MSI pack looks like a clip-type, though, so it could be as easy as a screwdriver ... still needs draining, of course.

Also, for some systems it might be necessary to rewrite the battery firmware, otherwise it may sail by the old max. mAh value, instead of the new, pimped value.

 

Well, that may throw a monkeywrench into the works...hadn't counted on an EEPROM.

 

Well ... that's only if this specific firmware locks out re-calibration. Re-writing the firmware isn't too hard, either, and you can also adjust the mAh value at the same time, taking into account the higher capacity cells.

Much more important; there's a also a value that sets maximum charge voltage. It is a good idea to set this to a lower value, doubling or tripling the pack's life expectancy:



After all, an important selling point of laptops is hours of battery life. Overcharging the pack to a higher voltage does increase that value and this is what reviewers (and buyers) look at. However, that is a meaningless number unless you also list the top charge voltage and, by extent, the expected battery life one year after purchase. We should be asked whether 10% more capacity is worth twice the aging/wear (it's the same thing with smartphones).

Your current pack lists 11.1V, but that is the nominal value of each 18650 cell (3x 3.7V), so check what HWiNFO reports when charge is at 100% and you'll know the maximum voltage set in the pack's firmware. See, it's possible to screw a customer by selling packs with cheaper, low-capacity cells and merely increase the charge voltage. That will make the buyer happy since it's a cheap pack and it'll have just as much Wh's and actual time-away-from-socket as when the system was brand new. Of course, it'll diminish in capacity much, much faster, but people usually don't seem to notice or even remember how long the original pack kept going.

 

I had purchased a generic replacement battery from Amazon, it cost me about $80CAD ~ $60USD and it works but out of the box it gives 3 hours of battery life, whereas the original would give about 7 hours. This is assuming you're just browsing the web and word processing, not gaming or blasting music/video through the speakers.

So to return to my original question, even though all the above suggestions for DYI are interesting, I am very short on spare time these days and trying to find an OEM battery I can just order without building one myself or reprogramming firmware....

Are these any Canadians on this forum who know where to get a replacement battery other than ordering in from the USA?

 

^ This is how you don't do it I guess. You're right in the difficulty. These are heavily glued and you'll need to use a Stanley (craft) knife a lot I think. I wish that it was like that Sony design where it is pretty much designed to be opened.

--

Can somebody find me the exact 18650 Sanyo cells (listed on Ebay or elsewhere) that come in the BTY M6D? I guess that any 2600 mAh "genuine" Sanyo is the OEM product.

I guess that if you buy 9 Panasonic cells then you could improve on OEM.

 

Knife is tricky, rotary tool is much better; cut roughly half-way through the plastic and use screw driver to wedge open the last bit. Of course, destructively opening it is fine if you only intend to re-use the old cells in such things as an 18650 power bank, flashlight or laser pointer.

See here for a comparison of various Sanyo 2600 mAh's. Doesn't really matter which 2600 mAh you get; Sanyo, Panasonic and Samsung are all very good (do get 'with tabs', unless you have professional soldering equipment). Many of the other 'high quality' brands merely resort to lithium-lottery-ing cells from those genuine manufacturers and rewrap them with their own label.

You do have to be careful when ordering; there's scammers active that rewrap used cells (from 'dead' packs) and sell them as new (anything $5 or less is highly suspect). Take care that there is a 70mm 2600 mAh Sanyo which will not fit since the protections circuit adds 5mm and a pack only accepts 65mm unprotected cells (the pack's pcb takes care of that).

Exactly, but that does need a circuit that charge to a specific voltage. Even then it'll report the wrong values to the OS, the firmware not being aware of the higher mA's it has available. However, even if it will only charge them to 80% or so (without modding the firmware), that means they'll last much longer than the old cells, probably outlasting the laptop itself.