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by Skyshade, South Carolina USA
<STYLE type=text/css> .def_font{ font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:12px; color:#FFFFFF; } </STYLE>I know a lot of people visitthis sitelooking for advice and recommendation on buying a new laptop, but no matter what laptop you buy it eventually will get old with the usage and some of you will come back trying to solve a particular issue or finding information on replacement or upgrade parts. Battery is one of those possible replacement parts and, unfortunately, you usually need a new battery two or three years after the laptop is purchased when sometimes even the original manufacturer does not carry the battery anymore.
The good news is that you should find plenty "compatible" batteries advertised in Froogle or eBay, so your chance of finding one battery for your laptop is high. The bad news is you usually cannot find any review or detailed information on either the battery or the seller/manufacturer what-so-ever.
Fortunately, we here at NotebookReview.com have a chance to test one of the batteries from Mugen Power, which provided us with a list of Sony compatible batteries to choose from. The test unit we received is their HLI-TL7605 battery, compatible with Sony laptops using PCGA-BP2NX battery. These laptops include Sony's GRX, GRZ, and GRV series.
External Comparison
Based on my recent search for a battery for my cell phone on-line, it is very interesting to see so many negative responses about either receiving the wrong battery or a battery that doesn't fit (in dimensions). Well, I have no complain like this for this test battery that I received.
To be fair, when I was first asked about the review opportunity, I told them I have three different Sony models that I can test. I didn't say which one I would like to test, but at least I got one that I can test, so I would still say they gave me the right battery.
On the other hand, the dimensions of the HLI-TL7065 are very, very close to those of the original PCG-BP2NX, as you can see from the comparison pictures below. It is a little bit tighter fit, but it's not that you have to push to get it in the battery compartment of my GRX-550. In fact, it's more like the original PCG-BP2NX is quite loose and will slide itself out if you open the compartment door.
There is also a picture (poorly taken) that compares the two connectors. Again, there is no difference except the original battery has a dirtier connector.
Top view of the original battery (left) and the test battery (right)
Bottom view of the original battery (top) and the test battery (bottom). Notice the difference in capacity
Comparison view of the connectorsOne thing I did notice a difference is on the claimed storage capacity. You can see them in the pictures, too, with the original battery claiming a 4000 mAh and the replacement battery claiming 4400 mAh. It is not uncommon to see such a difference in these after-market replacement batteries because of the different internal parts used. Since the replacement had a higher capacity, I really had no complain but to hope the number claimed is true.
Battery Performance
Once I plugged the new battery in, the computer had no problem booting up or any other problem. It took roughly two hours to charge it, which is consistent with the charging time of the original battery. A partial charging graph done with Battery Eater Pro 2.51 was created later and it showed that the battery took 32 minutes to charge the first 25% or so (Windows kept giving me warning windows every minute about Battery Eater violated this and that, so I had to terminate the charging plot). Again, this is consistent with the charging time suggested for the original battery.
Charging plot done with Battery Eater for HLI-TL7605 Battery in Sony GRX-550
Looking at the Battery Eater display, it showed that this new battery has a 4112 mAh (59210 mWh) design capacity and only a 3848 mAh (55420 mWh) full charge capacity, compared to the 4112 mAh for both design and full charge capacity in the original. I was somewhat disappointed initially, but realized that it could be the fact that the battery has not gone through "break-in" and the capacity is not properly calibrated. I decided to go ahead to do the discharge test and see if it would change anything after my tests.
Manufacture Sony Corporation Model PCG-GRX550(UC) ModelEx R2461477 OS Windows XP Service Pack 2 CPU Manufacture Intel Corporation CPU Model Pentium 4 mobile (production) CPU Frequency ~1192Mhz CPU Extensions | MMX | SSE2 | HT | APM Level 1 Instructions 12 Level 1 Data 8 Level 2 Data 512 Total Memory: 511Mb Memory slots 2 ( 1: 256Mb; 2: 256Mb; ) Adapter Mobility Radeon 7500 Resolution 1024x768 OpenGL render device GDI Generic OpenGL driver version 1.1.0 Vertex shader version 1.1 Pixel shader version 0.0 S.M.A.R.T. Supported and Enabled HDD Model TOSHIBA MK3018GAS HDD Serial 32QK1498T HDD FirmWare Q3.02 C Device Name Manufacture Sony Corp. Serial # Unique ID Sony Corp. Chemistry Lithium Ion Temperature Termal Control Not Present Designed Capacity 59210mWh Full Charged Capacity 55420mWh Designed Voltage 14.4V Current Voltage 16.574V Manufacture Date 0/0/0 Cycles Count 0 Cells count 4 Force charge support Not Supported Force discharge support Not Supported CPU BEmarks 385 GPU BEmarks 2295 RAM BEmarks 3029 HDD BEmarks 1397 Pi calculations 0 Cycles HDD readwrite 0 Mb Fames Rendered 0 Frames Total time 0:00:00 Battery Eater initial report on the new battery. Notice the Full Charged Capacity is lower than the Designed Capacity
Using Battery Eater, two tests were conducted on the new battery. One was the "classic" test, where heavy duty work is running to drain the battery and find the minimum time to discharge the battery completely, and the other was the "idle" test, where the system is on but otherwise doing nothing to give you the maximum battery life. The original specification calls for 2 to 2.5 hours of, so I expected the "idle" number to get close to 2.5 hrs (maybe more, because of the claimed 4400 mAh capacity) while the "classic" number will be equal or less than two hours.
For the test, I turned off the screen saver and all other battery saving options. A USB wireless mouse was connected, as well as a wireless PC card. The battery clocked in 1:44:57 in the classic test and 2:25:30 in the idle test. Both numbers were as I expected and showed that the replacement battery is indeed capable of meeting the original specification.
Manufacture Sony Corporation Model PCG-GRX550(UC) ModelEx R2461477 OS Windows XP Service Pack 2 CPU Manufacture Intel Corporation CPU Model Pentium 4 mobile (production) CPU Frequency ~1194Mhz CPU Extensions | MMX | SSE2 | HT | APM Level 1 Instructions 12 Level 1 Data 8 Level 2 Data 512 Total Memory: 511Mb Memory slots 2 ( 1: 256Mb; 2: 256Mb; ) Adapter Mobility Radeon 7500 Resolution 1024x768 OpenGL render device GDI Generic OpenGL driver version 1.1.0 Vertex shader version 1.1 Pixel shader version 0.0 S.M.A.R.T. Supported and Enabled HDD Model TOSHIBA MK3018GAS HDD Serial 32QK1498T HDD FirmWare Q3.02 C Device Name Manufacture Sony Corp. Serial # Unique ID Sony Corp. Chemistry Lithium Ion Temperature Termal Control Not Present Designed Capacity 59210mWh Full Charged Capacity 55420mWh Designed Voltage 14.4V Current Voltage 14.778V Manufacture Date 0/0/0 Cycles Count 0 Cells count 4 Force charge support Not Supported Force discharge support Not Supported CPU BEmarks 0 GPU BEmarks 0 RAM BEmarks 0 HDD BEmarks 0 Pi calculations 4847 Cycles HDD readwrite 41222 Mb Fames Rendered 303647 Frames Resolution 800x600x32 FullScreen Disabled Mode Classic Total time 1:44:57 Discharge rate (minimum) 118 mWh Discharge rate (maximum) 4294929137 mWh Discharge rate (average) 3939436595 mWh ![[IMG]](images/storyImages/4462.gif)
Battery Eater report for the "Classic" test
Manufacture Sony Corporation Model PCG-GRX550(UC) ModelEx R2461477 OS Windows XP Service Pack 2 CPU Manufacture Intel Corporation CPU Model Pentium 4 mobile (production) CPU Frequency ~1195Mhz CPU Extensions | MMX | SSE2 | HT | APM Level 1 Instructions 12 Level 1 Data 8 Level 2 Data 512 Total Memory: 511Mb Memory slots 2 ( 1: 256Mb; 2: 256Mb; ) Adapter Mobility Radeon 7500 Resolution 1024x768 OpenGL render device GDI Generic OpenGL driver version 1.1.0 Vertex shader version 1.1 Pixel shader version 0.0 S.M.A.R.T. Supported and Enabled HDD Model TOSHIBA MK3018GAS HDD Serial 32QK1498T HDD FirmWare Q3.02 C Device Name Manufacture Sony Corp. Serial # Unique ID Sony Corp. Chemistry Lithium Ion Temperature Termal Control Not Present Designed Capacity 59210mWh Full Charged Capacity 55420mWh Designed Voltage 14.4V Current Voltage 13.934V Manufacture Date 0/0/0 Cycles Count 0 Cells count 4 Force charge support Not Supported Force discharge support Not Supported CPU BEmarks 0 GPU BEmarks 0 RAM BEmarks 0 HDD BEmarks 0 Pi calculations 0 Cycles HDD readwrite 0 Mb Fames Rendered 0 Frames Resolution 800x600x32 FullScreen Disabled Mode Custom Total time 2:25:30 Discharge rate (minimum) 1878 mWh Discharge rate (maximum) 4294944152 mWh Discharge rate (average) 4289992382 mWh ![[IMG]](images/storyImages/4463.gif)
Battery Eater report for "Idle" testIdeally, I would like to have the original battery run through the same tests and then compare the results. Unfortunately, my original battery is as old as my laptop and it had worn of some of its capacity. It only achieved an hour and ten minutes or so in the "classic" test. In any event, I believe the two battery tests had demonstrated amply that the new battery is as good as the original.
On the other hand, the "break-in" for a new battery was completed after the two tests -- both completely drained (to 3% or so) the battery. Long and behold, the Battery Eater reported the full charge capacity as 4375 mAh (63000 mWh) instead of 3848 mAh (55420 mWh) in the latest report, matching the 4400 mAh claim on the bottom of the battery.
Manufacture Sony Corporation Model PCG-GRX550(UC) ModelEx R2461477 OS Windows XP Service Pack 2 CPU Manufacture Intel Corporation CPU Model Pentium 4 mobile (production) CPU Frequency ~1194Mhz CPU Extensions | MMX | SSE2 | HT | APM Level 1 Instructions 12 Level 1 Data 8 Level 2 Data 512 Total Memory: 511Mb Memory slots 2 ( 1: 256Mb; 2: 256Mb; ) Adapter Mobility Radeon 7500 Resolution 1024x768 OpenGL render device GDI Generic OpenGL driver version 1.1.0 Vertex shader version 1.1 Pixel shader version 0.0 S.M.A.R.T. Supported and Enabled HDD Model TOSHIBA MK3018GAS HDD Serial 32QK1498T HDD FirmWare Q3.02 C Device Name Manufacture Sony Corp. Serial # Unique ID Sony Corp. Chemistry Lithium Ion Temperature Termal Control Not Present Designed Capacity 59210mWh Full Charged Capacity 63000mWh Designed Voltage 14.4V Current Voltage 16.925V Manufacture Date 0/0/0 Cycles Count 0 Cells count 4 Force charge support Not Supported Force discharge support Not Supported CPU BEmarks 0 GPU BEmarks 0 RAM BEmarks 0 HDD BEmarks 0 Pi calculations 0 Cycles HDD readwrite 0 Mb Fames Rendered 0 Frames Total time 0:00:00
Battery Eater report after the tests. Notice now the Full Charged Capacity is higher than the Designed CapacityConclusions
In conclusion, the HLI-TL7605 battery is a good after-market replacement to the Sony PCGA-BP2NX battery, just as advertised. The charge capacity is slightly better than the original and the drain time is indeed matching the original specifications. Hopefully, the good results on this particular battery can also be found in the other batteries by Mugen Power and people will have less headache looking for a replacement battery for their Sony laptops.
Where to buy:
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Last edited by a moderator: May 12, 2015
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Discussion in 'Notebook News and Reviews' started by Skyshade, May 2, 2005.
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