Seeking a working Battery for my TravelMate P643-MG

bk109

Hi all, I've got a question for you - I've got an ancient TravelMate P643M that I rediscovered in my spare devices cupboard that I decided to bring back to life. For a 10 year old device, it's working surprisingly well, but the battery seems to be a goner. As my first attempt to source a battery failed with the only battery I found online (a 3rd-party OEM one) that was supposed to work with the device is only discharging (recognized as a AS10D41, but doesn't charge), I have to ask - is there any shot in hell to actually find a battery that still works with that laptop as there seems to be a whitelist that blocks "compatible" batteries from working with the device?

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/714313/battery-not-charging-on-an-ancient-travelmate-p643-mg

Hi, if you upgraded to Windows10 or even W11 and just updated Windows there will be some driver and BIOS issues (MS ACPI battery protocol) with this W7 laptop, not only a battery issue. This is a compatible battery: Battery for Acer TravelMate P633-M,replacement Acer TravelMate P633-M laptop battery from Singapore(4400mAh,8 cells)

bk109

That shouldn't be a problem as the battery detection and charging circuit is handled directly by the UEFI, which is why as soon as a battery outside of the whitelist* is inserted, the battery LED starts blinking, with Windows driver being used to just check battery health and state. Still, just I gave Win 7 a try just in case, but as expected - it still just discharges.

*Confirmed to be a whitelist, since I borrowed an original "known good" AS10D31 and it got recognized as such, but the laptop refuses to charge it (it only discharges just like the compatibles) as the UEFI's not seeing it in the whitelist (of the basically identical AS10D3E, AS10D5E or AS10G3E).

billsey

Here are the batteries Acer used in those models:

The batteries in those days weren't as smart as they are with the newer models, so any of those 6 or 9 cell batteries should work, even the no-name brands. What are the odds, do you think, that your issue is actually with the charger and not the battery? It should be a 90W 19V with your G model.

bk109

Unfortunately, the whitelist stops those batteries from charging. I tried several that were supposed to be .073 and .129 compatible from reputable sellers on Amazon and eBay that I've used before, but all 3 replacements(two .073 and one .129 compatible) exhibited the same behaviour. As for the charger - also "not it", as I've got a spare charger that I got with a Pro Dock for the same laptop and both work fine. Since, again, I didn't want to rule out a software issue - I even repeated the tests using the original (as in full drive image) of the OS as "shipped" and still nada.