Folks,
By now, we've all heard of Sony OEM batteries catching fire
and exploding in Dell, HP and various other notebooks. Here's an
example of an IBM Thinkpad 600 (perhaps 8+ years old), belonging
to Alan Cox, catching fire from a replacement battery.
http://zeniv.linux.org.uk/~telsa/boom/
Any new Li-Ion battery today is suspect, due to materials contamination.
Perhaps there's a good case for sticking with old batteries as long
as possible, and subsequently to run the machine off AC mains alone.
There's going to be widespread nostalgia for NiCd and NiMH batteries -
their only problem was the so-called memory-effect that sometimes
occurred when partially discharged and then recharged again.
I have a few that are over 10 years old and going strong - including
one in a Thinkpad 760xl, predecessor to the Thinkpad 600 (That was
the last Thinkpad that I purchased - I switched to Toshiba and Dell after
that, with no battery-related issues yet - all running on their factory-
original Li-Ion batteries still).
-Siva
