laptop batteries <yawn>

[naswm]

mine used to last 2 hours

now its more like 45 mins

laptop is 18 months old

is this normal?
how much is a new one? (sony vaio)
can I do anythig to prolong its life?

Yes, I think it's normal. Mine last around 30 minutes now. I think the only solution once it has reached this stage is to buy a new battery.

oh how much foofi?

I enquired about a new battery a couple of months back. I bought my work laptop cheap as part of my redundancy package 12 months ago.
Unless its on the mains the thing won't work at all no wonder it was only £50 for a good spec! I was quoted £50 for a new battery.
I don't really need to use it anywhere there isn't mains power though, and have bought an extension lead for laptopping in the garden

well done!

I have looked at sony online and it says £139 [shcok]

My extension lead was only £2.99

When I think about it, there are not that many situations where I would want to use the laptop just on battery anyway.

If they brought out a laptop that was permenant mains without the bloomin heavy battery I would buy one (when this one conks).

Sony Vaio batteries start at around £20.00 on Ebay. Of course these will not be official Sony parts.

There is some risk in buying cheap copies. Faulty Lithium Ion batteries can fail in spectacular and dangerous ways. Saying that, I have a Lithium Ion battery from ebay in my mobile phone.

thanks for all the advice