Laptop battery in Tokyo

[epoch]

Anyone know where I can buy a battery for a Lenovo ThinkPad in Tokyo?

[FG Lurker]

You could order from Lenovo Japan (online) or maybe Yahoo Auctions?

[BigInJapan]

[Coligny]

[USB]

[epoch]

Thank you for your suggestions. I am a bit sceptical of buying online as my japanese language skills are sorely lacking. However, I will consider buying from Amazon.

As for Yodobashi etc. I'd imagine they don't stock batteries and would probably charge an arm and a leg to get one, but that's just my assumption.

(I was hoping for a battery warehouse where I could walk around browsing shelf upon shelf with batteries ranging from button cell's and triple-A's to Prius replacement packs. Alas, not even in Tokyo I suppose.)

I see some cheap, but perhaps dubious batteries on Ebay with free shipping to Japan and I am wondering what kind of taxes might apply and how they are paid. Is there a limit below which no taxes or customs are paid?

[IkemenTommy]

if you are bold and know how to do some soldering, why don't you try fixing it by replacing the internal cells by yourself. It is way cheaper that way.

There are plenty of dyi tutorial videos on YouTube.

[FG Lurker]

I see some cheap, but perhaps dubious batteries on Ebay with free shipping to Japan and I am wondering what kind of taxes might apply and how they are paid. Is there a limit below which no taxes or customs are paid?

Do not buy 3rd party cheapass Li-ion batteries. Dig around in Google and Youtube for all the videos of laptops catching fire and mobile phones exploding. Not every battery blows up of course but I prefer to be on the safe side of Li-ion.

What is the model code on the bottom of your notebook? It will probably be near a bard code and look like this:

TYPE 2644-AAJ

[FG Lurker]

There are plenty of dyi tutorial videos on YouTube.

dyi... That'd be Do Yourself In?

Batteries really aren't that expensive, I'd just as soon not mess around with something that has the potential to do so much damage if it goes wrong.

[Mock Cockpit]

I bought a replacement battery for my Dell from a mob called Rowa Japan. http://www.rowa.co.jp/ . 3rd party, seems to work better than the original battery, certainly getting longer battery life. Was reasonably priced, arrived quickly, can say anything bad about them.

[epoch]

I've been considering just replacing the cells, but I'm a bit sceptical of the battery control circuit catching up with the new cells, particularly since at least one cell is completely dead. It's also not much cheaper than buying a 3rd party (8 cell) battery on ebay.

I don't worry much about it being 3rd party as I haven't seen any correlation between 3rd party batteries and explosions. All the well publicised reports that I've seen have been of OEM batteries exploding.

[Doctor Stop]

How about just calling Lenovo and asking them if they'll sell you a new battery? 0120-80-4545

http://www.lenovo.com/jp/ja/

[davai-davai IV]

[IkemenTommy]

dyi... That'd be Do Yourself In?

Batteries really aren't that expensive, I'd just as soon not mess around with something that has the potential to do so much damage if it goes wrong.

Re: DIY, good catch there.

The batteries for the older, discontinued Lenovo (IBM) models go for a shitload. I was looking for 4 cell for X41 but they were asking $150 so I said screw it. The generic OEMs on Rakuten were maybe 2/3 of the cost. I figured that it was wiser just to get one of those ultra-portable netbooks instead.