Has anyone replaced the battery on their laptop while on a plane?

[IkeaGnome]

On 12/15/2022 at 7:09 PM, Sirgeorge said:

So, has anyone ever taken a set of screwdrivers (sub-7 inches for TSA compliance) and spare batteries for their laptop (built-in sub 100 Wh, but replaceable, like a framework level of difficulty here) and actually bothered replacing a battery on the plane due to the built in one running out of juice? Forget any rational questions you may have about why just curious as to answers to this silly (potentially dangerous if you puncture the battery) idea.

 

EDIT:

I'm incredible disappointed with the responses I got. I'm not going to go through my technical or personal background, but yes, I have considered literally every danger point, safety concern, etc. written below and a number not. I'm not surprised by any of it. I also didn't ask to the feasibility, practicality, desirability, etc. of the matter. The question asked IF anyone HAS done it.

 

I remember actually having a genuine moment where I considered posting this question asking if this incredibly stupid ideas has been done before because I feared that the comments would be filled with lots and lots of people posting about "why would you even?" or "have you considered obvious bad thing about obvious bad idea?" or "this would obviously be bad idea due to point mentioned in the question itself".

 

In other words, negative reactions to an idea admitted in the second line to be terrible simply asking if terrible idea has ever had a practitioner willing to talk about it come out and share what they've learned with the class "Yes, fire indeed hot and hot in this particular way with this particular pain feeling" and no one actually answering the darn question. Indeed, that is what happened. There has got to be some concise way to signal that "idea is bad and I know that, now can anyone answer silly idea with silly response".

 

Side note: most technically competent people are not so good outside their chosen domain. You'd be very surprised, but doctors, especially research doctors, are stupid bad at dealing with tech beyond a certain level. They'll have cache sync issues with their own code (regardless of if they write it or not), printer issues, etc. The only people I've ever met that were still doing the two finger keyboard typing game were in a research lab. So, they're just as likely to get freaked as anyone else

I haven't done it, but it's amazing how many people are afraid to do anything while flying. I'd imagine as long as the battery isn't glued in, you have a way to keep the screws, you're fine. Flight attendants aren't dumb. If they ask, just say "My battery was dead and this is my spare." The only real caveat to it is this line:

Quote

e, all spare lithium batteries and power banks must be removed from the bag and kept with the passenger in the aircraft cabin. The battery terminals must be protected from short circuit.

Have a piece of tape over the terminals, and put that piece of tape on the dead battery when you swap it out.

https://www.faa.gov/hazmat/packsafe/more_info/?hazmat=7

The airlines I fly with for work, Alaska Airlines, doesn't allow it. 

On 12/16/2022 at 1:50 AM, Imbadatnames said:

Don’t think you’re allowed to take the spare battery in your hand luggage. Think all batteries taken with you need to be installed in a device 

Here in the states, it depends on your airline.

 

[Needfuldoer]

11 hours ago, sub68 said:

If you can take out the battery without any screws your fine.

Like these bad boys.

[Toughbook dot jpeg]

There were even laptops with tool-less, dual, hot swap batteries in the 90s:

 

 

One bay could also take an expansion cage to give you dual PCMCIA slots, but then you'd have to put the laptop to sleep to swap batteries.

[sub68]

3 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

There were even laptops with tool-less, dual, hot swap batteries in the 90s:

The toughbook cf33 is dual hotswap and its tool less, 

[aisle9]

6 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

There were even laptops with tool-less, dual, hot swap batteries in the 90s:

 

One bay could also take an expansion cage to give you dual PCMCIA slots, but then you'd have to put the laptop to sleep to swap batteries.

The ThinkPad X250 was hot-swappable and tool-less for the external battery. Didn't even have to power it down. The internal battery would pick up the slack until you installed a new external. That's the main reason I still have my X250. The external batteries have held up incredibly well, and having three of them plus the internal means I literally never run out of juice.

[Heliian]

That went well:

 

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/passenger-laptop-fire-forces-plane-evacuation-at-new-york-airport-1.6208670

[Sirgeorge]

4 hours ago, aisle9 said:

There's a reason no one's come back from WWII to talk about what it was like fighting with only a bow and arrow.

 

There's no such thing as a "more safe" fire at 30,000 feet lol. Is it a better situation than someone pouring jet fuel down the aisle then throwing a punctured battery into it? Sure, but if you puncture a battery at 30,000 feet and force an airliner into an emergency landing, you're banned from flying in the US, going to prison and possibly facing terrorism charges.

 

You asked a rational question then got your panties in a bunch because people gave you rational answers. I don't see what you're mad about. You asked, people answered, if you all you're looking for it stupid answers, r/stupidquestions is there for you.

[Sirgeorge]

35 minutes ago, Heliian said:

That went well:

 

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/passenger-laptop-fire-forces-plane-evacuation-at-new-york-airport-1.6208670

lol, we sure it wasn't a Samsung battery that wanted to be a real pillow this Christmas .