Beware cheap batteries

[Cush]

Last night my keyboard went down while I was typing in a fairly important bit of work. The mouse was still working, so I changed the batteries on the keyboard. Still no luck, tried several more times re-setting the reciver and so on. Closed down for the night as it was getting on and I was tired. This morning I delved below my desk and checked all the connections, still no joy. Before putting every thing back in place and calling the LCS I decided to try the batteries again but this time instead of useing the cheap Maplin one's that were on offer. I used two Energizer's, which I had bought in bulk for the camera(s) and GPS. Low and Behold every thing worked perfect. Lesson learnt again dont buy cheap batteries for important kit. Yes I will use the cheap Maplins up (probably give them to the daughter the next time she comes cadging) but I will certainly not be buying any more.

 

[PpPete]

And the Maplins ones are good compared with some of cheapie chinese stuff around !

 

[tyred]

I bought 4xAAA batteries in a pound shop once for my MP3 player. Each one allowed me to listen to approximately one song. Never again.

 

[BSRU]

I bought 4xAAA batteries in a pound shop once for my MP3 player. Each one allowed me to listen to approximately one song. Never again.

Were the songs that bad .

 

[cyberknight]

Rechargables FTW for AAA or larger size batteries , works out a lot cheaper in the long run.

 

[junglegusset]

Totally agree with cyberknight, modern lithium ion rechargeable batteries last longer than alkalines and work out loads cheaper. I would only use alkalines in an emergency nowadays.

 

[Bman]

Call me old-fashioned, but I like to plug my keyboard into the PC with good old copper cable.

More efficient, responsive and... better

 

[MontyVeda]

Yep when it comes to batteries i always opt for duracell (when my li-ion rechargeables fail me). and I'm with Bongman... guess I'm old fashioned too.


ps... there's a lot of fake duracells at knock down prices... beware of too good to be true at car boot sales et al.

 

[Cush]

When I get back home after my trip away in May I will invest in a good quality charger and batteries, but I will keep keep my keyboard and mouse I like the way I can put them out of the way with out disconnecting.

 

[Tynan]

name brands for rechargeables

never see the point in wireless mice and keyboards, how far away are you going to get ffs

 

[delport]

name brands for rechargeables

never see the point in wireless mice and keyboards, how far away are you going to get ffs

wireless is much tidier than corded, some people use at quite a distance away from the screen, a cable or two would just look a mess at a distance.We are also in an age where lcd televisions are used as monitors.

I use my pc more than a metre from the screen, i'd need 2 long cables if i wasn't using cordless, i use a bluetooth optical mouse and wireless keyboard, i've used cordless for 8 or 9 years now.

I see how bad corded is when i teach each week, they use dell corded mice and people really do struggle with the movement of these mice, and simply get frustrated.
One person i was teaching got so fed up with the corded mouse she simply gave up and will bring a laptop in next week.

As for batteries, i have some energizer and some maplin ones, i've also used the pound shop ones with no problem, the MH rating isn't very high on the poundshop ones though.
I've also bought some Aldi ones in the past.
I use rechargables for many things, including headphones, gps unit and bike lights.

 

[cyberknight]

Depends the application you use the pc for , a cheap wired mouse is fairly poor but the real high end gaming mice still tend to be wired as the twitch gamers need every millisecond they can get.

I switched from an expensive wireless MS mouse+keyboard to a wire set of similar price and it is a lot more responsive, when i used to do mmorpg ( i have stopped now i do not get the time to ) it did make a difference.

 

[Wobblers]

I've got some Maplin NiMH rechargeable AAA's. They're... okay. Not fantastic but a very long way from the worst I've ever seen. They get used in cheap rear lights that are clipped to my saddle bags - on the off-chance that I lose the light, it means I've not lost some decent batteries as well...

The low self discharge batteries are considerably better than normal NiMH's: they keep their charge, are better at low temperatures and high loads and are more reliable. I've had some for over four years - they haven't shown any decrease in performance - while normal ones tend to just die! Sanyo Eneloops are the ones to go for if you can find them but Uniross Hybrios or Duracell ActiveCharge are also good.

Last thing is, you need a good battery charger. The cheap ones have a tendency to cook the batteries while more advanced ones will monitor the charge state and terminate the charging once the battery is full. In fact, I bet your problems are caused by a cheap charger rather than the batteries themselves. So, beware cheap battery chargers!