[ale] [OT] Laptop Battery Worth It?

[David Tomaschik]

I have a 4 year old System 76 laptop (Core 2 Duo, 15.4" screen, etc.).
 The battery life on the original battery is now < 45 minutes, which
makes it fairly useless away from an outlet.  I'm going to be
returning to school for a M.S. this fall, and would like something
that works in class.

A new battery would be ~$150 shipped from System 76.  3rd party
suppliers from eBay can be had for about $75.  The laptop is in mostly
good condition, though the screen occasionally flickers, but closing
and reopening the screen has fixed it thus far.  (I've tried reseating
the video ribbon cable, but the problem persists.)

Does it seem reasonable to spend $75-$150 on this laptop, or is it
throwing money away?  Does anyone have experience with 3rd party
battery suppliers on eBay they'd like to share?

-- 
David Tomaschik, RHCE, LPIC-1
System Administrator/Open Source Advocate
OpenPGP: 0x5DEA789B
http://systemoverlord.com
david at systemoverlord.com