> The battery issue is for safety. Read up on failure modes of LiIon
> battery packs. It certainly doesn't stop cheap replacements.

Certainly LiIon have more than their fair share of exciting halt and
catch (literally) fire modes*, but I'm not aware of any major LiIon
failure mode that increases as the cells age and lose capacity. It's
more likely that this is a  "what the market will bear" attempt.

* Mechanical construction faults that short battery internally with
time or minor impact (!) (Sony and no doubt others), over voltage,
overcharge current, over discharge (some),  over discharge current,
charge fast when too low a state, charge at all when too too low a
state, having a bad day, other ... . HP issued a recall notice on some
laptop LiIons a few months ago, it added to an existing list and they
added some more a few weeks ago. I own a "Compaq" laptop and an HP
netbook so receive  related notifications.



                Russell
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist