I'm looking to replace a battery and charger for a Dell Inspiron 1545. I've Googled and found decent prices, but I'm looking for advice on any reputable sites or stores that anyone here may have used. Do I really need to purchase parts made by Dell? And for the charger, I definitely don't won't a universal one - I'm pretty sure I killed an old laptop with one of those things. Thanks
I would just buy a cheap generic battery and charger from Ebay. The prices are the lowest, and I haven't seen any difference between brands when using these products.
This. I used a cheap off brand from Amazon for my Toshiba for a charger replacement and it is BETTER than the original. I think that wouldn't be the case always, but I think you'll get pretty close to the same level for 1/4-1/2 of the price.
I agree with the sentiments above. I bought a cheap off brand battery for my vaio and probably saved 60 bucks. I had some trouble installing it though because the software seemed to be in a different language.
There is accountability when the manufacturers are forced to keep a standard by their larger customers. If Dell buys 1,000,000 batteries from manufacturer X and a good portion die, the manufacturer is held accountable by Dell. If the manufacturer doesn't make good on the failures by replacing them and increasing it's standard, they lose a lucrative contract. If I buy one battery from some nameless chinese company on ebay and it fails in six months, there is really no recourse.
