Samsung NC10 Battery Problem Fixed

I have owned a Samsung NC10 netbook for the past 2 years, a couple of weeks ago I tried to use it and it was dead, I plug it into the power supply and left it to charge for a couple of hours. I then disconnected it from the mains and tried to switch it on, it tried to start up but after a couple of seconds went dead. I then connected it to the mains power supply again and it worked fine. The battery manager reported 0% charge, and on the front the green light was displayed, so I figured there was a problem with the battery.

The netbook was out of warranty, but I still tried calling Samsung customer support, they were very helpful and we tried a couple of things to fix the problem, but the conclusion was that I needed a new battery. From the link Samsung support gave me to a retail site a new battery would cost about £70 ($100).

I heard somewhere that putting the battery in the freezer might help, I was not sure whether I was getting this confused with rumours that this fixes damaged hard drives, but I thought I would give it a go. I put the battery in newspaper and in a plastic bag and left it in the freezer over night. The next day I took it out of the freezer let it stand for an hour, then tried it. Nothing happened and it did not work, so I thought that's it I need a new battery.

I left the battery on the side for a week, until the following weekend. I was about to look at purchasing a new battery when I thought I would just give it a go again. I started the netbook up without the battery plugged in and with it connected to the mains power supply, I then plugged in the battery and was surprised to see the red light on the front instead of the green, which indicated it was charging. I left it for a couple of hours and when I came back I could unplug the mains power supply and it worked!!!

I still think there is a problem because it seems to report 99% power now, but I can use my netbook without having to plug it into the mains power supply and this also saves me £70 for a new battery.

I cannot say whether putting it into the freezer was part of fixing this problem, or whether just unplugging the battery and leaving it for a week helped, but something weird happened that has fixed the problem.