Toshiba battery latch lock clip clasp widget thingy

This entry is very mundane and posted in the context of good netizenship.

My spare laptop is an oldish Toshiba. Now these Toshiba’s are good and robust laptops except in one regard; they have battery latches that are prone to disappearing of their own accord. Whence they go, nobody knows.

Losing one latch of the two is only annoying since you only really need the one. But when you lose the second one you are in trouble since the battery can fall out at any time.

You can try gaff-taping the battery into place but this won’t keep the battery power connector in place in a reliable enough fashion. You will find that you have no charge even though you were plugged in all night.

The latches are tricky to install and normally replacement of one of the two latches requires that the laptop needs a whole new cover since the latch is so-integrated.

When you talk to Toshiba and get a quote you quickly find that the repair costs about 3x the current market value of your old laptop.

So I turned to the trusty old cable ties. Two holes in the (extended) battery case and two cable ties as per the pictures below. Voila.

It must be said that cable ties are probably the most useful fix-it item of all time.