"a) Open the battery case of the Dell Inspiron 6000 6- or 9-cell battery pack without excessive irreparable damage to the plastic case," The Dell cases are known for being glued shut in such a way that it is next to impossible to cut them open without damaging the casing. My suggestions: - a Dremel tool with a cutting wheel and EXTREME caution; cut into a cell and it's kaboom. Keeping a bucket of sand nearby in for the possibility of fire is a good idea. - Buy a dead or second-hand battery on-line and experiment with that and some blunt, non-conductive tools first. "b) Replace the 6 or 9 cells inside with quality cells and connect it through the "battery controller"," There's no hardware manual anywhere that describes how to do this, so you will have to do what everybody else who has done this has done: make a careful diagram of the circuit and layout before disassembly, mark all your wires, and proceed carefully. "c) Ensure that the battery controller still actively/dynamically holds the volatile...

A few things. 1. This is possible, if not exactly easy. It is also definitely cheaper, and you can produce a battery pack that's as good or better than the original if you make sure to purchase high quality cells. 2. This claim: "But what is worrisome is that despite doing so, I have been given to understand that there is a special electronic circuit in the battery pack which is intentionally programmed by Dell to block the PC's access to the battery cells (even if the cells are OK), after a specific number of hours of use or a specific number of recharge cycles, so even after changing the cells inside, the battery pack will remain dead, i.e. inaccessible" is not true. What is true is that charging lithium cell is not like charging your old NiCd batteries or your car battery. If they aren't charged properly they can catch fire in a most spectacular fashion. Lithium batteries degrade relatively quickly, used or not. They are also sensitive to temperature. Right now, that's the price of high performance. If...