My 7 year old laptop battery has been dead for a long time and even if
I could get a cheap replacement, that battery would also be several
years old and of very limited life even if it had not been used but
kept in storage. The Smart circuitry inside my dead battery
cannot be re-set so there is no point in trying to rebuild it with the
Panasonic Li-ion cells.

However, as I only run the laptop using mains-derived power, I only
want the battery as a UPS to give me time to shut down if power
fails. Now, the battery has 8 contacts - the outer 2 are I believe
are the output and the inner 6 are for the Smart sensing circuity.

I wonder, can I rebuild the battery box with 9 AA NiMH batteries in
series to give close to the 11.1V of the original battery on the 2
outer contacts? I wouldn't want the battery to charge from the
laptop for obvious reasons, so, as and when the cells might need
recharging, I'd disassemble the battery and charge them individually
in the correct proprietary charger. And if my assumptions are
correct, the laptop should not draw power from the battery as the
power lead would be connected when in use.

Does anyone know if this would work as intended?