I'm not sure if this will answer your question directly, but our 296's battery recently died, Garmin wanted to charge something silly for a new one, so I took a chance and bought one off ebay, for approx $20 ( Hong Kong) delivered to my door. Its worked flawlessly ever since. It may be worth keeping one as a spare? I usually get a couple of hours out of the battery when not charging ( I haven't had a chance to run the battery flat and test how long it goes).