The3rd Earl Of Derby wrote:

You mean get a duff battery and take the cells out and connect power
supply to the lappy this way?

Yep.

Yes it is possible as an old pico I had was subject to the same
problem,however this only had 4 terminals on battery,2 of them were
not active.

Having 7 contacts is certainly complicating things somewhat. I've wondering
if the might be a 5V take-off as well as a 12V one from the battery.

Tim