"Sam Goldwasser" wrote in message
...
This is a Presario 1200 series. It works fine in every other respect
but not only does the battery not charged or recognized, there is no
evidence that the OS even knows this is a laptop with a battery.
Device Manager has no entry for battery management and the "Power Options"
entry in Control Panel doesn't have a battery mode.

So, is this bad OS install or bad hardware? It's XP. Yes, believe it or
not,
I'm not running Dos 3.0 on this one.

Any comments appreciated. This isn't a big deal as the battery is old and
most likely dead anyhow, but I'm curious.

Yes, I know what they say about curiosity....

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above
is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included
in the
subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

G'day Sam,

Can you power up the laptop with only the battery? Probably a silly
question, as the battery would be flat by now. The best method of
eliminating hardware is try substituting the battery - if you can find
another one of that vintage. Although it may be the power management
software, if you're unlucky it will be the system board. If you can find
another laptop of the exact same model, try substitution. First the battery,
then the hard disk, which will eliminate the software. Does the laptop have
any leds which register the presence of a battery?

Batteries are quite complex these days, with feedback circuitry of all sorts
(I'm no expert on batteries). I read once that most laptop batteries fail
not because of bad cells, but faulty circuitry.

Henry Mydlarz
Australia