On Sunday, November 4, 2012 9:09:03 AM UTC-7, klem kedidelhopper wrote:

For the past few months the lithium ion battery on my wife's
computer has been losing it's capacity. Now it's gotten to the
point where it won't keep the computer running more than a few
minutes in the event of a loss of AC power.

stored all the Grand Children's pictures

http://www.IrisVista.com , a website dedicated to Toshiba laptops,
is great for repair information. Iris refers to Toshiba's awful
Ask Iris help database at their website and is what their level 1
and maybe level 2 tech support have to rely upon for all their
information. If you want real help from Toshiba for their hardware,
ask for level 3. OTOH their software tech support seems decent.

I also have an A205, and it's not difficult to remove the hard
disk to make a backup with a desktop machine or with a SATA-USB
adapter:

http://tinyurl.com/mmhl7o

http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptop...assembly-1.htm

Remove the screws from the lid on the bottom that covers the hard
disk, then slide the disk toward the edge of the computer to
disconnect if from its SATA data and power connectors. Pull up
on the flexible plastic strip to remove the disk. Clone it to
another notebook hard disk, in case the original disk fails.
Notice the disk is set inside a metal cage, and you'll need to use
that if you replace the disk in the laptop, or else the disk will
flop around inside and maybe even unplug itself.

There are cheaper sources than Batteries Plus, like almost every
place except Toshiba themselves. OTOH be careful about buying
really cheap laptop batteries because some of them don't contain a
temperature sensor to tell the computer when to stop charging but
instead they have a fake sensor (fixed resistor) that makes the
computer charge at a low current forever, rather than stop when
done. That can be really bad with lithium batteries, which are
particular about how they're charged.

If the Toshiba doesn't grossly lose track of time, then I seriously
doubt its internal CMOS battery is bad. OTOH if you do replace it,
be sure to get a RECHARGEABLE lithium battery for the CMOS because
there are non-rechargeable lithiums that look just like it and even
have the same cable attached.