Cliff, I think your battery is bad. I think your battery is Li_Ion, and
most laptop are powered by six Li_Ion cells in pairs (each pair
generates 3.6V). In your case the smart charging system has detected
the cells are no longer able to reach full state, hence the 18%. Get a
new one from eBay ( cheapest route). Rebuilding is not an options as
the cells are expensive and not guarantee that the programmable memory
within will recognize it as having new cells. Also, cell pair matching
is needed and most people will not have that capability/tool.
(Speaking from experience with my thinkpad 366 MHz batteries). I've
been through the above route).

Cliff M wrote:
I would love some feedback on an old PII compaq laptop. Until
recently it
worked great, but now it will not charge properly. It's a Compaq
7400 PII
366 running XP and the Compaq battery utility. It runs fine on the
ac
adapter and it will run on the battery, but the battery will not
charge
above 18%. If I let the battery discarge it will shutdown when it
gets too
low, and will start to charge when I plug it in, but only to 18%. I
have a
second matching 7400 and I have tried swapping batteries and ac
adapter but
to no avail...what works fine in one armada does not work in this
one. I
have read lots of info on the web about broken laptop power sockets
and this
seems to be a possibility but I don't want to tear it apart while it
is
still working except for the charging. Any tips or trouble shooting
ideas
would be great!

Thanks in advance,

Cliff