I've spent most of the day trying to fix this problem and I'm ready to throw in the towel. My laptop, a Compaq Armada E500, has suddenly developed a battery charging problem. If I go to the power management in the control panel and check the "power meter" it shows 3 batteries. Battery # 1 shows not present, Battery #2 shows 0% charge (charging), Battery #3 shows not present. According to the manual Battery #1 is supposed to be in the battery bay ( where it has been since day 1 ), Battery # 2 would be the "Dual-bay" location ( I have my diskette drive in this location ), and Battery #3 would be in the "muti-bay", where I have my CD-ROM. If I go into the battery calibration mode with the battery where it is supposed to be, the calibration display shows "battery #1 -- needs calibration". I've tried to run the calibration procedure, with no results. ( Note: power meter shows a battery in position #2, the calibration mode shows the battery in position #1 )
If I put the battery in the "Dual-bay" the power meter displays a battery in position #3, the calibration mode shows a battery in position #2. Also the calibration mode shows 4 positions. There are only 3 places the battery can be installed, and the battery that can be installed in the Multi-bay (position #3) is a different type.
I've run the Compaq diagnostics, the "POST" tests, check the device manager in both normal and safe mode, run all the troubleshooting tests I could find in the computer. I ran system file checker, to make sure none of the set-up and start programs had been corrupted. I even tried the forced system set-up, by doing a hard (two button) shut down.
No Luck. Any ideas? Right now, if the AC power source is cut off the computer immediately shuts off. Not good when most the work I do is out in the field.
If I put the battery in the "Dual-bay" the power meter displays a battery in position #3, the calibration mode shows a battery in position #2. Also the calibration mode shows 4 positions. There are only 3 places the battery can be installed, and the battery that can be installed in the Multi-bay (position #3) is a different type.
I've run the Compaq diagnostics, the "POST" tests, check the device manager in both normal and safe mode, run all the troubleshooting tests I could find in the computer. I ran system file checker, to make sure none of the set-up and start programs had been corrupted. I even tried the forced system set-up, by doing a hard (two button) shut down.
No Luck. Any ideas? Right now, if the AC power source is cut off the computer immediately shuts off. Not good when most the work I do is out in the field.