Notebook battery not charging

[corper]

hey guys,
i have a Compaq notebook computer which i haven't used in several months. For all of this time, i left the battery in. Now, i'm having a problem that the battery will not charge up. the computer works fine when i power it with the ac adapter, and the battery is clearly dead. when i initiate the process to charge up the battery, it begins and says "estimated time 6 hrs" and "0.0% complete." And this does not change now matter how long i leave it...it just won't charge. does this sound like sumthing that would happen if a battery was left in an unused comp for a long time. i'm hoping i wont have to byte the bullet and buy a new battery, but its not looking good.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

-steve

 

[Newposter]

Look at

http://www.compaq.com

in the Forums. This is a WIDESPREAD problem. I had a Compaq 1260 that I finally donated to the local historical society as a 'portable desktop'. I conditioned the battery per their instructions; upgraded the BIOS per their instructions to fix battery charging; replaced the battery; replaced the charger board in the laptop, all to no avail. Seems it's a very common thing for something on the motherbaord to fry. I'm an electrical engineer and couldn't find or fix it without a schematic. Wrote it off as a loss, never will buy a Compaq again. Let me assure you that hundreds of people are having this problem. I bought a Sony VAIO laptop over a year ago. It's great, no problems.

Newposter
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment."