Finally went out and bought a new battery for my laptop. All up it was only ASD $170.
Not to bad considering my original battery was only a 2 hour one and this is a 5 hour.

I had to get a taxi to go pick it up (am too impatient to wait for couriers) and that cost me 20 (using taxi vouchers).
I got a good driver on the day. (Last Tuesday) He waited for me and brought me home. I didn't have any vouchers on me so he said he would fix it up when I got home. I didn't have to wait around too long because I rang up the day before and organised a battery. Just took my laptop in and they put it in and made sure it was working

Sallyanne, glad you got everything all right.

Sounds good Sallyanne. Good luck with your new battery.
BTW... Did the new battery come with a warranty?

sallyanne: good for you, it's so nice to have a computer in good working order again!

Yes. Must be written on the battery though. I clearly remember the girl telling me and I didn't bring any paperwork home. Only a card for their business.

@ AnMal yes it does . Although my laptop didn't stop working this time (I guess I was lucky). Had been getting messages for a while to think about getting a new battery and I panicked when I saw it wasn't charging while plugged in was when I decided to get a new one.
Although to be fair the other battery probably would have lasted longer - I just didn't want to chance it. It was already 3 and 5 months old. I saw this message while it was plugged in, battery was 100%..... no wonder it wasn't charging. Never saw it before even when it was 100%.

Laptop batteries should last a heck of a lot longer then a few months before going bad Sallyanne. What is the make/model of your laptop?

oops my bad I meant 3 years 5 months

That's cool Sallyanne. If your battery is NiMH then it's best to do deep discharge cycles and not keep your charger in forever since it's bad for the chemistry. Not as bad to do for Lead acid (float charge) but even Lead acid batteries will go bad if left on charge for long periods. If my memory serves me, Li batteries don't like to be too deeply discharged. Still, not battery should be kept on charge continuously for long period of times.

Thanks for that info Lyle.
When I rang up about it I was told all about how these batteries should and should not be treated Someone else may need to know
I thought a couple months after I bought my Laptop that I saw "it should be run down every month or so".
Was told by this lady (They specialize in batteries) that a battery should never be run completely down. Only to 30-40%

Yeah; never run batteries to zero. Usually the built in detection in your laptop will keep that from happening. 20% to 40% is OK. What's not OK again is to keep your laptop on charger indefinitely unless you take your battery out and your charger is powerful enough to power your laptop without the battery pack in place (all laptops I ever had access too will run perfectly fine without the battery pack in place; just charger). Still, not 100% the desirable way to run a laptop since the battery does act to keep the power clean and continuous for the laptop.

Oops, I keep my macbook plugged in all the time. I guess I should try to unplug it once a week, and let it run low.

Keeping your macbook plugged in all the time can damage the battery in a number of ways, making it under preform or even warp it's housing. Causing the battery to be unable to effectively charge, or make it only last for a short while. Once the battery is damaged, you may find that you need to charge the battery constantly. Until it can no longer hold a sufficient charge to operate the device properly.

Depending how long you are on at a time. I notice this one only takes a couple hours to fully charge and a few hours to use more than 50%. So I unplug it at least once a day
I assume it depends on what you are doing too - games, music, videos or just emails

I use my laptop as a pc, it's always on the computer desk plugged in...and has been for several years. The only time I unplug it is when I take it with me on our annual visit to my Aunt in San Jose. Then I plug it in there, lol. I guess I have been very lucky. I don't even know if it still holds a charge for very long, I guess I should test it. If I unplug it overnight and it looses it's charge, is there some kind of backup to keep from losing all my files?

very interesting article. Not sure why my battery and hard drive have lasted so long, though. I do keep the lappie sitting on mesh shelf liner strips so that there is a wee bit of air circulation underneath. I have heard that they generate heat and need to be kept from overheating. Now I will have to remember to unplug it to let the battery run low maybe once a week.

I also found the article interesting.
I don't have a laptop anymore, but I like to find out as much as I can about them.
Who knows... I may end up getting one some day.