Jus tried to turn on laptop after it shut off when the battery went flat after last nights outage..

Nothing...no little power or battery lights..no go...oh no!! maybe blown me laptop in a power surge??!!!

Checked voltage out of power supply and pins in battery compartment with battery out...all good.

OH! notice now have power light. computer up and running now obviously..don't know if real dead battery , shorted ,power surge blown some form of fusible link in batt pack?.

.guess I 'll buy a new battery pack.(3 to 4 years old can't expect better)

Have not checked battery pack for voltage as yet as can't get a probe in connector.need to us a knife edge or something maybe.probably waste of beer drinking time anyways..lol

I've had that problem intermittently with my computer.

I just take the battery out and power up, then put the battery back in.

Most of the time now though I use the computer without the battery as it's useless these days, even for trying to save and shut down in a blackout.

Some laptops will not power up at all, without a battery inserted.

My Compaq Nx8220 for example.

Sometimes laptop batteries can fail to take a charge, whether or new or old. If the battery is still good but only totally discharged, then removing it for a few minutes to 30 minutes which allows it to naturally rebuild a little charge/reset its charging circuit which is normally within the battery pack, and then plugging it back in to recharge will get it to recharge again. But if the battery has failed/is failing that approach may not work. Also, BIOS bugs can cause this problem...be sure to check your laptop manufacturer's website for any updates/bulletins on such an issue. Additionally most laptops will work without the battery pack installed but some won't.

Even on my Toshiba laptop there are occasions where I see my battery charge icon is not reflecting a charge occurring/show full charge, like it's stuck at a XX% charge and won't go any higher...I unplug the charger lead going into the laptop for a second and then plug the lead back in...the icon now starts reflecting a charging action and continues on to a 100% battery charge after X-amount more time.