John Dulak wrote:
> Group:
<Snip for brevity>
>  - The battery is just over a year old and has gotten only light use.
> 
>  - The system recently sat off but plugged in with the battery charging 
> for several weeks.
> 
>  - A second (older) battery gives the same results. (This battery gives 
> less than hour of use - Hence the newer battery.)
> 
>  - OS is Windows 2000 Pro. Recently recieved and installed a few new 
> updates from Microsoft.
> 
>  - I've tried "Deep Cycling" the battery by letting it become compleatly 
> discharged (Command prompt only mode) and then recharging. Interestingly 
> enough it will often recharge from this state with no problems.
> 
>  - I also entered the CMOS/BIOS setup via Esc-F1 and looked for relevent 
> power configuration settings but did not find anything.
> 
>  * Recently everything has started working normally with the battery 
> recognized and charging as normal. I would, however, very much like to 
> understand what was going on.  This laptop is old but serves me well and 
> I would not mind putting a modest amount of money (~$100) into fixing a 
> real problem. I am also comfortable with taking the thing appart and 
> tinkering if something has come loose or needs cleaned.
> 
> Any suggestions, or even WAGs, are welcome.
> 
For about a 70% confidence level, leaving it connected to a charger 
without use for a long period has confused the circuitry inside the 
battery, making it think it's lost a large portion of its capacity. Deep 
cycling has reset the circuitry, giving normal usability again.

It is possible that the battery has permanently lost some capacity and/ 
or the control circuitry is damaged/ permanently confused to a greater 
or lesser extent. Carry on using it normally for a while, & see how it goes.

There may be a battery calibration utility either installed or 
avalilable from Toshiba's download centre, if so, run it, & see what it 
says. It's often hidden in the Toshiba Power saver screen in Control Panel.

-- 
Tciao for Now!

John.