I have a Gateway laptop that is about 3 years old. The battery life has been dropping quite a bit lately. Today, I was using it (plugged in), and it died. When I tried to turn it on, it hung at the Gateway splash screen, the one while the computer POSTs. I turned it off, unplugged it from the wall, and removed the battery. I plugged it back into the wall, no battery, and it powered on perfectly. Each time I put the battery in, the computer won't boot.

Does anybody have any ideas what the cause of this problem would be, and any ideas for resolution?

Thanks!

Hi Tyler5690, Your laptop battery has seen its day.
Your laptop is trying to charge a battery that will not
take a charge anymore and is takeing most of the
power from your computer, that is not good for your
laptop. Time to buy a new battery. Don't feel bad I got
to buy one for my hp laptop to.

I bought another battery (off eBay) and installed it. I let it charge overnight, just to be safe. The next morning, it powered on and booted up just like it used to. However, the battery is not holding a charge, even for a few minutes. Before I contact my eBay seller, is it possible the problem is with my laptop, and, if so, a way to fix it?

That battery is done too. A lesson to be learned. Buying computer parts off Ebay can more often than not lead to trouble.

The best thing to do now is to go back to the laptop manufacturer and order a new battery for it. Unfortunately they don't last forever.

Thanks. I'll order one through Gateway I guess. Luckily, the eBay seller admitted it was probably bad and gave me a full refund. Whew!

Oh man, did you ever get lucky... REALLY lucky. Good for you.