[brettt777]

I just bought a used Inspiron 8500 from a coworker. When I first got it the battery seemed to work fine. It was fully charged and ran the laptop for a good amount of time. Then it suddenly stopped charging like two days later. It wasn't a gradual thing. One day I was using it and it was fully charged. The power supply lost A/C for a while without me knowing it so it ran on the battery until the battery ran down, then it shut down. Since then, the battery won't charge at all. I get no LEDs on the battery, the system shows I have a battery installed but not charged, but it doesn't charge at all. If I loose A/C it switches over to battery power but obviously only for a few seconds. Can this battery just suddenly die like that or could there be something else? I am an avionics technician by trade so I know a bit about 'lectricity. I put my meter on the battery connection in the laptop and have 19vdc there but the battery still won't charge. Isn't there some kind of an interlock in the battery connector itself that the charge voltage has to go through? I would hate to spend $50-70 on a new battery only to find out the battery isn't bad. Anybody know where I can get a pinout for this battery?