This is an instructional video on how to troubleshoot your laptop battery.

1. My battery shows that it is fully charged, but it is not working
• This is known as "False Peak" and is very common condition during first time battery use (or using a battery that has been discharged for several months). The charger light may go out after only 10-15 minutes, indicating that it is fully charged when it is not. Should this happen, simply leave the battery on the charger for about an hour. Remove it, and return it to the charger immediately. The battery will resume normal charging and the charger light will indicate when the battery is ready for use. This may happen several times during the first battery charge. Don't worry; it's perfectly normal.
2. Battery stops charging before it is fully charged
• New batteries come in a discharged condition and must be fully charged before use. It is recommended that you fully charge and discharge the new battery four to five times to allow it to reach its maximum rated capacity.
• It is generally recommend an overnight charge (approximately twelve hours). It is normal for a battery to become warm to the touch during charging and discharging.
3. Battery is not charging at all or showing that it is not compatible
• The problem may be with the computer BIOS and an update is required for the laptop to recognize and fully charge the laptop battery. The current software in your system is only set up to read an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) battery. If your BIOS has not been updated, and you have only used OEM batteries in your laptop, it can cause the replacement battery not to communicate correctly with the software in your system.
• Check your manufacturer’s website for possible system BIOS upgrades for your laptop model. Some laptops have been prone to reject third party batteries if they have an old BIOS version installed. Once completing the BIOS upgrade, please recharge your battery for 12 hours and use as normal.
4. Laptop Battery stops charging whenever it reaches 96-98%
• You might need to recalibrate your laptop for the new battery. You can easily recalibrate your laptop properly via the Windows Power Management.
• With Windows XP, you can change the battery settings by navigating to Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Power Options. Once you find it change the “Power Schemes” to “Always On”. Under “Alarms”, uncheck “Low battery alarm” and “Critical battery alarm”. Under “Hibernate”, uncheck “Enable hibernation”, and then click on Apply.
• This is the only time that we recommend taking the battery all the way down to zero %. You should also unplug the ac adapter and let the battery drain all the way down until your laptop shuts off. After that, plug the ac adapter back and charge it to 100%. You may need to repeat this process about 2-3 times before it actually reaches 100%.
5. Bad laptop AC adapter
• Test to verify the AC adapter is not bad. Remove the battery and check if the laptop will run solely from the laptop AC adapter. If the laptop does not work, then the AC adapter is bad and needs to be replaced.
• In some cases, the laptop charger itself is faulty and may run the laptop, but it does not have enough power to charge the battery. In this case, try charging the laptop battery with the laptop turned off. If the battery charges while the computer is off, then the laptop AC adapter is bad and needs to be replaced.
6. Bad motherboard
• The computer motherboard may be bad if your new and your old laptop battery won't charge and the laptop AC adapter is working properly. Also, if your laptop battery will charge in another laptop, then that could be a sign that you have a bad motherboard.
7. For additonal model-specific battery troubleshooting tips, please click on your laptop manufacturer below::
   • Apple
   • Asus
   • Dell
   • HP/Compaq
   • IBM/Lenovo
   • Sony
8. Windows 7 Battery Life Failure
• It has been brought to our attention after reports where the life of some of our batteries have been shortened tremendously after upgrading to Windows 7 or for users already on Windows 7. After further investigation into the matter, it is widely known throughout different forums that the problem is not with the battery but the operating system itself. “Microsoft says it is investigating reports of notebooks with poor battery life with Windows 7, as first reported by users on Microsoft TechNet. These users claim their batteries were working just fine under Windows XP and/or Windows Vista, and others are saying it occurs on their new Windows 7 PCs. Under Microsoft's latest operating system though, certain machines aren't doing so well, as Windows 7 spits out the following warning message: "Consider replacing your battery. There is a problem with your battery, so your computer might shut down suddenly." The warning is normally issued after using the computer's basic input output system (BIOS) to determine whether a battery needs replacement, but in this case it appears the operating system and not the battery is the problem. These customers say their PC's battery life is noticeably lower, with some going as far as saying that it has become completely unusable after a few weeks of use. To make matters worse, others are reporting that downgrading back to an earlier version of Windows won't fix the problem.”
• If you are running under Windows 7 or planning to upgrade to Windows 7, please be aware that we will not be responsible for the life of the battery until there is a known fix or patch released by Microsoft. The problem is not with our battery, but the operating system itself. If you’ve noticed that your existing battery or brand new battery’s life has been shorten contact your laptop manufacturer to see if there is a fix before purchasing a new laptop battery.
• Reference websites for further reading:
  1. http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/02/microsoft-looking-into-windows-7-battery-life-failures.ars
  2. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/29/windows_7_laptop_battery_issues/
  3. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprohardware/thread/c6c043e6-eeb1-4e61-870d-896ca2f865d6