[gavingil]

Hi, I have the above laptop and its playing up. The power lead was replaced by Toshiba a number of months ago under warranty and all was well but now there is another problem.When the laptop is on and I'm using it it runs on battery power, even with the lead plugged in, yet when I turn it off the red charging light then comes on and it seems to charge.Would this be a problem with the laptop battery or the power lead?ThanksGavin

[rgreen4]

Sometimes it may be difficult to tell if your laptop is charging while you are using it. On my HP laptop in the system tray near the clock, I have an icon that changes from a small battery to an AC plug when I am on the adapter. When I move the cursor over the icon, the tattle tale will tell me the percentage of battery power left. I also have an indicator light on the front panel that shows when I am on the AC Adapter and charging the battery. If the battery is fully charged, the the light goes off.When the battery is low and I plug the laptop in, the external adapter will attempt to power the laptop and charge the battery at the same time. It will first power the laptop and any excess with be used to charge the battery.The output of my adapter is 120Watts, 18.5 Volts and 6.5 Amps. Compared to some of the adapters that come with laptops today, it seems very strong. If I turn off the laptop and leave the charger plugged in, it charges fairly quickly. However, if I use the laptop while plugged in, the battery charges much slower, but it does charge.If your indicator lights indicate you are getting power to the laptop when plugged it, and it does charge the battery when turned off, it may also be charging while you are using it, just not very fast.Another question is what is the condition of you battery. I bought a new battery earlier this year because my old battery was failing. It will charge up and run the laptop, but will not hold up very long. Rechargable batteries have a memory. This is true of cell phone batteries and laptop batteries. When new they should be fully discharged, recharged and fully discharged again several times. When possible it is best to fully discharge the battery and do not keep it plugged in all the time. Eventually a rechargable battery will begin to short cycle like my old one whicl will only power my laptop for about 30 minutes, but my new one will last several hours. When I am going to use the laptop off AC power for an extended period (training sessions or long computer sessions where I don't want an interruption) I put the old battery in and plug in the AC Adapter.