Genes - I did try your suggestions - and the Dell won't power up. Wiggling the adapter didn't make a difference. Kay - I'm curious why Dell thought it might be a battery? And I don't have any steps I can walk you through beyond what Genes outlined. Unfortunately, my Dell won't power up. There are replacement batteries on Amazon for just over $20 - so maybe it's worth trying that in case a Dell just won't power up if the batter is bad - whether it's plugged in or not. --------------------- On a separate note, I did get the battery replacement for my lenovo - and it works. Now I can unplug my laptop and get about 3-4 hours (which isn't great - but running on battery is not what I usually need). I did calibrate it once. Charge it fully - let it discharge fully until it shut off. Then recharged it fully. The battery came with instructions to do that once. I am confused, however, as I thought Li-ion batteries didn't need that at all - and that batteries that do need that need a few cycles of it. So I'm wondering if I should go through a couple of more charge and discharge cycles. Thank you. Lynn.

A risk with third party batteries is that they not-infrequently are lower quality and have less capacity than OEM versions. I personally never take the chance. A dead battery in a laptop is like a needed major repair on a car - you go the cheaper route if the rest still works fine, or it's a good excuse to buy a whole new replacement. But even when going the cheaper route and getting a replacement battery, i think it's a false economy to buy an aftermarket brand. Capacity is rated in milliAmp hours, for laptops it's usually a number in the single digit thousands ( 3000-9999 mAh hours)

In AOL I clicked "settings", then "internet (web) options", then something like "do not compress graphics". I think I did that on the regular computer when I first got it because the photos on my eBay listings weren't good, and that fixed it. That doesn't seem to have helped on this one.

Long life with a battery is using the laptop and using basic applications. The more intensive the program, the less actual battery time. You can also go into your Toshiba Power options (Control Panel) and adjust the battery settings to optimal (may help). Anything more than a year (warranty) is gravy. Having said that, some will fail sooner than others. I have had batteries last several years and some go after a little over a year. Personally, my battery is never removed from either computer other than when adding memory or something like that. Of course, I dont travel either now so battery life is not a big deal with me now