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.

you might ask at the forums for that product, it will have to be a version that is built to work with windows 7 64 bit or you will have problems. from some googling I did find this Paint Shop Pro x2 is fully compatible with Windows 7 64bit I also found this where someone has had success by using this method. http://thepluginsite.com/products/picopro/tutorials/makework.htm "The important part is this: If you are using a 64bit operating system, the 32bit system folder is located underC:\Windows\SysWow64\. Do not place Msvcrt10.dll, which is a 32bit file, in the System32 folder of 64bit operating systems like Vista&7 64bit, because this folder is only meant for 64bit files. Once I moved the .dll files to the SysWow64 folder instead my plugins started working in PSP 9. I am still in the process of installing and transfering all my PSP things but I know it worked for at least 6 of my plugins so far." you may want to look at this also in the list it does mention paint shop pro. Application Compatibility Update for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2: February 2010 read this info on this forum there are some that are having luck getting some older versions to run and discuss it. Paint Shop Pro 8 crashing on Windows 7

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)

Anything more than a couple of years old is likely of dubious value even to charity and you might want to make a few calls (with the computer specs in hand) before driving over. For the really old or non-functioning ones, if you think there is anything of value on the hard drive, you can physically destroy it. Remove it from the computer and smash it with a hammer. Or if you know it's physical location you can drill right through the computer and drive. For the newer machines, I'd use Book 'n Nuke. It will make data on the drive unrecoverable (unless you're angered the CIA or NSA)... Here is a link that might be useful: Boot and Nuke