Notebook battery problem.

[Raern]

I purchased a new notebook this week, it arrived yesterday. I left it charging for a while then tried running it on battery power, but it doesn't respond to the power button at all as if it has no battery.
If I power up the machine with the AC adaptor plugged in then go to the power settings panel in WinXP it says the battery power level is unknown, but it successfully lists the battery specifications.
I've tried charging it, in case it wasn't fully charged at first. When plugged in to charge the charge light turns off after about an hour, but if I disconnect and reconnect the AC adaptor the light comes back on for a while. The battery gets warm while charging.

Is there anything I might be missing, or is the battery most likely faulty?

Thanks for your help.

 

[RaPTuRe]

I don't suppose you would mind telling us WHAT notebook it is?
I am quite certain that is either a battery problem or a charger board problem (part of the mainboard on modern notebooks). Have you called the tech support of that notebooks manufacturer? You should return it for a replacement.

RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?

 

[Raern]

Thanks. I've sent an e-mail to the supplier, but since they're closed for the weekend I wanted to ask here also in case I was missing something simple.

The laptop is an Excel ECO G730 model. The supplier's website has its specs at http://www.protacnz.co.nz/products/laptops/730- Brochure.pdf although it's a fairly generic low-cost model and has little useful information there.

 

[RobertNKC]

You might try physically removing the battery, plugging it in to AC power, boot it up, and then install the battery to see if the notebook then identifies the battery and starts charging it. The battery may be very low on power and the notebook is bypassing it (which sucks, because it will never charge then.) This is just an idea to try. may not do anything for you. Power management in notebooks can do very strange things with a low battery.