Battery / Charging problems

Hello everyone,

I have a 2006 Gateway mx7515 with a new ac adapter purchased about 5 months ago and a new battery received under warranty from best buy in Jan of 2009 ( I still also have the original batter).

So about a month ago the orange charging light on the front of the case stopped working. I am sure it was just the led that stopped working cause the battery was still charging according to the power meter in the lower left corner of my screen. with in the past year i have started using the hot key shortcuts ( function key and F3 together ) to put my laptop into standby mode instead of shutting it down every time after use.

Recently within the last two weeks i did this and came back to see that the power meter said charging battery 34% after charging in standby all night long for more than 8 hours. Also while it still said the battery was at 34% if the ac cord was unplugged the PC complete power loss and immediate shuts off like there was no battery even in the PC. This was with the newer battery. So i consulted my IT tech professor and he and another class mate said i probably have a bad battery now and need a new one. So i destroyed that battery disassembling it trying to see its insides and see if any of the cells had leaked. So i went to the basement and pulled out the original batter i had stored in a box and installed it into the pc. Of course it was dead and needed a fresh charge as the power meter indicated.

So periodically i would look at the power meter again and it would indicate that it was still progressively charging the old battery. Finally it reached full charge and i was able to unplug the ac adapter and use the laptop pc under battery power. A few days of this went by and i had actually switched back to actually shutting down the PC instead of standby ( no reason really, just how things happened ).

Well now last night i went ahead and put it in standby using the function key and F3. This morning i come in and bring it back to life and the power meter reads charging battery 97%. I had the laptop on my lap and bumped the ac adapter cord and it came unplugged from the back of the laptop and again immediate loss of all power and PC is dead. I try the power button and nothing. So i plug the cord back in and it powers right up. Once finished booting i check the power meter again and it says 97% So i pull the cord again to try and run on battery power and again immediately the PC is dead with loss of power.

So my question is: Is there something wrong with the charging circuit and its related power meter software in the PC or is it a coincidence that i had two batteries actually fail and go bad in exactly the same way?

If it is the battery is there software to flash the chip inside the battery and refresh it so it behaves like a new battery? I did a Google search and found a couple of programs ( battery eeprom works 2.30 ) but you need a parallel port and a adapter eeprom reader from Phillips ( Philips I2C Parallel Port adapter) neither of which i have.

I know i can go buy another battery but if this an internal malfunction with the laptop charging circuit i want to fix that as well.

thank you for your help in advance. Sorry for the long story, but i felt more details was better in seeking your help.

ER

has no one every really had this happen or has no one every thought of trying to repair the cause?