laptop only works when not plugged in

[joebloeonthego]

Well, that's not entirely true... the Toshiba Satellite 1800 with XP will work, but pseudo-randomly shutdown (power off). I say pseudo because while it seems random (could be while doing nothing, maybe something, maybe after 2 mintes, maybe 20), I could make it shutdown repeatedly by tring to install hp drivers off the disk. shut off every time. But Anyway... with it unplugged and running off the battery, no problem.
So my question is... is this something that could be caused by the battery or power management software? or is it simply the laptop itself?

thanx!

 

[joebloeonthego]

oh, and it doesn't seem that hot, and I have it propped up to allow for maximum cooling, but I guess it could still be overheating.

 

[tfaust]

Not entirely the same issue, but one of my users has a Dell that would run off the battery but not power up when on AC power. We took out the battery and the laptop powered up fine. A new battery did the trick.

 

[joebloeonthego]

oh, and it seems to be fine when charging the battery (been plugged in and running for over 30 min. now).. seems to be only when the battery is fully charged.
and the guy just told me that it used to do it a lot on hot days.
So I just want to know if a new battery would do the trick or not.. I guess it just depends if someone else has had this problem before.
thanx again!