Netbook battery dead???

[Chemical Ali]

Hi All

The battery on my Gateway netbook appears to be dead. It doesn't appear to be charging and I can't run/start up the netbook unless I am connected by mains power. I have googled this a bit and tried a couple of suggested solutions such as cleaning the battery connections and uninstalling the battery via Device Manager and then scanning for hardware changes without any success.

How can I be sure that my laptop battery is dead before forking out $ for a new one?

Cheers all

[icow]

Does it have a battery life light or anything similar? Can you work out if the battery is actually empty/flat.

[Chemical Ali]

Well that's essentially what I want to know in the first instance can I work out if the battery is dead or is there something go wrong within Windows power management or the AC adaptor circuitry?

[icow]

Sorry if that wasn't clear. I was aiming at more of a check that the battery is actually dead and not say the cable that connects the battery to the motherboard.

[PENTIUM]

Instal the [free] SIW program; then look at the battery entry.