That's a GREAT CLUE! Over the years I have run into too many laptops with a failed battery where the owner leaves it in which taxes the laptop's internal battery charger and you see failures like you ask about.
It appears no maker writes about this issue so here a summation. -> When your battery is delivering just minutes of service or none, remove it from your laptop and give it to the battery recyclers. This will save your machine from certain death.
Sorry but it looks like this advice is too late for your machine. My bet is its repair will be a new motherboard and battery. The cost for this runs about 300 for the board and 150 for the battery so compare that with a new laptop.
Bob
My WinXP notebook smoked and make a crackling noise one day while working on it in my lap. I quickly saved my work, unplugged it, and closed the top. I set it aside to give it time to cool, then powered down and opened it up. I had a similar problem on my old ibook before, turned out to be the power supply. I'm not so sure this time. The power supply's green light comes on when plugged into the wall and begins flashing when plugged into the computer. I can't really determine if it's powering up or not (battery has sucked for a while) but plug gets hot if left in. How can I determine if it's this power supply or a short in the motherboard?
Chowhound
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