System is a P2 266, a Tiny Badged FIC 5600.

I hadn't used the system for a while, (it's about 5 years old now) and the system woudln't boot - suspected a dead battery - perfectly normal for such an old machine.
Bought a replacement battery, and plugged it in. the system works now on mains power, but I can't seem to get the battery to charge - it certainly won't run on battery power.
The first possibility is of course a duff battery, but I think it could be more than that.

If I plug the PSU into the laptop, the charging light comes on, but may go out after 10 or 15 minutes. If the system is powered up and running windows (2000) the same thing happens - I get oddball readings for the power, sometimes not going above 40%, but if I unplug, after a few minutes I get a warning and have to go back to the mains.

Unplugging and replugging whilst running windoze starts the charge light for about 15 minutes, but agian, I can't actually run it on the battery.
Testing the battery isn't going to be easy - it has very fine blades in between plastic strips, so my DMM probes can't get in there.

I can remember the charge light acting weird a couple of years back, so I don't know if the internal sensors are faulty, or whether the PSU is faulty. The battery obviously has internal controls as well, so that doesn't make anything easy.

The Tiny I bought from are defunct, although they are trading again, they don't seem to offer any support except for their new customers.
FIC don't provide any support at all.

I'd like to get hold of a tech manual for this laptop, but finding them is difficult - any help or suggestions appreciated.

edit.......
THe PSU checks out ok for voltage, (in a roundabout way - it's a SMPSU, so I measured the current through a 1M resistor and did the maths) - it seems fine.
The system is rated for 2.6A, but I don't know what the actual consumption would be - any ideas on this one? I've got a few hundred resistors I can play with !

I had a similar problem with a Dell laptop which was only a few months old.

When the mains was connected, the power supply would turn itself off (light faded out on power supply unit as soon as the laptop powered on) and the battery was getting no charge.

Dell diagnosed it as a faulty motherboard and replaced it under warranty. It works fine now, so they must have been right.

The symptoms were very similar to what you have mentioned and like you I tried all the usual diagnostics (tried other batteries, power supplies, etc).

Hopes this helps

Slim

Thanks for the reply.

I returned the battery (still waiting to hear from them) and hopefully it is just a duff one. The system is fairly old, and as it was purchased from Tiny, I couldn't get a replacement (support is a joke) from them anyway.
I may be able to replace the mobo from other sources, but it's unlikely. If it isn't the battery, then I'll just have to run it from the mains - it works fine with the PSU if the battery is removed.