Just for the heck of it, I mailed the battery to niece in Jacksonville for a fresh charge. Talked to her on phone first and she is happy to do that. Got the newly charged battery this past Saturday. That evening I put the battery into the notebook and it booted up. Finally saw the XP that is installed on it. After about 2 hours playing with it, got message that the battery was critically(?) low. House current would not start the PC. Will take it back to another PC shop tomorrow and let him now analyse the PC since it will now boot. (the same guy could not do anything for me when it wouldn't boot--maybe now he can help). Will post back the findings. I am not in it unless it will run on AC.