Another problem; please help.
I have a nearly four year old Acer laptop. It had good spec. for the money at the time of purchase, although, quite predictably, it's a little rickerty now. The major weak-point from day one was the battery life: I knew this from day one, but my usage patterns have meant it is seldom disconnected from mains power, so I didn't worry.
This week, I have discovered that it is no longer charging (or so I thought). Even when plugged in for long periods of time, on or off, the power-meter did not rise above first 5, now 4%. I naturally supposed that the poor battery had given up and was refusing to accept a charge; my opinion was re-enforced when a search of the internet showed that several ACER battery brands have been recalled (but not this model).
However, today I decided to unplug the power, ignore the windows warnings and run it down to zero on the off chance that it would charge from there. The surprising result is that despite resolutely displaying 4% 1min remaining, I'm still typing on the thing now, despite 10mins or more having passed. Obviously, I've no way of knowing how long it may last. I may not get time to finish this post!
Reinstalling windows is not an option at this time. System restore points were recently deleted. Can anyone advise me? (Win XP)