My HP battery (f4809a/f4812a) has a full charge. When I press the battery indicator button on the side of the battery, I get one orange LED and 4 green LED's in that order. The orange LED is labeled 20, and the 4 greens are labeled 40, 60, 80, 100 respectively. I assume the numbers indicate percentage of charge, but I have no clue why the one is ORANGE.
What exactly does this indicate? Either the battery has bad cells, or it is failing.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
----------------------------------------------------------------
History: running xp mce, minimal power mgmt
When I got the laptop, the battery wouldn't hold a charge for more than a few minutes. I removed the battery and cleaned the connector on battery and laptop. I then completely discharged the battery and charged it to full in an attempt to recalibrate. I then booted into windows on battery power, turned off the power saving features and hibernation / suspend. I pulled up the battery meter and it showed 100%. Below that was a battery with an X through it reading 0%. It stayed this way for 25 minutes (at idle) and then it shut itself down. I powered it back up (still using just the battery) and now the meter is showing 70%, the bottom battery no longer has an X through it and is showing over 1 hour remaining. At idle still, it ran another 53 minutes before it shut down again. This time the battery was discharged and would not restart without the adapter. Battery was warm, but not hot.
I tried the test again...this time I put the laptop under load. After booting up with a fully charged battery, showing 100%, I started up a game and after a few seconds, the laptop shut down and the battery was completely discharged. Battery is hot.
I once again fully charged the battery...(charge is taking close to 2 hours each time). This time I go into the bios to check for battery information and a recalibration utility. After roughly 10 minutes, the laptop shuts down and the battery is fully discharged. The laptop fans were running full speed and blowing hot air just from being in the bios. Battery is hot.
I am testing it right now. Battery at full charge. I start windows. Meter shows 100%, bottom battery with X shows 0%. After 20 minutes, battery still shows 100% with 2:40 remaining, and bottom battery no longer has the X, and is also showing 100%. Now I shut down the laptop and it wont start up. Very strange. I remove the battery and press the button. It shows the 20 LED blinking orange, and nothing else on the other 4.