Laptop battery won't charge past a certain percent

Hey guys. I have an HP laptop that is about two years old, and it is plugged in a lot in my dorm room. Recently (I dont know exactly when it started), it has been unable to charge all of the way. It will get to around 45% (the percent seems to change a little bit from time to time), and then it will stop going up (and the little powercord icon doesn't even say that it is charging anymore, its just the cord without the bolt).

I flashed the bios and I also set my battery saving options to "never" and let my battery run down, then plugged it in. I am on that charge-up process as we speak, and it is at 45% and it no longer has the bolt over the icon (it stopped showing that bolt at around 43% I think).

I really don't want to buy a new battery, and I guess I don't mind running my laptop off of AC (I do it most of the time anyways), but there are times where I would like to unplug for a bit, and I really don't last long anymore (its a desktop replacement, so it never lasted long to begin with).

Ideas or solutions would be appreciated.

 

The battery is slowly dying it seems, there is no real solution to fixing a chemical process.

 

;_;

It sure did die by a whole lot...

 

Did it jump from 100% to 45%? I assumed by your response that it was not a slowly declining percentage, correct?

 

batterys ability to hold power decreases over time and is usually related with wear and discharge cycles
well i dont see any solution to your problem at present rather than replacing it
as you have done everyting to make sure it is te batteries fault and not the notebooks
as a final measure you could always calibrate the battery using te software available on te hp support website

 

If it died fast, there may be a problem with the batt(or notebook)

Does you bios have a battery calibration??
will not help the batts life but might fix the 'fuel gauge'

Unfortunately batteries do not last forever, they degrade over time and by cycling. Going to need to replace it sometime or plan on being by a plug.

If you are 99% plugged in at the same place then you can extend the life of your new battery by placing it in the fridge while you are plugged in @ home/dorm. This WILL NOT repair, increase, restore, or in any way improve your batteries performance but it will increase the shelf life quite a bit. Also make sure that it charges correctly when in the notebook on AC power, it should stop charging at 100%.
Batteries leak power also, so even when it is plugged in to AC you are cycling your battery (top 2%-5% of the charge). This i a small effect but it does matter over time. Pulling the batt out will ensure it works the 4 or 5 times a year you run off battery and may still be in usable condition in 5 or 6 years.

 

My battery is also dying, and won't charge beyond 80-90% at times. When it reaches somewhere in that range, it automatically jumps to 100%, then falls back down to the same percentage, and begins charging again, but doesn't go up any further. Then it stops again at 100 and loops the whole thing.

I noticed that draining the battery completely and then letting it rest in the cold for a few hours increases the percentage reached, so I think this might help delay the inevitable (battery acid leakage, etc)

BTW, this started wayyy before the needle incident, so no, they are not related...yet.