AOA150 battery problem

My AOA150 won't work on battery any more. When plugged in the machine works perfectly OK, but even though it tells me the battery is 100% charged, when I unplug, it closes down. When it's plugged in, the battery light flashes amber - or sometimes, amber but not flashing. I take it this ought to mean the battery is being charged up (although I don't know the difference between flashing and not flashing, and the user guide is no help), but apparently not because however long I leave it 'charging', the battery still doesn't work, and it still says it's 100% charged.

I've tried the two main fixes for this - BIOS update, and the one where you turn it off and hold the power button down for 2 minutes without the battery in, but neither of these has solved the problem.

From what I have read online it seems that this is a common problem, and has happened because I have left the machine unused with the battery in for a few weeks. It seems extraordinary to me that Acer would sell a computer in which simply leaving it turned off would actually destroy the battery so that you have to buy a new one, and without giving purchasers any warning about this problem, but unless there's some fix I havn't discovered yet, this would seem to be the case. Maybe they thought nobody would buy one if they told them about it, but then why not design it properly so this doesn't happen? This is just the kind of machine people might use occasionally, for example when they go away from home, and leave unused for some time, so this problem does seem particularly annoying. Or is it just that my battery is clapped-out?

So does anyone know another fix? - or anything else that might be causing this apart from the battery? - or shall I just go ahead and buy a new battery, and be careful to take it out next time I stop using the AOA150? I don't want to get a new netbook - I'm fond of this one, and anyway I hate the manufacturers for deciding that the way forward was to make them bigger, when smallness was precisely the main selling-point.

 

The blinking light generally means there is a problem with the battery but not always. I have a battery that the light blinks when it is plugged in but the battery is good and the machine will run for hours on it alone. The computer just doesn't recognize the battery properly. With that said I think you have either a bad battery or a battery that is discharged so low that the computer can't register it is there. If it is just discharged too much you may be able to get it working by leaving it plugged in with the light blinking and the computer off over night. Doing this will allow a trickle charge to build up and it may be enough to let the computer see it. If this doesn't work then you could try and find someone with with a compatible computer to try the battery in.