Aspire One D250 Battery Issues?

[srm.mich]

I recently received an Aspire One D250-1026 for free from a friend of mine, she wasn't sure if it even worked, it as apparently left behind by an Ex or some such thing, anyways the point is it was free to me so I took it home to see what I could make of it. While cleaning up the HDD, wiping out all the bloatware, and installing all the latest drivers I could find, I had it plugged into the AC adapter and things were looking good. Free netbook that seemed to be working just fine, nice little bonus, until I unplugged it. I initially left it plugged in over night and the Battery led was showing green the whole time, when I checked in Windows, the battery level also showed 100% so I was a bit surprised when I unplugged it to have it instantly power off.
I looked into a few forums and saw a BIOS issue with some of the Acer One netbooks, mostly the A110 series. Not sure if my netbook falls into this class or not but to be on the safe side I installed the latest Bios for the D250 that I could find v1.27. I must admit, I'm somewhat computer and laptop versed but totally lost when it comes to netbooks. Any help would be appreciated, even if it means a new battery, as I said other than a few hours of my time so far I'm not out anything yet, and if a $40 battery produces a usable netbook than I figure I'm still money ahead on the deal.
I have also tried a few other suggestions: Taking the battery out and powering the unit up and then installing the battery, cleaned the contacts on the Netbook and Battery, ect.

Acer Aspire One
D250-1026
1gb RAM
160gb HDD

Any help/suggestions appreciated, thanks in advance for reading my post.

 

[Swarvey]

If it instantly shuts off, I'd say the battery's probably cactus. If it's going to sleep / standby then it's the BIOS bug. I had the BIOS bug, but it disappeared after v1.27 so I don't think it's that. Do you know anyone else with an AAO that would lend you their battery for a test?

P.S Try downloading and installing the free BatteryBar program. Once installed, hover your mouse over the tasktray icon and it can tell you what level of battery wear you've got.

 

[srm.mich]

ok, installed BatteryBar v3.4.4:
Percent: 100%
Capacity: 20,912 mWh of 20,912 mWh
Charge Rate: o mWh
Battery: Charged
Full Lifetime: Calculating...
A/C: Connected
Battery Wear: 14.4% of 24,420 mWh

Help narrow down the battery as the cause or make things worse? Yeah, I wish someone I knew was running one of these so I could try a battery before buying one. I may just order one anyways, if it doesnt help I guess I could always send it back? If it does still seem like a battery issue, any suggestions on a replacement? Are the 6/9 cell ones worth the additional price? Thanks again for the suggestions.

 

[Swarvey]

I'm not sure what to make of your total capacity being only 20,000mw. A month or so ago I bought a 12 cell from eBay (considering the price difference between it and a replacement 9 cell was only $20). I've been reasonably happy with it. Total capacity is 102,320mw. But after some pretty solid use I've already worn it by 5.6%. So I can't say for sure if it's going to last me very long. I get approximately 10 hours use out of it and it came with a three year warranty. Wait for battery bar to calculate the lifespan of your battery before purchasing anything new.

P.S there's a link to BIOS v 1.28 in my signature for the D250.