This one made no sence to me at all(but being a newbie to linux none of it realy does) the battery wont charge in my computer but the ac still works the computer and battery are less than a year old and for a while after removing windows and installing linux it would charge now it says its charging but it never gains any charge. i have formatted and reinstalled mandriva sence the problem started and still the same thing iv even tried charging it while the computer was off and still nothing

A few months ago a buddy of mine spilled coke on the keyboard the computer still works all except the right arrow key and some sticky buttons. the battery would even still charge till here recently. i dont know if it would have any thing to do with the battery not charging but just in case it does.

when i click on the battery icon this is what i get:

Product: Battery Bay
Status: Charging
Percentage charge: 0%

Vendor: sanyo
Technology: Lithium ion
Serial number: 906
Model: DELL F51336
Capacity: 85%(Fair)
Last full charge: 45.7 Wh
Design charge: 53.3 Wh
Charge rate (raw): 0.0 W
Charge rate (smoothed): 0.0 W

Your battery might have a charge indicator. You will have to pull it out of the laptop to see. Does the indicator show fully charged or 85%. This might show that the laptop was damaged.

I would also check the contacts between the laptop battery bay and the battery itself, might have a little coke film preventing a good contact between the two. It is also possible there was a short in this area due to the spill which killed it. If it was a ni-cad, I would recommend putting it in the deep freeze for a week, but it's a lithium ion battery so "don't do it Len!".

I checked the battery indicator on the battery and nothing happened and i also cleaned the battery connectors and still got nothing. I do believe that the battery is covered by my insurance on the computer so im just going to go that route just wanted to see if i could figure it out first but thanks for the help and still yet if anyone can come up with anything else i would still like to hear any more ideas.