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If Something Goes Wrong

Resolving a hardware conflict

If the battery has completely discharged, it will not begin charging immediately. Leave the AC adapter and power cable connected, wait 20 minutes and see if the battery is charging.

If the battery light is glowing after 20 minutes, let the computer continue charging the battery for at least another 20 minutes before you turn on the computer.

If the battery light does not glow after 20 minutes, the battery may have reached the end of its useful life. Try replacing it.

The battery appears not to power the computer for as long as it usually does.

If you frequently recharge a partially charged battery, it may not charge fully. Let the battery discharge completely, then try charging it again.

Check the power options using the Power Management utility. Have you added a device, such as a PC Card or memory module, that takes its power from the battery? Is your software using the hard disk more? Is the display power set to turn off automatically? Was the battery fully charged to begin with? All these conditions affect how long the charge lasts.

For more information on maximizing battery power, see “Charging batteries” on page 103.

Keyboard problems

If, when you type, strange things happen or nothing happens, the problem may be related to the keyboard itself.

The keyboard produces unexpected characters.

A keypad overlay may be on. If the numeric keypad or cursor control light is on, press Fn and F10 simultaneously to turn off the cursor control light or press Fn and F11 simultaneously to turn off the numeric keypad light.

If the problem occurs when both the keypad overlays are off, make sure the software you are using is not remapping the keyboard. Refer to the software’s documentation and check