Well cause i hardly ever used the Battery.. As i had it plugged in the mains all the time i dont think i hardly used the battery.. I did let it decharge know and again and then recharged it.. I brought the laptop brand new in 2004 its 2008 so the laptop is about 4 years old but the battery has hardly ever been used.. But you give me a price mark and i'll accept cause i honestly dont know how much they go for brand new ?
How long does it last being used solely on battery; did you remove the battery when using the laptop on power, or like most people (myself included), have you used the battery as a UPS?
Because, if the battery remains connected to the laptop whilst it is plugged in, it is constantly recieving a trickle charge, and this, over time, deplete's the cells and eventually leads to a brown battery.
Mine hasnt been used on battery much since I got it over 3 years ago (lets face it, it's a desktop P4 so it's a desktop replacement, not meant to be used mobile really), but nowadays, due to me leaving the battery constantly connected when running on power, despite the odd discharge and recharge etc, it lasts a shameful 15 - 20 minutes absolute maximum (thats with the backlight turned down, GPU seriously underclocked etc), whereas when it was new, it would last a good hour and a half.
Im gonna just get a 6.6 amp battery off Ebay (the one in it is 4.4) and keep that seperate for mobile use I think, should last two hours and ive learnt my lesson from leaving the battery trickle charging. They are £30~ on Ebay. Obviously not OEM, but then Acer use the cheapest batteries and components they can anyway.