[ltp] Has my battery failed?

[Tony Willoughby]

My 390E has stopped detecting/using the battery.  

My typical practice when leaving work for the day is to run "shutdown"
and then pull the power cord to to pack it up.  The system continues to
shutdown on battery power.

One day last week I did this and the system powered off immediately. 
Since then it will not power up unless connected to the AC.  "apm"
reports: "AC on-line", it used to report the % charge of the battery. 
Reseating the battery hasn't helped.  

apm reports the following when started..

Nov 26 09:06:39 localhost apmd: apmd startup succeeded
Nov 26 09:06:39 localhost apmd[1845]: Version 3.0.2 (APM BIOS 1.2, Linux
driver 1.16)
Nov 26 09:06:40 localhost apmd[1845]: Charge: * * * (-1% unknown)

I always assumed that battery failures would be gradual, not sudden like
this.  Has my battery failed or is something else wrong?

-- 
Tony Willoughby     tonyw@pobox.com

"Enjoy every sandwich..."
  - Warren Zevon 30-October-2002