Strange battery behavior

[Shogoki]

So, when i first got this laptop, about a year and a half ago, the battery would go for almost 3 hours of normal work (that is, typing, reading, surfing, but not video or anything fancy). Then about a year later, it basically suffered from sudden death, went from over 2.5 hours to 10 minutes tops, this also happened on Linux, so it's not Windows fucking up, before someone tries to bring that up.

The battery was just about a month out of it's 1 year warranty so i basically thought i was screwed and since I usually only use the battery when i want to screw around in the airport or whatever I didn't bother to buy it at the time.

Anyway, today i forgot the ac adapter at home when i picked up the laptop at lunch to go over some things. Luckly some guy here has the same model i do and he let me borrow his adapter, i used it for about 2 hours, and then he needed it back cause his battery was dying. I thought i'll save my stuff before the computer shuts down, but i didn't bother with actually shutting it down, expecting it to go to hibernation so i would resume work at home.

I unplugged it and XP gave me the "save your work now" message. But it's been about 40 minutes since, the battery says it's still at 94%, but it's not showing the usual "x time left", and when i press the button on the battery itself the indicator lights up all the way. What gives?

It obviously came back to life somehow, I've heard about cold temperatures boosting dying batteries and the laptop was recently stuck inside my car for the weekend while it was almost freezing. But it could also have been my co worker's ac adapter that did the trick (or more likely, mine is fucked).

Any recommendations on what i should do now to try and salvage the battery, it would be nice not having to buy a new one.

[Ryan Thunder]

I thought cold temperatures made it worse.

Anyways, do you leave it plugged in all the time? Particularly when you're not using it? If so, that's probably the problem.

[Vertigo1]

How long has it been since you've completely discharged the battery? (I'm talking down to the point where it doesn't have the current to turn on a light bulb...)