Some laptops have a cold reset that is different to just powering off
and turning back on.

Also some BIOS's have a calibration procedure for the battery to give
the anticipated running time -- check your manuals, paper or on-line.

You could ask over in the Laptop Forum over on Compuserve:

http://community.compuserve.com/n/pf...btag=ws-laptop

You don't have to be a memeber any more; just get a logon name and
password when you arrive.