The Long-winded trick is to revert to the original OS (XP?).....IMHO* it is unlikely the battery could deteriorate so much, just changing the OS.
If the msg is 'Cannot find battery', it's probably a Power-management (software) fault, rather than the battery/connections/etc.
( * If the warning is "Low battery", this could be a result of changing the OS, simply because of much disc-activity taking power...but reading the orig.Querey this is not so.)

Another trick is to run the PC from Ubuntu (=Linux), using a "Live CD" - this takes over the PC without installing on your HDD. You must empower the CD/DVD drive for booting, to stop "Windows" taking over. "Live CDs" are free from Ubuntu, but note the operation will be slow until installed on a HDD, as CD drives are tardy. Some clever folks muight provide "Live" operation from a USB-mem stick, but again this must be empowered before the HDD.
I have a Li-ion battery in my D-Camera, 5-years old and no ovbious sign of failure (Yikes!). I believe the "memory" effect(mentioned here) was only early NiCds, although I suspect all batteries exhibit this, in part. Without specialist kknowledge it's difficult to check batteries, esp as you can't leave it 1week say, because you want to use the PC, also operationg on a known bad battery might stop the OS shutting down correctly.
I would search (but not G-) the internet for this fault, as I suspect it could be Software-related if the PC worked fine before. MS might be a good starting point.
Ubuntu-Live provides limited function, but should incl a WP so you can view/edit most text-files...but don't expect to print, unless you have a PostScript printer. Once on a HDD, then Ubuntu is "almost" as good as Windows, althought it is slightly different things like WP are almost identical - eg if you use OpenOffice which is functionally the equal of MS-Office, but saves you 350....enough to buy two batteries, eh?
jeffmack - I'm unclear how there is this "fault" - yet you've been running Win7 - if it doesn't stop the operation, why worry?

Hi anyone who can help
Conmputer on start up or after i have left it for a while this message comes up

RUNDLL X error loading c:\program files\commonfiles\UUS2.dll

the specified module could not be found

what does it mean and how do i get rid of it thanks

Puzzled.

I have just re-installed iespell.
It workes great will all sites except with MoneyAm.
When I go onto the MoneyAm site, it just disapears from my tool bar.

Any help would be apreciated.

Greek.

Thanks for all the suggestions re my battery problem. In the end I bought a new battery, which arrived today, and it is all working ok.

I need to repartition my HDD (160GB in Two partitions) as the "C" is nearly full is there reasonably priced partitioning software out there???

Thanks in anticipation SD

Seadog,
Have a look at ultimatebootcd.com
Dig around on the site and I think that
you might something helpful.
Free downloads and sources for CDs.

You don't need software. Just boot up the computer in to DOS & use the DOS commands to partition. It will not however partition it until you have formatted it, so you will need to copy any relevant info you want to keep to CD or other storage device.
Also, I don't quite understand why partitioning it will give you more space. If you have only 1 partition 'C' & that is full, then the HD is full.

If you can find a copy of Partition Magic 8 somewhere, that'll do what you want *and* move your data so you don't lose any in the process...

SeaDog,

I believe this will do what you're looking to do: http://partedmagic.com/.

Just happened to find it mentioned on http://slashdot.org today.

Harrycat,
I did say in the original message that the HDD was partitioned into Two but did not add "C and D" drives. Thank you for your answer but being a computer dumdum I would'nt know how to get into DOS.
Johnathan,
Partition Magic is mentioned on the Acer website but they do not say if it is free or how much it cost's. I like the moving of data bit so will go for it when I can find the cost. The local IT shop want 20 plus VAT to do it. Thank you
tyketto,
Thank you, will have a look. SD

Not wishing to teach an old Seadog how to 'suck eggs' but............

Whichever route you follow I'd recommend you copy the existing disk to an external one so that if anything goes wrong you have not lost everything.

A couple of years ago I got a highly respected IT company to install a disk caddy in a PC and in the process they thrashed the hard disk. Luckily I'd copied it with Acronis the previous evening - but without that we'd have been in a real mess.

TP

TP
How did you know I was an "old" seadog TP ??? lol.
The laptop (an Acer 7720) has room, I am told, for a second HD so will go for a 500GB second drive, and that will solve the problem.
Many thanks to all . SD.

EDIT - downloaded "Java Upgrades" and that seems to have fixed it....isn't is amazing that fixing one part
of a Computer, results in the rest needing fixing, too? Grr.

Have just upgraded my computer OS, XP to sp3,
But I've noticed, on this site, I'm getting a request to access a new web-site (= . .. . .). I wonder if anyone knows what this file/program is - and if it is acceptable to allow the connection.

Currently I cannot display the Graphs used by "Quote", whereas up to recently they looked OK.
Also if I click on an RNS, that too will no-longer display.


Yet "Investors' Room" works OK, as does the posting. The "Losers/Gainers" works OK also.
+Obviously I am able to Log-In .

I want to check (here), that this is an issue with "this site" - rather than with the updates created by MS. Seems rather a coincidence this happens at the same time.

Not a problem. Just a comment.

I have a couple of two year old Vista PC's both with 250 gig HDD's.

I decided to clean up the old Restore Points and on one machine it recovered me 30 gig and on the other 20 gig. The latter is not normally on the internet so does fewer MS upgrades.

Useful space!

Back to the sunshine and fresh air.... Enjoy your summer, folks.

TP

One for MM possibly.
I want to make up an external lead, HDD(IDE) to USB.
I have the pinouts for both connectors but cannot
find info as to which pins on the IDE I should connect
the USB.(red+5v,white data-,green data+,black gnd)
I have an external main supply for the HDD, or could
possibly use a spare on the computer I am using to
format the external HDD.
TIA>
mac

tyketto: not sure myself.

Bear in mind that the maximum current that you should draw from a USB port is 500mA, so you might want to make sure that you use the external power supply and not connect the +5v line.

I have to confess that sloth usually overcomes me these days, and I just buy the appropriate lead. It's less exciting than DIY but more certain.

Amazon carry a few options at about 10-15 which isn't too outrageous.

Cheers, MM

Thanks MM.
There is a standalone lead available at a similar price,
but I thought that having the where-withall to hand,
I'd have ago myself.
Ta again.
mac

tyketto, an IDE interface is nothing like a USB one. To start with, the IDE interface is parallel, i.e. the data bits are presented as one or more bytes simultaneously on multiple pins. The USB interface is serial, the bits will come one by one. Also, USB devices identify themselves to the PC, IDE ones don't. The lead you saw must include a lot of electronics to convert one interface to the other, it is not a simple wiring job.

To be honest unless it is a stopgap solution (to get the data off the drive for instance), you are unlikely to get good results by doing this. Much better to buy a USB drive.

Thanks to Kayak for pointing out the obvious, so bleedin' obvious I completely ignored it.