>Also try plugging in the laptop without the battery in at all.

Thanks. I think its fixed. It was actually in some kind of weird hibernation state. I noticed that the ac plug in the back of the computer did not keep good contact so I cleaned it up and bent the contact in a little bit. After waiting a while it came back up but was flaky. I reseated the memoy modules an now its working. I still might get a replacement battery if I can find a good deal. Its an Acer Travelmate. I see that replacement batteries are about $209. There is one web site that claims they can refurbish the old Lion battery for about $150. http://www.sarrio.com/sarrio/rebuild.html