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Originally Posted by progers
Assuming your laptop has a NiCad battery, they develop a memory effect; if you always have the laptop plugged in when you use it, you are only using the battery in a charge state from 95% to 100%. After a period of time, the battery "remembers" that so from fully charged to fully discharged is effectively only 5% of its capability. Not using it for 12 months will probably have killed it completely.
For future reference, with any NiCad powered items, use them until almost fully discharged, then fully charge them. Best still, buy items with NiMh batteries, thay have no memory effect!
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If the laptop is old enough to have a NiCd battery then the battery is certainly dead!
Most likely it's a li-ion (lithium ion)
In which case, as you've not used it for about a year, the voltage has probably dropped below 3v per cell and knackered them.
Remember, li-ion like to be kept charged.
NiCd have memory effect (though it takes loads of charges to bring this into play), though you should really discharge before every charge
NiMH don't have memory effect, so like Li-ion can have their charge topped up without any ill effects, and like NiCd's can be discharged and re-charged.
Li-ion batteries however start to fail from the moment they are made, through oxidation inside them.
They are also damaged by the heat of the laptop.
So there is no point buying a spare battery at the same time as new laptop to use when the first one fails, because it will be nearly as degraded.
check ebay to see if you can buy a new battery, or just run it off the mains.