I recently got an AC power adapter for a Toshiba Tecra 8000 I got ages ago, and while it is a knock-off adapter, I had no choice as there were no genuine 15v adapters out there. Not much I can do about that without spending US$50+ on a universal external power supply. Anyways, I got it to power on, I've installed Windows successfully, etc., but I've now noticed a problem that has a wide variety of strange symptoms. These symptoms sometimes vary between it being booted into DOS or Windows, but they are generally similar. The battery will hold a charge, and because of this I cannot tell whether the problem is with the laptop or battery pack.

Symptoms:

When I first insert the battery, the system will detect it and the battery charging indicator will turn on. In DOS/Non-Windows mode, this indicator will stay lit for roughly 2-3 minutes and then turn off, even though the battery is far from finished charging. When I take out and re-insert the battery, it will detect it for another ~2-3 minutes.

In Windows, it lasts for more like 10-20 seconds, before the indicator will turn off. When I open the power menu in Windows, it doesn't detect the battery. When I re-insert the battery, it will detect it for another 10-20 seconds before not detecting it anymore.

The last time I tried removing and re-inserting it in Windows, the CPU fan would speed up every time the light indicator turned on, and when it turned off, the CPU fan would slow down again. I now have it shut off, because when I removed and re-inserted the battery again, the light indicator lit for approx. 30-40 seconds before the entire system shut down and the AC power indicator flashed orange. It did this twice.

The battery has 30% charge where I managed to get it up to that point by taking it out and re-inserting it over the past two days. The system will run from the battery, without the AC power connected, until it gets to Windows and hits the 20 second barrier, in which case the system will shut off and the power indicator will flash orange, as if in sleep mode.

I removed the old CMOS and another, larger internal battery pack from the system as the metal under the larger pack had shown signs of corrosion from a battery leak. The large battery pack did not appear to have leaked, and looked to be in good condition, but I did not want to risk it. This leak occurred only on the metal above the CD-ROM bay and no corrosion got anywhere near the motherboard or battery area.

I have no idea what is going on with this laptop right now. I have never seen this problem before. I have seen dead battery packs, but the laptops have never acted like this. They just say the pack is dead, and go on. With this one, it's as if the battery pack is functional, but something is wrong with the laptop itself.