Welcome to a laptop battery specialist
of the Toshiba Laptop Battery
I'm running ubuntu 12.04 on a Toshiba A30 Satellite laptop, and the following power supply problem has arisen, so I'd be grateful to anyone who can provide some clues as to what action might cure it.
I have hard wired my ac adapter so that dc power to the laptop is OK, and not likely to be at fault. Moving the connector where it joins the back of the machine produces no sign of anything untoward either.
a) If I start the laptop with the battery wiht like Toshiba PA3107U-1BAS Battery, Toshiba PA3383U-1BAS Battery, Toshiba PA3384U-1BAS Battery, Toshiba PA3285U-1BAS Battery, Toshiba PA3191U-1BAS Battery, Toshiba PA3166U-1BAS Battery, Toshiba PA3331U-1BAS Battery, Toshiba PA3098U-1BAS Battery, Toshiba PA3084U-1BAS Battery, Toshiba PA3399U-1BAS Battery, Toshiba PA3905U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PABAS213 Batteryfully charged, after a random time of the order of minutes not hours, the taskbar indicator shows the battery is rapidly losing charge, then the indicator switches to 'battery not present', with the 'battery' led going out. The laptop then runs for a short time before turning off.(The Toshiba will succesfully boot up without a battery present, and continue to operate for some time, but not for ever!)
b) If I boot up the laptop with the led indicating a partially charged battery, the above sequence occurs, just completes more quickly.
In either case, the laptop closes down, leaving just the 'mains power' led indicating that a power source is connected. If I now press the button to start the boot sequence, nothing will happen. If, however, I turn off the power at the wall socket, then immediately turn it back on, both the 'power source' and 'battery' leds come on, and pressing the start button will boot up the computer into the (b) scenario. If I leave the laptop with the power still switched on to the ac adapter, the battery will indicate fully charged in about 20 mins for one, or 40 mins for the other.
I have tried the above with two batteries, admittedly both used, but the symptoms remain the same, so I would need a lot of persuading that a new battery is the answer !