My prior computer woes were definitely caused by the battery being dead. I went and retrieved the new battery from my parents’ house, where I had it shipped by accident, and I’m back up to full capability.
Better than full capability, actually. The battery life on this thing is more than two and a half hours, at full charge. The original battery that came with it lasted less than one hour, out of the box. I expected the longer life, since the original battery was a four-cell, and this one is eight-cell, but it’s still nice.
Hopefully this battery won’t lose lifespan steadily and die within a year, like the last one. I’ll try to treat it with a bit more consideration, but I was very unhappy with the original’s performance.
The new battery came from a company called Replacement Power. Replacement batteries seem to be all they do.