bad laptop battery?

I read another similar post, but not exactly what I'm looking for. I have my aunt's old toshiba satellite a35 laptop trying to set up her wireless home network. Up until about a week ago everything was fine. Now I cant seem to get a charge to stay on the battery. IIt wont even boot up with the charger in the wall socket. I bought another charger thinking maybe the old one was kinked or bad, but no help. So I'm assuming the battery may be bad. Is there a way to test the battery as you would other common and car batteries?. I hate to tell her to spend another $60 to $140 for this laptop, especially if I'm not sure if this is the problem. For some reason this battery seems a little higher than other laptop batteries. May not even be worth buying one since the laptop is rather old. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
T

 

Hi Teedoff, my experience is only with Compaq Contura & Presario laptops and both work without the battery pack installed, just running off the charger. I suspect you may have a bigger problem and it might pay to wait until someone with more knowledge about Toshiba lappys. Neil.

 

If your laptop will not run with the adapter connected and the battery removed, the most likely and most common cause is a broken connection in the laptop where the adapter plugs in. This is an achilles heel in laptops. It is always weaker than it should be.

The good news is the part is cheap. The bad news is the installation can be very expensive as it requires complete disassembly. Cost can easily exceed the value of the laptop.