Compaq Armada E500

[mike12]

I just bought the above laptop off E-Bay for a backup computer. The battery pack was advertised as not holding a charge, or little if any. That is not my concern, because it will be plugged in at all times anyway. But here are the issues that may or not be problems. First, the switch does not seem to work, either to shutdown the computer or start it up. It seems to do nothing. The computer came with no operating system, but I was able to install Win 98 on this computer. When I want to shut it down I just do the regular Start / Shutdown etc. BUT---the only way I can start it up again is to remove the plug from the wall, or turn the surge suppressor on and off. Then the computer will restart. However, I must have the battery pack removed, or it will most times NOT restart. After I have the computer started, I let it charge the battery, which now shows 100%. Again, using the battery is not a problem, but I was wondering--can a battery that may be messed up, cause these startup problems intermittantly. Many thanks !