Laptop battery problems

[fuzzybee]

I've had my Advent 7001 laptop for about two years now and i think my battery's life is over, it just won't charge and has been on 0% for about two weeks now.
If i power down it should charge the battery with it connected to the mains via the power supply with the charger light on the side flashing but nothing happens. It works fine via the power supply so have i turned something off in XP i shouldn't have or am i in need of a new battery ???
if i do need to replace the battery how much am i looking at

[VR46]

batteries vary, about ?60 to ?90 in general I think - ebuyer.co.uk are bound to be cheap (if they sell them) or try dabs.com.

There are power/battery settings in XP, right click on the power lead/battery icon on the right hand side of the taskbar and check all the tabs to make sure everything looks OK, will have a proper look when I get home.