Laptops & Power Outages

I own a Compaq 610 (dubbed Podi Maya) and I have had it for about less than 2 years. It’s been reliable so far, since the demise of my earlier laptop, Panik, I have solely relied on it to be my source of EVERYTHING. BUT, as of late, I have found out that the battery has gone kaput. Well, I realised that the battery had gone kaput about 6-9 months ago, because when I remove the cable, it only would stay ‘alive’ for 30 minutes and it would die. Before this started happening, it stayed on for 3 hours, which made me quite happy. It’s a good laptop, and for the price that I got it for, it was a deal ($750).

My only issue is that, due to the battery issues, the laptop is no more a laptop and is quite plugged in (to the matrix? Sorry I had to put that there). A new battery would cost a good 20k(LKR). When the power cable went bust and a new one cost me 16k (LKR). What I was wondering, was whether this is a model issue or just a HP issue (cos I had the same thing with my earlier HP laptop). Also had the cable to the earlier HP Laptop go bust, and then the battery. Or is it that the fluctuations in Electricity available in Sri Lanka is so unstable, due to the unforeseen power outages that it makes my electrical appliances go bust. I do have a trip switch which goes off at times like those, but are there sneaky attempts that go unseen? Also, the fact that I use so many multi plugs and extendable power cords to reach my desk, could that be it? I don’t know. I need a working laptop and I don’t want electricity playing havoc on my babies

All I know is that all my work goes bust when the lights go off and sometimes I get the Autosaves and sometimes I don’t. I just got in trouble because I had sent the wrong copy of a document I had corrected but it hadn’t saved when the power went bust, and I thinking it was the right one, cos I ‘thought; I saved it, sent it right away. Darn.

Yeah, I think I should either scrounge up the cash for a new battery or even a new laptop. (Sad)