What’s worse, having it broken or knowing its broken?

I came home early today to find that the house had the power shut off again. Apparently, there was a tree limb on the lines and they needed to work on it and repair the service. When I got back to my computer after karate, I noticed that the orange battery light was on indicating that the battery was critically low.

Warnings from Windows validated this, and after checking that the AC adapter was plugged in I have found that my battery no longer holds a charge. I unplug the AC and immediately get the critical battery light and warnings.

Now I have several options: tolerate it, pay a little and get a third party replacement battery and be concerned with third party quality, or pay more and get a certified Dell replacement part.

I’m leaning toward option two, but there is nothing that prevents me from using my laptop in plugged-in mod… in fact, it is normally plugged in. I come to find now that this is actually what causes batteries of this type to run out quicker, but hindsight is 20/20.

It also begs the question what is worse: having something like this broken, or the nagging annoyance of knowing that it is broken and needs fixed. I’ve been pretty well “nickel and dimed to death” by my house this month, or else I’d just buy replacement batteries for our laptops (Tasha’s is having similar troubles) but at this rate it’ll have to wait until next month at least because its not in the budget right now.

I do have a potential Eee PC coming courtesy of my homeowners insurance, but they’ve not released the new models for sale yet (early July) so I’m going to have to wait on that as well. *sigh*…