Well it seems one of my power packets isn't working correctly and so can't be used to boot my laptop as it doesn't identify itself as the required power.
Luckily I have a spare.
Coupled with this, my battery point blanc refuses to charge above 47%.

With previous compaqs I've owned I found it was possible to short the battery and then it would charge correctly.
Now is it possible that these two issues are related and the power going "bad" has memoried my battery..

Anyone have any tips/ideas to get the battery fully charged.
Obviously I always have the option to purchase a new one, but I would like to attempt a fixx on this one first.

Unfortunately, the Lithium Ion batteries used in laptops do shut themselves down after 300 or so charge cycles. This may be what you are seeing.

However, first thing is to go to support.dell.com and enter your Service Tag number from the bottom of the computer. Then see if there is a bios update for your computer. I know it doesn't sound like it would matter, but it does. If there is one available, you can click on it and click on "Fixes and Enhancements" (or something like that) to see if the fix addresses a battery issue. If so, I'd give that a try.

Good luck,
WallyH

Cheers Wally.
I'm already fully updated from dell, as I did this when I recently rebuilt to Win7

Looks like it time for a replacement battery then, oh well.