OT: What's up w/ my laptop's battery ?

Time to get a new battery! I have an HP that used to last about 4 hours if I was watching a movie. Now it barely holds a full charge for an hour.

It is the same with all other laptops I have had, eventually the battery's capability to hold a charge is diminished.

Other option is to keep it plugged in at all times.

If you have been using it without any ventilation etc., i.e. on a flat surface most of the time this will affect the lifetime of your battery. You do well to get an hour out of it. Personally I would never get a laptop with a screen bigger than 15" because the power for the screen is so demanding.

That's definitely true about the screens. I had a old Lenovo laptap with a 14 1/2 inch screen at work that would barely keep a 1 1/2 hour charge on battery at around 40% brightness. One day I forgot to plug it in and had it hooked up to an external monitor, I got the 10% power warning after about 4 1/2 hours, which means the screen was eating up over 2/3 of the battery capacity.

Also depending on how old the laptop is, keeping it plugged in all the time also lowers the life expectancy. Newer laptops are designed to let the battery drain when plugged in.

don't buy a knock of battery on ebay... I tried that as a cheep fix for an old laptop battery that couldn't keep a charge... and of course the p.o.s. replacement was just as bad.