I just purchased a new Inspiron Mini 10 running XP Home edition.

In fact, the laptop is barely 8 hours old.

 

It's been plugged into the power outlet for 8 hours, the power light is flashing between white and amber, but the battery doesn't seem to charge at all. Since I purchased it, the battery shows as 61% charged, the value doesn't change, and when I unplug the power cable, the laptop instantly switches off. This tells me that the laptop is not running off the battery.

 

Any suggestions? Are battery problems endemic to Dell laptops? What can I do?