Laptop power adapter/power meter inconsistency The power meter on the lower right hand taskbar on my laptop shows an inconsistent power charge. Sometimes, the icon appears to be charging the battery, other times it appears to be running on ac power, and also, it appears to be running on the laptop battery. The strange thing is, the laptop is plugged in. The power meter should only be showing the computer running on AC power (of at least charging). But, when the laptop is plugged in, the power meter should never show battery life decreasing. But it does exactly that. For 10 seconds it appears to be running on battery, and it swaps for another 10 seconds running on ac power, and it repeats. Obviously, this is not normal, and slowly but surely, the computer dies of power, even though it is always plugged in. The power adapter is less than a month old. What's the problem?