The battery on my 13 month old HP Probook 4730s seems to be broken. The battery monitor says not charging and if I pull out the power cord, the laptop immediately turns off.

I suspect I need a new battery, but can I check if there is anything I should try. This laptop has too much clever power management and I would like to rule out that this may have gone wrong. (E.g, the battery is really fine, but the management of charging or similar has become broken.)

Luke, October 2012

If it immediately turn off when you disconnect the charger and go on the battery, it means that the battery IS dead.

Get a new battery.

Make sure that it's realy discharged before recharging: The Li-ion battery have a limited number of charging cycles. If you use it 1 minute on the battery and recharge, it count as a full cycle.
NEVER recharge the battery if it's charge is over 25%.

When the battery is completely discharged, recharge it IMMETIATELY! Leaving your battery totaly discharged for more than a few hours WILL KILL IT. It's beter to recharge it when it's down to less than 5%.

Electro, October 2012