I have an inspiron 1501..the battery was on its last leg..i was getting error messages that it wasn't recognizing it and would not charge. SO i bought a non dell battery to replace it.

got it yesterday, charged it and no more error messages upon booting up. The charge showed 3+ hours run time which is great b/c before i couldnt get 30 min off the a/c charger.

My problem...It randomly shut down after 20 min and i couldn't power back up unless i had the a/c adapter plugged in.

Restarted, unplugged the a/c adapater, battery still showing a full charge. randomly shut down again within 20-30 min.

is there something i need to do in the boot up settings for the new battery?

my notebook at times would randomly shut down after being on for hours..its been happening off and on..but it felt hot so i thought it was b/c it was overheating or b/c of the crappy battery.

any ideas on what this is or what to do??

Thanks!