“The only way I COULD use the laptop was by using household electricity.”
I am totally confused. You say you have/had a laptop with a battery, but you could only use it plugged into electricity. I don’t get that.
I have a laptop that I keep plugged into electricity but I take the battery out of it. The only time I put the battery in is if I am sitting where I can’t get Electricity. I will put the battery in occasionally though and plug into elec. to give it a charge.
If you kept the battery in ALL the TIME along with elec. maybe you fried it. I know there are some types of equipment they tell you to unplug from elec when fully charged.
My Dell computer had battery issues I took it to our local computer geek. He hunted down the discontinued battery, took the laptop apart, replaced the battery, and it’s good as new.
It was less expensive than buying a new one. Works great.