Do I need to buy a new battery?

[maclook]

Earlier today, I noticed that my macbook wasn't charging while the computer was put to sleep. Snow leopard told me that i should "replace soon" which seemed better than "replace now". So I turned off my machine and plugged in the magsafe to see if it would charge at all. The indicator light on the magsafe was yellow? i had never seen that before but it definitely wasn't green or orange.

I have a blackbook and in the process of writing this, I noticed my battery icon now has an X on it and states that there is no battery available (it's plugged in right now). Also iStat no longer has any info on my battery, but when I push the button on my battery, it lights up 2/5.

So it's pretty much decided that I need to replace my battery. I'm strapped for cash right now, so even buying a $50 battery off of Amazon is inconvenient for me. Does this mean that I can still use my macbook whenever it is plugged in or will it turn off soon and become unusable unless i get a new battery?

 

[Cboss]

This happened to my blackbook last year. I don't remember exactly how I fixed it... I do remember resetting the PRAM... But, I did find a few threads on MacRumors about other people who had this happen. So try searching with mroogle. I'm not sure if what I did actually fixed anything, but after a week or so my problem disappeared.

For me, I could use it as much as I wanted when it was plugged in. But, if I let the battery completely drain it wouldn't startup, even plugged in. I know that my battery was still good because I could charge it in my roommates macbook, and his battery had the same problem when placed in my macbook. I would take it to the Genius Bar if you can't find anything that fixes it.