What firewall are you using? Also try Ad-aware if you haven't already tried it, as this often finds things missed by Spybot. Also check that you have used the immunize feature in Spybot.
You ought to check the connectors inside the battery compartment, sometimes these get flattened so they don't make direct contact. Failing this as the cause it could well be a hard wired problem between the compartment and the...
Sticking with XP for the present, but will pick a copy of Vista with a new machine i'm sure... Waiting for all those little glitches to get ironed out first...
