Help with Toshiba Satellite L305D-S5881

[mfdom]

Hey everyone I have two concerns with this laptop, I'm trying to set it up for school. pretty much so I am able to use powerpoint and word in dual window. But before we get into that, my first issue is the battery. It doesn't seem to be charging. I originally thought it was just a faulty battery so I bought a replacement which in time died out and is unable to charge as well as the original. My laptop states "plugged in, charging" but the charge of the battery does not change from "0%". I then thought that the actual charger was bad so to test it, I turned my system off, removed the battery, plugged in the ac charger and powered back on to see that it powers on fine by the charging cable. I've searched the internet and have only found two solutions that have worked for others but do not work for me.

The first being
-unplug everything
-remove the battery
-hold down the power button for 30 seconds
-insert battery back in and insert cables

The second being
-go to device manager
-uninstall battery driver
-scan for hardware changes
-restart pc to auto install proper drivers

Any other ideas on this will be greatly appreciated. As of now I only use it when it's plugged in.
On to my second concern, which operating system would run most efficiently on this machine. I understand some people would say that the one that came with the machine works best because it's made specifically for that. In my research however I've found that Vista is a resource hungry OS and that windows 7 uses less resources. At the same time my research states that windows 8.1 is even less of a resource hog than windows 7 so I installed windows 8.1 (64-bit) because the laptop has 64 bit hardware (or so it tells me..). Currently it seems to work with what I want but sometimes the computer feels like it hits a wall and slows down randomly. As if the requirements for windows 8.1 are much higher than in states or maybe I just completely read it wrong and thought the laptop could handle it. I am wondering if my best bet would be to re-install windows 8.1 (32-bit) instead because even though it's a 64-bit laptop the Vista it came with was only 32-bit. Or does anyone thinks it a better option for me to install either Xubuntu or Lubuntu on the system, instead? I'm really looking for your opinions as I've stated above the only real purpose I would like to use the laptop for is for dual window powerpoint with word while listening to music as I work on the two programs. I'm open to try all operating systems for whatever you think would be best for this specific laptop to run smooth and efficient. My laptop specs are at the bottom here. A full detailed list where I got these from are at this link: http://support.toshiba.com/support/modelHome?freeText=2059350

Thanks so much for taking the time to help out!


Model Name:
L305D-S5881

Operating System:
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium (SP1, 32-bit version)

Processor and Chipset:
AMD Turion™ X2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor RM-70
2.0GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, HyperTransport™ 3: up to 3.6(GT/sec)
AMD M780V chipset

Memory:
Configured with 3072MB PC6400 DDR2 SDRAM (both memory slots
may be occupied). Maximum capacity 4096MB

Hard Disk Drive:
200GB (5400 RPM); Serial ATA hard disk drive

Graphics:
ATI Radeon™ 3100 graphics with 256MB-1406MB dynamically
allocated shared graphics memory

Power:
90W (19V x 4.74A) 100-240V AC Adapter
Dimensions (WxDxH): 5.2” x 1.2” x 2.3”
Weight: starting at 0.89lb

Battery:
4000mAh Lithium Ion battery pack

 

[mfdom]

Installed 8.1 32bit and it seems to be working a lot better. I'd appreciate if anyone would send out other recommendations based on this setup