Smart2200RMXL2U shows no sign of life after storage

My new battery cam with an eight page manual containing instructions got use in a translated (poorly) version of the Chinese original. Of course I did not need a manual to install a new battery and ran into the same problem as you. Refer to the discarded manual and find one and a half pages on how to initialize a new battery.
OOPS JPG came out too small to read so here is a rough OCR

"User Manual on Laptop Battery
Respected users:
Thank you very much for trusting and using our laptop battery. Before using the battery, read this manual carefully. This instruction manual elaborates how to use and maintain the battery correctly. Batteries are consumables, and have a limited service life. However, we can prolong the life of the laptop battery considerably through correct operation, proper charging/discharging and correct storage.
Calibrate your laptop battery to optimize its performance
Inside the laptop battery is microprocessor software, which calculates the battery volume during the charging/discharging. Batteries must be calibrated from time to time to ensure correctness of the time and the percentage displayed on the screen. You must implement a complete cycle of charging and discharging the battery at the beginning of using the computer, and repeat this cycle every two or three months. The charging and discharging procedure is as follows:
1.Set the Power Supply option first: Right click on the screen and select Property -> Screen Saver -> Power Supply -> Power Use Scheme -> Portable. In all the subsequent operations such as When Computer and Use Battery, select Never. Under the Alert option, deselect Alert for deficient battery and Alert for serious battery shortage.
2.Disconnect the power adapter and use the battery until the computer is powered off due to exhaustion of the battery.
3.Connect the power adapter until the battery is charged to 100%. Before initial use of the computer (or resuming use of the computer after long-term storage), the battery must be charged to full.and discharged for 3-4 times to optimize the performance. The charging process takes more than five hours.
Note: When your battery is calibrated and reaches the best performance, set the Power Supply Options on your computer to the default value to ensure that the computer can send correct alerts to you, for example, low battery alert, and alert before the computer enters the hibernation status.
You must discharge the battery to let the computer power off, and then charge the battery to 100% to calibrate it. Then you can connect or disconnect the power supply anytime regardless of the status of the battery volume. Moreover, you can perform a deep charging and discharging cycle under control of the protection circuit in a time"

Your Battery is basically dead. They only have a useful life then have to be replaced. Yours is at the end of it's useful life.

The battery status only shows up when the satnav is disconnected from the charger. Your first charge should be a continuous charge until the battery is full. This can be done by connecting it to your computer for 8 hours approximately or 4 hours to your car cigarette lighter socket or 4 hours to an, optional extra, mains charger.

is the unit battery only or battery backup? if battery backup, the system is draining the batteries as it has no source of power.. if battery only there may be a connection problem or a faulty unit.

The indicator goes away telling you that its no longer running on battery power and that its running on the car or AC charger. During that time, its charging the battery. Only when you remove the unit from the charger/adapter will you see the battery icon because you will then be on battery power. 4 green bars mean you are near or fully charged.


- Jim
SHARCNET-USA

Try soft reset :
hold lap/reset and mode buttons for ten seconds, then release and wait 10sec, then hold start button for 10 seconds, device should start

Sounds like you have a faulty ac adapter or jack on the laptop and its not charging the battery fully. More like a trickle charge. I would recommend leaving the laptop on default power settings or the best power settings and see if their is a differance in life or either shutdown the laptop and let it charge until the light shows fully charged.

try proper jump cables and not the cheapo chinese ones ,put battery on charge for about 3 days with a trickle charger to de sulphate the plate and try again

Went to Best Buy and they didn't know how to get the bar up either but said that the unit should be charged in 3 to 4 hours. So, when i unplugged the unit from the wall...the battery status showed up. I guess it doesn't show when the unit is plugged into the AC charger. Now, all is well.

Some of The Canon Powershot A530 and A540 cameras are subject to an advisory recall. Seems that a small spring on the battery compartment door can short out the batteries. Suspect this of yours, in that you mention that your batteries aren't lasting long. If your camera is on the list, Canon should fix this for you for free, including free shipping both ways. This is regardless of your camera's warranty status. Please check the following link for more info:

http://camerarepair.blogspot.com/2007/12/canon-a530-a540-with-short-battery-life.html