Battery of HP Pavilion g6 Notebook is suddenly 'Very Weak' after 18 months of use

[skbehan]

I bought my pavilion g6 in June 2011 and it has worked perfectly until today. There was an error message at startup telling me my battery is now very weak (charge capicity 24%) and needs to be replaced. Could this be a result of a fault in the battery? Info below:

Product Name : HP Pavilion g6 Notebook PC.

Product Number: LR722PA#ABG

Operating system: Windows 7

Error message: Battery status - Very weak (70) - Charge capacity 24%

No changes made to system before issue occured

[6137tx]

Hi..

Connect your charger to the laptop.

Open HP Support Assistance.
go to Troubleshoot and click Power, Thermal and Mechanical

In this tab: click Battery check.

It will give the exact status of the battery, if you need to replace contact HP or you can find on Ebay..

[skbehan]

After the battery check my status was 'Weak' (30) with charge capicity of 26%. I also got a message saying the battery is functioning correctly but is weaker due to normal aging. I understand these batteries don't last forever but I've owned several HP laptops over the years and never had to replace a battery before. Also this wasn't a gradual decline in battery health. It literally happened overnight. The battery lasted hours before and now I can't plug it out at all. That's why I thought it might be a fault in the battery.