Laptop won't charge.

It is a Gateway/Acer NE56r10. The woman who gave it to me for free said it quit charging and turning on for her so she tried a new battery and ac adapter but it didn't help. The ac adapter is a cheap no name one. The battery appears to also be no name, it is 10.8v. With the AC adapter and battery plugged in the power lights will flash when you press it but the laptop will not boot. Does the same without the battery too.

I disassembled it, tested the dc jack, wire, mother board connector and they're good. While disassembled I plugged in a 11.1v battery from an Acer laptop(same connector) and was able to boot a live cd.

I tried plugging in the ac adapter while running linux and the battery icon says it is charging for about 15 seconds and then says it is unplugged. I tried another ac adapter that had the same voltage but lower amps and got the same result. I do not have anymore ac adapters to test with :(

Then I shut it off and left it plugged in with my Acer battery. With either ac adapter It says it is charging. I tried plugging in it's Gateway battery and it does nothing, no charging light. So put the Acer battery back in, left it off and I am going to monitor it while the LED says it is charging.

The thing that puzzles me is that it will not run without a battery on either charger. The cheap charger says it is 19v 3.42a, my oem charger that belongs to another laptop says it is 19v 2.15a. Both chargers will charge my Acer battery but neither charger will charge the Gatewat battery.

Is it possible that it won't run without a battery because the chinese charger lies about it's amps and other charger doesn't supply the amps needs? I'm leaning towards getting a name brand charger and/or battery. What would you suggest before I throw money at it?

*Edit* I have tested the ac adapters with a multimeter and they have the same volts, I tried to do an amp draw test with the DC10 and com port but it stays at 0 I may need to read my manual.

*Edit* Before I powered it off, Xubuntu said the battery was at 35%. The LED light has been blinking for 45 minutes indicating that it is charging. I turned it on and after loading into the GUI the battery level was down to 25% so I do not believe it was charging at all for that 45 minutes.