however, yesterday I noticed that the AC charger for my PC was no longer working and the computer would completely power off. I plugged in the charger for my brother's lap top and the computer came back on. The problem is that I need a charger with more wattage since it will get warm after awhile and kick me out again. If you have another charger available (maybe you borrow one from a friend or neighbor) you might want to test it.

Replace it if you can.

The power supply unit (charger) being buggered. They stop with amazing frequency. Can you borrow or purhase a cheap one to try?

The setting (I don't know the name) is intended to maximize battery life which is tied to the number of recharge cycles. Often once the setting is selected it charges most of the way but will not begin charging again until the charge %age drops low enough. Most lithium ion batteries send their charge info to the unit they power via a protocol called I2C. The battery tells your laptop how much charge it has. Your pc can't tell on its own.

Although an online thingy said the battery is good, when I unplug the power cord the screen dims a lot.
Surfing the net I see a new battery would be about $80.
May just used the laptop on power and get a new laptop when the sales hit.

I can probably find you at a cheaper battery.

I just bought a new battery on eBay made specifically for my laptop. $23 and change with free shipping. Should be here by Dec 1st.
If that doesn't help I'll be looking for a new laptop.

Just a suggestion:
Compare the average run-time (off AC) between the new an old batteries. If the old one lasts less than half as long as the new one, recycle it in electronic waste. Otherwise, keep the old one as a spare.

I have read that your model HP has that battery life maximize formula that stops it short of a full recharge to extend the life of the battery. I don't know if it will do that with all batteries. This is probably not a laptop problem. If the laptop charges the battery, then it's probably fine.

The only thing that matters is how long the computer will stay on from near full charge to the time a shutdown is forced because the battery is too low.

Lithium battery chargers have to be "smart" to prevent fires. An overcharged battery might catch fire, and a battery that is too deeply discharged may be damaged and might catch fire when it's recharged.

Reputable manufacturers do not want their products to catch fire so the "smart" battery charger tends to be conservative.

If the computer lasted, say, five hours on a charge when new, that time tends to get shorter as the batteries age. It's time to replace the batteries when the length of time the computer can run on battery power becomes annoyingly short. If you expect five hours from a battery, two hours may not be enough.

The smart charger in a computer, tablet, or phone, may also decide it's not safe to recharge a battery for various reasons. Again, this is a time to replace the battery and/or charger.

There's all sorts of nonsense related to faulty chargers, especially cheap no-name or counterfeit replacement chargers.

Over the years I've developed an intense loathing of batteries. For a while I got pretty good at opening the cases of iPods and replacing the batteries, but now I don't give a damn and hate all of these "personal electronics." I have a very old flip phone with a charge light that hasn't turned from red to "fully charged" green for maybe five years now, but the phone still works fine. It used to go four or five days without a charge if I didn't use it much, now it only goes two or three days. Oh well. I've got no plans to upgrade.