i think this is a reasonable place for both ?'s, since basically both are applicable to computer recording
im not sure on the battery situation, my charger( sony vaio picturebook c1vp) is 16v, but the battery is 11.1...
i know that when i hook a 12v external power source up though a hacked power plug, it
thinks it is "charging" but in all actuality it just extends my battery life somewhat. it never actually raised the batterys charged %, even during setbreak when it wasnt recording.
i would really like to know if i could take the 12v pack i have and wire it up with some other pack to make a ~16v input so it would actually charge the battery while in use
edit: im running a vaio with a 667 crusoe, so im sure that centrino 1.4 would have more than enough nuts to do anything you wanted