Sounds quite complicated issues. Did you try with any other distro?
Your battery removal doesn't cause any of your problems. I've used multiple laptops without batteries long-term (even for years) with zero issues.
If any other distro doesn't resolve your problems, I suspect your motherboard is either corroded or has broken components on it.
Corroded... that's something I hadn't considered...
This is my "outside" laptop... been using it in places I wouldn't want to risk a more expensive machine... 🤔 think I'll disassemble it and check for corrosion...
Could be something in the process of breaking... could explain the erratic behaviors, I guess?
I haven't tried any other distro yet. I've been with Debian my whole Linux life. But I might try XFCE again... that was my preferred desktop for years, only the new update triggered me to try Gnome properly.
Some laptop manufacturers disable functions and stay in low performance throttle if there is no battery present, and remain that way until a new one is installed. Apple does this.
Some laptop manufacturers disable features if their operating system is not installed. Apple disables integrated Intel graphics, for example, and forces amd graphics on Linux and OpenBSD.
So its not impossible that your laptop is crippled by design without the battery.
With your information, and realizing I still have made virtually no progress...
Ugh. This is ridiculous. I was aware Apple did shiesty stuff, but never heard of anyone else.
The difference is staggering, and I have to believe something similar has happened.
This laptop was previously my test bed for Linux itself. Old Faithful, if you know what I mean. Got me confident enough to actually use Linux. Compile stuff. Tinker. 🥰
Got me to acquire another, newer laptop for Linux. Confidence, even if only a drop.
Thank you for replying and sharing. I can't think of anything else being the issue.
Debian is a free operating system (OS) for your computer. An operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that make your computer run. Debian provides more than a pure OS: it comes with over 59000 packages, precompiled software bundled up in a nice format for easy installation on your machine.