My Computer Is Blinking -- What Does It Mean?

I changed the battery in my laptop (the thing I'm blog posting this on right now) early in the year, and while I think it's been doing OK, lately it's sapping energy like the old battery has.  It's gotten super hot, too, and a sign that it's working harder than it should.

But a few weeks ago (I believe) I noticed something real weird.  Whenever I plug in my lap, there is a white rectangular light that, uh, lights up at the front of my laptop.  But one day, while it was working overtime and I felt like I was handling hot coals, I looked down and saw that that light was blinking, even though (I think) it was plugged in.  Moreover, it wasn't blinking white; it was blinking orange, and, as I stared at it in puzzlement and fear, in a pattern of, I think, four orange "bleeps" followed by one white one.

I looked it up; if I'm right (and I could be wrong because those orange blinks go by so fast), that 4-1 pattern is a sign of a bad battery.  That's not good.  I thought I was good using this computer while not having it plugged in for at least a couple years.  But as I just used it for the Game this afternoon, when it's not plugged in, and battery crashes and dies in, oh, about 90 minutes.  That's not what I expected from a battery I got new about half a year ago.

I might be tethered to an outlet again for as long as I have this laptop.  I don't really have the money nor the time to find another one, Jesus bleepin' Christ.