Doubt that it is sofware, where detection is concerned.
We have put all kinds of batteries in ours while trapesing around Nepal and Tibet, and a lot of Chinese junk. We didn't use VISTA, of course, and your computer is not rated for VISTA, so who knows. Did you get all your drivers installed properly? Do you have any red or yellow flags for any of the components listed in Device Manager?
Cannot think of any possible reason for installing VISTA, so you must have had an extra install disc.
The computer works best with Windows 2000 professional, but works fine with WXPH and WXPP,
Good luck. Let us know what happens. I am betting on a battery gone bad, or bent connectors on the inside.