Hey Trish,
Sorry to hear about your battery problem. Laptop batteries dying is very typical. In fact, you are probably lucky that your laptop battery lasted for 2 years!
As much as I use my laptops, I usually have to buy a new one once a year. Try buying one from eBay. It will certainly cost much less than $100. I think I usually get one for my Dell for around $30 which I consider to be much more reasonable.
