HP Pavilion n5495 Needs Help: Battery, RAM, CPU?

[crashnburn]

HP Pavilion n5495 Needs Help: Battery, RAM, CPU?

This was a machine similar to XE3 Omnibook series

I have this machine P3 1.0Ghz, 512MB (256x2), 40/60GB HDD. 1400x1050.

It is old but functional with Win XP Pro on it. It is a decent machine that works pretty well.

I am thinking of 2 uses for it.

- Media Player Machine - Dedicated to be an entertainment box 24/7. This it was for around an year or so on DC electric adaptor power.
+ Connect it to External HDD's via Firewire & USB (1.1.. any way to replace to 2.0) and thereby make all files / media accessible to my ACTIVE laptops.
- Get the battery so Mom can use it for some netsurfing, movie watching etc on it.

Its battery is a goner for a while now. So I am thinking of getting a replacement.

Google & ebay searches show some from 40/60$ range onwards. Some are ofcourse stupidly outpriced at $100+ so I wont look at them.

Any one have any recommendations on the following?

- Good reputable vendor that has RELIABLE battery for decent prices?
- Tool, technique, software etc to test the Batteries.. The old one & new one.. for chargeability / conditioning? How should I go about it? MAYBE THE OLD BATTERY HAS SOME LIFE IN IT.. Try doing some conditioning etc?

- Other upgrade recommendations for the machine ? USB1.1 to 2.0? CPU, RAM? etc