MBP low power shut down with no warning

In the past, I’ve always been able to rely on a warning window that would remind me my laptop battery was running low and that the screen would be dimmed to conserve energy. Suddenly, that warning is gone...I’ll be merrily cranking along on something (without continually looking at the battery level to notice it’s waning) when BAM. The low battery level triggers a full shutdown with no warning.
I can’t begin to tell you how many documents and changes have been lost in the past few weeks since this began....
This is limited to low battery situations. It doesn’t happen any other time. There’s no pattern to which apps are open at the time.
Any ideas where my warnings went and how to get them back again?
Thanks!
MacBook Pro, G4 PowerBook, G4 tower   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

Depends on how long you've being using the battery without complete discharge and then recharge, the battery meter may become inaccurate, and that's probably why your Mac didn't realize the low power and didn't give you warning.
You can re-calibrate the battery meter by a complete discharge immediately follow by a complete charge. Make sure you charge it right after the discharge, otherwise it may went to a protected mode that need to be revived. Note that you should only do this occasionally, keep it charged in usual usage.
If this doesn't seem to work, maybe you should call Applecare.

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