I agree with 1shado1 - - battery may have come to the end of it's life, either it's just it's age or it's been left attached to the laptop when you've been running it off the mains supply for long periods.
That's what's happened to mine because I always run it off the mains supply (it never leaves my house in fact) but I didn't remove the battery. If I unplug my laptop now, it runs for about 20 seconds then suddenly goes dead. I know a new battery would fix it but as it never leaves my house there's no point me buying one.