so, it slowly fell from 99% to 91% over weeks of use, and then crashed to 26% in 45 minutes when i put it to sleep, and is now at 26% solid, with no drain.

at least something was able to drain it!

but, i can find no evidence that it connected anywhere when it was down.

let me test this - what happens if i disable wireless (as i have, now) and then put it to sleep. does the battery drain?

my deduction that it was using power for wireless came from the wireless lights being on when it was asleep. but, what if it just suspended itself, and the power loss in the battery was from the suspend state? 

i'm going to get to the reinstall on the other machine now, and we'll leave this in sleep mode while i do it.