new batteries wont boot laptop

As for part of your first problem, some of the lights will remain on when the power is plugged in. This is to show you that your power supply is giving power to the machine. The lights normally change colors based on the charge status (Charging/Charged).

I'm not quite sure why the optical (DVD) drive would be spinning with the power off, but that coupled with the machine not booting properly on battery, and only lasting a short time (approx 1 hour) on battery suggests a short may be present somewhere. If this is happening with several machines, perhaps there may be a recall? I'm not sure if there would be, but a quick Google search could tell you if there were.

You should probably discontinue use of the battery in question, because it's likely faulty or shorted somewhere. As for the lights, I'm assuming the lights in question never stayed on prior to using the battery in question? If so, the battery may have created more problems than the one within itself, and you may want to have the laptop looked at by someone with a fair amount of computer knowledge. Without being able to physically open the computer to check, I've no idea why lights would stay on that weren't meant to when plugged in, unless you're in sleep mode and not entirely off.

Removing and replacing the same battery into a laptop tends to fool the laptop into believing it's new on first/second usages. This is because, normally, the batteries are only reinstalled upon being new. I'm not exactly sure whether this is meant to happen or what, but most laptop computers tend to "see" a battery as a new battery when it's newly inserted, even if it's dead. That isn't to say the laptop believes the battery is new, per se. It's just sort of a "test run," where the laptop is trying to determine the full-charge capability of the battery. After a while, it'll realize it's dead and start treating it as such over and over again. Reinserting the battery when you have no alternative isn't really a big deal, but drawing the last bits of energy out of a battery before replacing it usually isn't a very good idea.

Congrats on the successful upgrade, btw. At least you've got something to look forward to, but if this is in the same computer, you definitely should look into changing the battery to a new one. Whatever you decide, do NOT buy a cheap battery. The cheapest reliable batteries are normally Anker batteries (I know without a doubt, because I use them frequently when my original laptop and phone batteries drain). I've had a great deal of problems with buying cheap batteries. Out of every batch of cheap ones, there's probably only a small handful that work to maximum capacity. That isn't to say the batteries started out as duds, but most discounted batteries are ones that have been left lying around without being recharged to maintain the ions, which ruins their overall life.

Ah, sorry. I got your thread confused with another I scrolled and again saw that you already replaced your battery, so that's good as well Hopefully everything goes well from here on out.