HTC Inspire 4g battery does not work unless the phone is charging

Sounds like either the battery is dead or there's a problem with it's connections.

Since it's brand new, I'd return the phone and get a replacement.

 

It is simple, you have a defect batt. Return back from were you bought it, and if you cant then you will have to buy a new batt.
But there is one more thing that it could be. And that is that your charger might be bad. Have both checked out.

 

It defiantly sounds like the battery is defective, if it will not operate at all unless it is charging. Seeing how the phone will not boot without a battery, if a replacement does not solve the problem, the entire phone might need to be replaced as well.

I am currently having a similiar issue, where the phone charging seems to be taking excessively longer than usual, and when I power it down to charge, it seems to lose almost 20% of the charge it had left. I blame the battery, as this phone is quite dated by j0w;