After running ccleaner, my batteries quit charging. The power meter in the tray shows the electrical plug icon and when I scroll over it, it states "on AC Power". The little lightning bolt icon to indicate charging is gone. When I open the power meter, it says the battery is charging, but after three days it is still at 1% power.

I performed a battery recalibration through the BIOS and after 14 hours it to did not move beyond one percent. I terminated the program without success.

This is the only problem I have encountered since using this software.

Is this a coincidence or is the ability to charge a battery software driven?

welcome to the forums emjay
this is a total coincidence.
theres absolutely no way Ccleaner could have done this.
you said it stays at one percent?
what happens when you unplug it after about a day or so of charging?

You didn't say what app provided the power meter so there's a slight chance CCleaner may be partially at fault.

It's possible that your battery may be charging but you are getting a bad status report.

I once had a laptop where the utility that provided enhanced battery information (stupidly) required a file in the temp folder. If you have a similar setup, and you cleared the temp folder ...

trying that now. I know the critical battery alarm comes up. Also, when I pull out the batteries, their indicators both show less than 1%.

if when you unplug it after letting it charge for a while and it just dies, i would say its your battery.