Thinkpads Forum

Anyone else seen this? My battery icon doesn't show the normal green for amount of battery life remaining. This is both when plugged in and with AC-disconnected. I think all my drivers are up to date.

it's an issue with vista aero transparency.   turn off transparency and it'll turn green again.

Its not an Aero issue, I am using Home Basic without Aero and it still happens 90% of the time.

weird.   transparency is what fixed it for me under ultimate x64.   i wanted transparency though so i ended up removing the battery from the tray.

It's a Thinkpad Power Manager bug because Vista's battery meter icon remains the same no matter what settings are used.

I have noted that under "Window Color and Appearance," Windows Basic, Standard, and Classic all show the normal Thinkpad Power Manager battery icon. But when Windows Aero is enabled, the battery icon becomes transparent in Vista Premium. The only workaround i know of at this point is to use a darker/black background. That will make the battery meter text somewhat visible.

Ok, thanks. Transparency doesn't seem to fix for me... only turning off Aero.

i had the same problem and i was considering calling IBM to ask why. The Transparency trick worked out for me.

Add me to the list of people that thought it was just me. My battery indicator is greyed out as well and I'm using Home Basic. Has someone opened a case with IBM on this?

i reckon it isnt a vista issue. I had the same problem under xp with my old battery. That battery eventually gave up the ghost and i got a new one under warranty. I think its either a connection issue between the battery and laptop or a software issue in whichever module is responsible for reading the battery level.

The word on the street is: Use a different Vista color scheme.

ocellaris wrote:Its not an Aero issue, I am using Home Basic without Aero and it still happens 90% of the time.

I wonder if its a Vista Home Basic issue?

On a T60 with retail Vista Ultimate running pretty much of default settings, the battery indicator displays fine.

Cheers,

Bill B.

bill bolton wrote:

ocellaris wrote:

No, i've tried both Premium and Ultimate and they both have the same problem as well. What power manager version do you have installed? I believe it could be a result of the newer Thinkpad Power Manager utility update.

mine is working under vista ultimate 64 + aero w/ transparency again.   i disabled the battery icon, rebooted, then enabled it again and it seems to be working as advertised even after several reboots.

erik wrote:mine is working under vista ultimate 64 + aero w/ transparency again. i disabled the battery icon, rebooted, then enabled it again and it seems to be working as advertised even after several reboots.

It doesnt work for me.

hypertrophy wrote: What power manager version do you have installed?.

Version 2.05... the current one.

Have you installed the Vista Reliability and Performance packs from Microsoft?

Cheers,

Bill B.

bill bolton wrote:

hypertrophy wrote: What power manager version do you have installed?.

Version 2.05... the current one.

Have you installed the Vista Reliability and Performance packs from Microsoft?

Cheers,

Bill B.

No not yet. I was waiting for it to be released through windows update.

Edit: Actually, i just checked my windows update history and i do have the two Reliability and Performance packs installed.

I was working on a colleagues T61 today and saw the greyed out battery gauge icon in the Taskbar. He was running the "Tropical Palm Frond" desktop background.

I changed the desktop background to "River and Front Lit Hills" background that I use on my T60 and the battery gauge icon immediately appeared in normal green.

Cheers,

Bill B.

Running Vista Home Basic without aero, it didn't work for me any solution; just changed windows appearence from color scheme "Windows Vista Standard" to "Windows Vista Basic" and it fixed the grey power icon on task bar.