Battery icon gone

[pinkywoo]

Can anyone help please? I'm not very good but have googled about this.

I noticed the battery icon in the task bar on my laptop has disappeared, so I can't tell whether to plug in or not. In the settings, it showed as 100% despite having used the laptop for 20 minutes, another time it was stuck on 52%. Now I can't find that.

In the settings, I then found a toggle on/off button to put the battery on or off the task bar, but it is greyed out so doesn't work. I googled and found a couple of things (can't remember what they were called) to switch on and off. That didn't work. I found a code to put in to Windows Powershell (to get a battery health report) but it said I don't have the authority to do that (the laptop was my son's.) I've restarted the laptop, checked for updates on Windows and drivers. Just done a troubleshoot to find and fix power and battery problems. All it found was that the time it took for the display to close when not in use was too long. That's been fixed.No real mention of the battery. It must still be there because my laptop does work without being plugged in.

[goslow]

I was hoping that removing and refitting the battery might prompt the laptop to recognise the battery once more.

The red light is a charging light. If you remove the battery that light would not show (as there is no battery to charge). The manual says the light should be blue when charged.

Final suggestion from me, and then I think I am out of ideas ...

When you are trying to make these changes on the laptop, are you doing it through the Acer Power Management utility or trying to do it through the standard Windows 10 routes?

When you access the Acer Power Management utility on the laptop, what sorts of changes does that allow you to make and what information does it show you about battery status?

It is possible the Acer Power Management utility is overriding the native Windows power management functions and preventing them from being changed by the usual Windows routes.

[pinkywoo]

I'm doing it through Windows. I'd not heard about Acer Power Management until a couple of days ago. When I click on Acer Power Management, I get a box with a picture of a battery. Next to it, it says Battery Power 0% Plugged in. Underneath it says Applications and USB devices that consume a lot of battery power. Under that, it says No applications or USB devices are using a lot of battery power. And that's it.Nothing else.

[goslow]

Well, I would guess that Acer Power Management has taken over from Windows. Is there an option within Acer Power Management to show the battery icon in the system tray?

Final test would be to shut down the laptop. Remove the mains power supply (so it is running only on the battery). Does the laptop start up on battery only or is it dead on battery only when you try to start it?

If it does start on battery only, how long does it last on battery only before it shuts itself off?

We haven't really conclusively proved anything to this point but all signs are your battery is possibly/probably defunct.

[pinkywoo]

There is no option to show the battery icon in Acer Power Management. There is only the picture of a battery saying it's on 0%, then there would be a list of programmes that use a lot of battery power, but it says nothing is. I shut down the laptop, unplugged it, then restarted. It lasted for 2 hours (with battery only) before shutting down itself. 

[goslow]

Well if you got 2 hours out of the battery that is pretty good so it must be charging even if there is no obvious display of that happening via the operating system.

According to the manual the charging light on the front of the laptop should be amber when charging and blue when the battery is charged.

I am afraid I am out of further ideas to try to help which would result in a quick fix.

If any of the forum regulars uses an Acer laptop they might be able to suggest some further things you can try. If it charges, holds the charge and runs for 2 hours on the battery we seem to be back to where we started with it being some sort of software/communication issue between the laptop and the battery.

There are a bunch of further references online for restoring the battery icon in Windows involving things like uninstalling the drivers for the battery etc. but that is not going to be a quick fix on here and you might be thwarted trying those by the Acer Power Management software if that is blocking some native Windows features. You at least now know the battery is working and you can get up to 2 hours of use from it.

Your best option might be to take it to your local computer shop and let them get hands on with it to confirm the above guess-diagnosis if you feel that way inclined.

[pinkywoo]

I wouldn't mind the icon not being there but have no idea when to plug in and when to unplug. When I got my first laptop, I left it plugged in too much apparently and it stopped working altogether.

When plugged in but switched off, there is a steady blue light. When plugged in and switched on, there's the steady blue, a steady red, an intermittent blue,steady red. If I then unplug, the first red light goes out. I've not noticed an amber. I'll keep an eye on the lights as it charges.

I have seen some suggestions online which involve editing the Windows registry. I don't feel I could attempt that. Computer shop it is then. Do I get my degree in computer technology certificate in the post now? Ha ha.

Thank you so much for all your time and advice. It is greatly appreciated.

[newapollo]

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@pinkywoo wrote:

I have seen some suggestions online which involve editing the Windows registry. I don't feel I could attempt that. Computer shop it is then. Do I get my degree in computer technology certificate in the post now? Ha ha.

Thank you so much for all your time and advice. It is greatly appreciated.

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Hi @pinkywoo 

You posted an article earlier from /howtogeek.com  - that article includes a link to download 2 files, one of which which will make the necessary changes to your computers registry so you don't need to worry about messing anything up, and the other one will disable the changes.

"If you don’t feel like diving into the Registry yourself, we’ve created a registry hack you can use. Just download and extract the following ZIP file:  Enable Battery Icon Time Remaining Hack"

The file you download will be named "EnableBatteryIconTimeRemaining-1" as in the screenshot below - Once you download file that you should double click on it's icon. This will open up a folder which contains two files. You need to double click on the one named "EnableBatteryIconTimeRemaining.reg"  That will open a small window and you wouldd then click on the Run icon.  Then on  the next three screenss click on Yes.  It  will then make the registry changes for you.   You can always undo the changes by clicking on the file named "DiableBatteryIconTimeRemaining.reg" and follow the sameproceduare

[pinkywoo]

Thank you Newapollo. Took me a few days to pluck up the courage to try this but I've just done it. Nothing changed so I restarted my laptop. It took about 10 minutes. Unfortunately the battery icon still isn't there, and in the 'Turn icons on or off', the power button is still greyed out. Thanks anyway. 

[carl_pearce]

If you right click the start button, then select 'Device Manager', is there anything listed as batteries?

[pinkywoo]

Thank you Carl. Yes,I found Batteries and underneath it says Microsoft AC adapter and Microsoft ACPI-compliant control method battery.