Laptop doesnt display battery status on systray

[etmax1]

I have a Dell laptop that has always had a handy icon in the system tray that shows battery status or mains operation. Last night I noticed it wasn't there anymore. I did a complete reboot, still nothing. I checked the hide unused icon settings and in the list of systray programs there is no battery monitor. Also I have not got the "hide unused icons" option checked.

I also checked in control panel to see if it was enabled under power settings, and it was, but having had this sort of issue on a desktop I did an uncheck->apply->check->apply just in case there was a disconnect between what was enabled on screen and what the registry had enabled.

Can anyone help me?

I also checked msconfig to see if anything was disabled.

I've installed a few windows security updates an a CAD program but no system level SW.

 

[AntiZig]

if you pull your cord out and leave it on battery does the icon come up?

 

[etmax1]

if you pull your cord out and leave it on battery does the icon come up?

No, and normally with the plug in there is a lightning symbol in it place, this is also not there. If I had another laptop I could see what the name of the process is when it's running. My guess is that there is a registry setting somewhere that tells the process to start and that has changed its mind, but I have no idea where.

 

[AntiZig]

it's a simple windows process unless you were using some custom battery monitoring software provided by the manufacturer/vendor

you can check in services (just type in services in start menu search box) if you can find a suspect service that has been stopped and hasn't restarted

 

[etmax1]

I searched through the whole services list line by line. All I found was that a service was running that lets a remote user change registry settings. Why you would want that I don't know.

Also of interest was that in device manager there is a "Microsoft AC Adapter" and a "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery" under "Batteries", and they are all shown as working properly.

That suggests that the battery task is possibly standard Microsoft I think

Interesting thing also is that if I go into control panel under power options->Power Meter It shows me the battery status, it just isn't in the status tray.

 

[claydavis]

you can see at most a plugger icon on the system
tray if you enabled the "Always show icon on taskbar" while you are
using an AC adapter, and you can see at most a battery icon there if
you are using a battery. So, if Microsoft doesn't offer the function
you described above, you can only use a third party software to achieve
that.

 

[etmax1]

Best answer selected by etmax1.

 

[etmax1]

I just went and selected "Hide Inactive Icons" then "Customize", then went into the list and "Power Meter" was nowhere in that list. Then I found below in a list of "Previous Items" there was "Power Meter" and it was shown as only show when active. Of course it's always active (and I had "Hide Inactive Icons" unchecked) so that shouldn't have mattered, but I set it to show always anyway, and then closed that dialog box then unchecked "Hide Inactive Icons" again, then rebooted and now the power monitor is displaying in the Systray again. This looks like a typical Windows bug to me, where there are several settings for the same thing in different places and they don't all match up.

Anyhow, thanks everyone for your suggestions/help