Windows XP battery meter

[mfo]

My mom has a Dell Mini with Windows XP home on it. When she turns it on, the battery meter in the task bar doesn't show. If I go to task manager and kill explorer.exe and then reload it, it'll show up again until the next reboot. I've also tried disabling it and re-enabling it via control panel and the same thing. I'm guessing this must be some kind of stupid start up issue, but I'll be damned if I know what. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[Kulhu]

My mom has a Dell Mini with Windows XP home on it. When she turns it on, the battery meter in the task bar doesn't show. If I go to task manager and kill explorer.exe and then reload it, it'll show up again until the next reboot. I've also tried disabling it and re-enabling it via control panel and the same thing. I'm guessing this must be some kind of stupid start up issue, but I'll be damned if I know what. Any ideas? Thanks.

Xp sucks, sorry i can't help you i don't have XP. I can give you a copy of windows 7, but it wouldn't be legal.

 

[kiyoukan]

try putting the battery moniter.exe file in the statup listing also go to run and type in msconfig and check to make sure its enabled.

 

[JLSE]

My mom has a Dell Mini with Windows XP home on it. When she turns it on, the battery meter in the task bar doesn't show. If I go to task manager and kill explorer.exe and then reload it, it'll show up again until the next reboot. I've also tried disabling it and re-enabling it via control panel and the same thing. I'm guessing this must be some kind of stupid start up issue, but I'll be damned if I know what. Any ideas? Thanks.

Perhaps the PC is not saving the setting on shutdown. There is probably
a way to change the setting in regedit, set the value manually, and maybe it
will stick?

 

[AUTO XX]

I had the same thing happen to me but it also showed "charging" on the front light (plug in the laptop and it should come on as full)
Mine died completely though, actually I ended up taking apart the batt and using the 18650's that were in it (only 3 of 9 cells were still good)
Hope that isn't what the problem is. Good luck bro!

-Auto

 

[AdamCaudill]

You might have better luck with BatteryBar, it's free and works much better than what Windows has built in. I have it installed on all of my laptops, not failed me once.

 

[charliebruce]

Hack/workaround is to create a new batch script with the following in:

@echo off
taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe
explorer.exe

Stick that somewhere in the logon order.

Proper way is more complex - check power configuration, or reinstall with a "real" OS.