Battery indicator icon problems

[StewArt]

Sometimes my battery indicator icon shows the right state, but mostly it shows me a missing battery icon when I'm plugged in and fully charged. If it's charging, it will display the charging icon, then go back to battery missing icon when fully charged. I wasn't really worried about it until recently when the battery was mostly discharged, but the battery missing icon came up anyway, so I didn't have a way of knowing it was low.

Another issue is that I seem to always get my hover messages in stereo, e.g. if I hover over the missing battery icon right now it tells me:
Laptop battery is fully charged
Laptop battery is fully charged

If I click on the icon, my options are:
[plugged-in fully charged icon] Laptop battery (96.5%)
[plugged-in fully charged icon] Laptop battery (96.5%)
[battery missing icon] Laptop battery (0.0%)
[battery missing icon] Laptop battery (0.0%)
[settings icon] Preferences

Thanks in advance for any help you can give, and Merry Christmas!

[spandey]

You can try this, it should fix it. Before changing note down the default options so that you can revert back.
Open a Terminal and type

Code: Select all

 gconf-editor

Once it there cascade thru menus and change the following keys

1. apps -> gnome-power-manager -> general -> use_time_for_policy to false
2. apps -> gnome-power-manager -> thresholds -> percentage_low to 12%
3. apps -> gnome-power-manager -> thresholds -> percentage_critical to 8%
4. apps -> gnome-power-manager -> thresholds -> percentage_action to 5%
5. apps -> gnome-power-manager -> actions -> critical_battery to hybernate

Now, when the battery reaches 12% Gnome shows a "low battery warning", at 8% a "Critical battery warning" and at 5% the system hibernates.

[StewArt]

Thanks - these may be good settings, but they're unrelated to my problems.