Power Manager Battery Gauge Color!

Hey guys... I know I can't be the only one experiencing this. When I have any window maximized, this is what I see:



When no windows are maximized, I see this:



It's almost impossible to read! How annoying.. I also noticed Vista's taskbar changes from lighter to darker as I maximize a window. This may somehow be related.

X61s, Vista Home Basic. All updates installed. Theme/color scheme all left on default settings...

 

Same happens on my machine. Looks like it's related to some kind of transparency setting on the taskbar -- when you maximize a window, it becomes opaque, but when the desktop is showing, it also shows through the taskbar. Not sure if/how the behavior can be changed, though.

 

I disabled the Aero theme (and any related transparency settings) and I no longer have this problem.

 

oh yeah! I was wondering my the battery was orange sometimes.

I disabled transparency, but still have aero; I still have the problem.

 

Change the color of your theme. I made it black (which I think looks better anyways) and it's fine.

 

We need Lenovo to fix this. It's an obvious over-sight.

 

I've experienced the same thing in Vista Home Premium with my T60, and now in Vista Home Basic with the new T61.

 

Same here.

How do you get yours to show time remaining vs. percentage?

 

sounds more like a Vista problem to me.

 

Yeah, it's 100% related to Aero.

I'll try what makshim's suggested, it'll happen sooner anyway

 

100% related?
In what way?

 

Every single time Aero gets disabled it goes away, so I'm going to guess it's an Aero problem

 

Vista Home Basic comes with Aero disabled, yet the problem is still there.

 

It's been a few months and I don't have my laptop in front of me, so I can't provide the exact step-by-step instructions, but I'm sure if you click or right-click the icon, you can find some sort of options/preferences dialog... If not, I'm sure someone else here will chime in...

It may be related to Vista, but it's not Vista's problem. Lenovo needs to write the application to work properly with Vista.

Yup.. I'm on Vista Basic (which has no Aero)...

 

AHh, well, guess I'm wrong. But when Aero gets disabled the problem goes away.. don't know why.

 

I've been having this problem as well, and i've brought it up before in a thread. From playing around with settings under Windows Color/Appearance, i've noted that Windows Vista Basic, Standard, and Classic settings do NOT affect the look of the Thinkpad Power Manager battery icon. The problem only occurs when the Appearance is set to Windows Aero.

It's a Thinkpad Power Manager utility compatibility issue with Vista because Vista's battery icon has no problem between the different settings. At the moment there is no fix. The Thinkpad Power Manager utility seems to be a bit buggy in Vista. I've noticed other "issues" such as the display not holding its power settings when waking from sleep mode. Hopefully Lenovo will resolve these problems with a future driver update.

 

The color scheme of my Windows Vista Basic system is set on "Windows Vista Standard", but I'm still experiencing the issue.

The problem is so blatant that it almost seems like no one at Lenovo even booted up a machine when they first built the images. Either that, or they just didn't care enough to report/fix it. Either way, it's simply not acceptable.

 

The only workaround for this problem at the moment is to change the background to a darker/black background. I have my wallpaper set to Thinkdots and the battery text is somewhat legible. Have you tried contacting Lenovo? The more calls they receive about the issue, in theory, the quicker they'll come out with a fix.

 

I have the problem on Vista Home Basic, so its NOT Aero related.

I just disabled that meter, oh well.

 

Interesting. Turning transparency ON fixes the problem for me.

 

any1 come up with anything on this yet?

 

Nope... I guess there are no manufacturers out there that can build and support the perfect notebook... no matter how much money you spend...

 

i'm pretty sure this is a vista issue. on my machine when I turn aero on, the color changes between transparent and green. when the theme is set to vista basic, the power bar stays green all the time.

 

I had noticed this problem myself shortly after getting my new T61 but decided to ignore it. Glad to hear that others have been experiencing it too! I had an additional problem in that for the last day or so the Power Manager Battery Gauge wasn't displayed on the status bar anymore!

I think it was related to my installing Ahead Nero 7 which installs its Nero Search toolbar in around the same area where the battery gauge was displayed. I fixed this problem by disabling and reenabling the battery gauge.

For now, I've disabled Aero and will see if this has fixed this issue for good.

 

i have a fix! it works for vista home basic (the cheapest of the vista incarnations, free with my lenovo. even xp pro costs more...). this version of vista does not have this "aero" everyone is speaking of. it also does not have any user-selectable transparency effects (at least i didn't encounter any). the only "transparency" effect that i observed was the taskbar changing from darker and lighter when windows are maximized and minimized, respectively (stupid!).

what this fix does is basically stop the taskbar from changing; the taskbar remains the darker shade.

here is what i did:

1) right-click the desktop
2) click on "Personalize" in the context (pop-up) menu
3) click on "Theme" in the personalization menu
4) select "Windows Classic" in the theme drop-down menu
5) click "OK"

for me, this fixed the battery gauge color problem. but now it looks like windows 98. so then i did the following to return things back to glossy vista:

6) [steps 1 & 2] click on "Window Color and Appearance" in the personalization menu
7) click on "Windows Vista Basic" as the color scheme
8) click "OK"

good to go! i hope this helps someone...


-wubb wonton

thinkpad r61 15.4in ws| intel core 2 duo t8100 @ 2.1GHz | 3MB 800MHz fsb | intel 4965 a/g/N wireless | integrated bluetooth | 2GB ram | 128MB quadro nvs 140m | 80GB 5400rpm hard drive |windows vista home basic

 

So you're saying that switching to Windows Classic and then switching back stops the gauge from changing colors (transparency) along with the taskbar? That would be a neat solution... Does it remain effective even after a restart cycle?

 

just to clarify, i am saying to switch the Theme to "Windows Classic" and then set the Window Color and Appearance to "Windows Vista Basic" (Theme & Window Color and Appearance are two different settings in the Personalization menu).

and yes, it remains fixed on my computer after both shutting down and restarting.

has this worked for anyone else?

 

Works for me...

Thanks alot!

 

Hey
It might be because when the windows are minimised the notebook isn't doing anything much so its not using the battery so maybe thats why it changes because its not doing anything

I hope this helps!!

 

no and no.

 

Lenovo finally fixed this issue in their latest Power Manager (Version 2.42):

" (Fix) Fixed an issue where the Power Manager Gauge was transparent when Windows Aero was effective."

Two freakin' years to fix a simple problem... Not to mention all of the other more serious bugs and annoyances that they never bothered with. I just can't get over it... Two years... It's almost time to move onto another notebook already.... Geez...

 

I spoke too soon... I just tried the new Power Manager. It sure does fix the transparent color issue... But now I get a "Power Manager Has Stopped Working" message at every boot-up...