Power Cord Falling Out

[yellowiscool]

My problem here is that I'm using a laptop computer as a desktop computer (at school) and the power cord keeps falling out. I'd like a program that shows a red box that fills most of the screen when the power cord is unplugged and closes it when you click it or when you plug the power cord back in.

[mouser]

I seem to remember something like this posted on the forum.. but if not, i'd like to second this request. I've run out of battery power before because the cord had come unplugged and I didn't notice.

[rgdot]

I know the request is for power cord   ... but may be BatteryDeley?
http://www.softpedia...o/BatteryDeley.shtml

[MilesAhead]

This one looks like it.

BattCursor

One of the features is it can popup a tray notification when the power source changes.  I'm going to try it myself.

Edit:  there's a writeup on Addictive Tips

Edit:  I seem to have found one bug.  If you set cursor to never show the battery percentage charge, it shows even if you close the program.  Log off and log back in seems to fix it.  I like it.  After 5 minutes of messing around I got rid of the big battery display.  The power change notification is on by default.  It seems to work.

A freeware. 

[IainB]

...BattCursor

-MilesAhead (October 29, 2014, 02:02 PM)

Thanks @MilesAhead, that looks like it could be rather more useful than any laptop power system software that I have yet come across. I shall have to try it out now.

[tomos]

I seem to remember something like this posted on the forum.. but if not, i'd like to second this request. I've run out of battery power before because the cord had come unplugged and I didn't notice.

-mouser (October 29, 2014, 01:42 PM)

something like this was requested not long ago... found it:
4wd posted a script for it -

YTOTPC^* - Pretty boring, any time there's a power state change it'll pop up a message box.  This could be connecting or disconnecting AC power.
[...]
* You Tripped Over The Power Cord

-4wd (January 04, 2014, 11:49 PM)

[MilesAhead]

...BattCursor

-MilesAhead (October 29, 2014, 02:02 PM)

Thanks @MilesAhead, that looks like it could be rather more useful than any laptop power system software that I have yet come across. I shall have to try it out now.

-IainB (October 29, 2014, 02:52 PM)

I'm glad yellowiscool asked for this.  Just today I was plugged into a very loose outlet at the library.  With the power boxes on the floor it's very easy to pull the plug out of a loose one without noticing.

Edit:  If you set the OSD to only show when on battery power then it's more obvious what's going on.  If the battery is showing I know I lost my A/C.

[Renegade]

It's pretty easy if anyone wants to write up a new one. (My laptop isn't accessible at the moment to test.)

http://stackoverflow...laptop-is-plugged-in

Code: C# [Select]

1. Boolean isRunningOnBattery =
2.       (System.Windows.Forms.SystemInformation.PowerStatus.PowerLineStatus ==
3.        PowerLineStatus.Offline);

And:

http://stackoverflow...as-been-disconnected

[IainB]

...BattCursor

-MilesAhead (October 29, 2014, 02:02 PM)

Thanks @MilesAhead, that looks like it could be rather more useful than any laptop power system software that I have yet come across. I shall have to try it out now.

-IainB (October 29, 2014, 02:52 PM)

I'm glad yellowiscool asked for this.  Just today I was plugged into a very loose outlet at the library.  With the power boxes on the floor it's very easy to pull the plug out of a loose one without noticing.
Edit:  If you set the OSD to only show when on battery power then it's more obvious what's going on.  If the battery is showing I know I lost my A/C.

-MilesAhead (October 29, 2014, 05:17 PM)

Yes, I saw that setting - that's how I set it too.
The installation process for the latest available version (v1.2) was very tidy, but after install (I'm using Win8.1-64 PRO) I had to enable access permissions for BattCursor to create and access C:\Users\[User]\AppData\Local\BattCursor. It kept abending with an error otherwise when I tried to establish the operational settings. PITA.
It also abended after I had set it to auto-update for a newer or ß version. It abended at the point when it discovered v1.2.0.1 was available, but could not access the server to download it. So I disabled the auto-update. PITA.

So I tried registering on the discussion forum to leave a note about it (feedback always being useful to a developer), but the registration process kept crashing with a vague "serious error" message. I persisted however with some trial-and-error, and finally got verified registration - I think it may have been objecting to special characters (non-alphameric) in the password I was using - the rules for same seemed a bit ambiguous. However, after setting up my profile, when I tried to post a message on the forum as a registered/verified member, it crashed with the same "serious error" message, so I gave up at that point. I tried it using IE and Firefox, but the result was the same in both cases. Looks like bad exception handling or something, on the server. PITA.

Despite this, the software seems to work OK so far. The change log history looks quite comprehensive and informative too - all nicely done.
I read on there that the forum server was being provided via a relatively new service supplier, so maybe they are having some teething troubles with it, or something. I shall try to post feedback again after a couple of days' elapsed time.

[MilesAhead]

It just so happens I notice my Toshiba AC adapter has a short in the wire output from the transformer block thing.  Right now I'm able to keep it charging by twisting the wire just so.  But that won't last long.

Talk about future shock.  I seem to remember these types of gadgets selling for $5 or $10.  I hit a bunch of stores today.  The range for some "universal Laptop adapter" seems to be $35 to $85.

I found clones for it online at $24 but naturally when you go to the brick and mortar store they don't carry it as they want the bigger markup.  Yet again I'm hampered by not having a trustworthy mailing address.

This machine is so heavy to lug I'm half tempted to start pricing a new lighter Laptop before putting $65 into this for an AC adapter.  They really hammer you on the accessories. 

[lanux128]

scancode wrote this some time back - BatteryStatus.



• https://www.donation....msg181616#msg181616

[anandcoral]

After I got my first laptop with Win 8, I was finding it problematic to keep tab of the battery status from the tray bar battery, all in white. It did not change color to indicate full or low battery.

A search brought to Battery Delay. Well now I get message every 10th % status and I am happy with it.

Regards,

Anand

[shmuel1]

I was having the same problem with my laptop so I wrote this small script. I attached the script here as an .exe. Let me know if you need changes.

Code: AutoIt [Select]

1. #include <WinAPISys.au3>
2. Dim $return
3.  
4. While 1 ; infinite loop
5.    $return = _WinAPI_GetSystemPowerStatus()
6.    If $return[0] = 0 Then ; the first value in the returned array is 0 if the laptop is not plugged in
7.           ToolTip(@CRLF & @CRLF & @CRLF & @CRLF & @CRLF & "     Power cable unplugged!     " & @CRLF & @CRLF & @CRLF & @CRLF & @CRLF & " ", @DesktopWidth/2 - 75, @DesktopHeight/5)
8.    Else
9.           ToolTip("") ; close ToolTip
10.    EndIf
11.    Sleep(1000)
12. WEnd

[IainB]

...Despite this, the software seems to work OK so far. The change log history looks quite comprehensive and informative too - all nicely done.
I read on there that the forum server was being provided via a relatively new service supplier, so maybe they are having some teething troubles with it, or something. I shall try to post feedback again after a couple of days' elapsed time.

-IainB (October 29, 2014, 08:11 PM)

I never did post that feedback, but, after having re-installed BattCursor on a Win10-64 environment recently, I thought I should mention that the latest version is still v1.2.0.0 and dates from 2009-04-22. The website seems to not function in English any more and it looks like it may have been discontinued, but you can still find it on Wayback OK, though you can't seem to download the file from there.

I have a note from 2015-06-29: disable this software from automatically downloading updates. It tries to load with software from MK Software, and crashes the installer and the app.

As at 2016-01-28, this is still the case, as it thinks v1.2.0.1 is available, but it's evidently not.
__________________________

[wjamoe]

Another variation at  1hour software by skrommel using ahk.

https://www.donation...ndex.html#BatteryRun

Run commands (wav) when the power chord is connected or disconnected