Alarm When Power Cord Falls Out of Notebook

[Kruskal]

I'm looking for a utility that detects loss of power on a notebook PC and when it is reestablished.  I want a WAV file sounded in one case and ANOTHER WAV file in the other.  My BIOS will make an sound, but it is the same in both cases.

I think the trick is detecting the events.  Perhaps Windows Universal Power Supply support could be exploited.

Thanks -- Vincent

[mouser]

I think this is a great idea.

Maybe even an option to change the background desktop color or image or something based on whether you are using battery or not, to help you remember?

[Darwin]

My Gateway (actually re-badged Samsung) Centrino notebook dims the screen to 25% when the AC cord is removed and restores it to 100% when AC is reconnected. However, I don't know how this is accomplished, as there is nothing in my Power options under the Control Panel to control it. At any rate, this is a very effective notifier and I quite miss it when I play around on my wife's Compaq, non-Centrino, notebook.

[nite_monkey]

My Gateway (actually re-badged Samsung) Centrino notebook dims the screen to 25% when the AC cord is removed and restores it to 100% when AC is reconnected. However, I don't know how this is accomplished, as there is nothing in my Power options under the Control Panel to control it. At any rate, this is a very effective notifier and I quite miss it when I play around on my wife's Compaq, non-Centrino, notebook.

My brother's compaq does that also, though kruskal's idea would be good for all the computers that don't do that.

[Kruskal]

My Gateway (actually re-badged Samsung) Centrino notebook dims the screen to 25% when the AC cord is removed and restores it to 100% when AC is reconnected. However, I don't know how this is accomplished, as there is nothing in my Power options under the Control Panel to control it. At any rate, this is a very effective notifier and I quite miss it when I play around on my wife's Compaq, non-Centrino, notebook.

My brother's compaq does that also, though kruskal's idea would be good for all the computers that don't do that.

In some situations, it is important for an audible alarm even if the screen makes the power state clear.  Often my notebook is closed and I hear the BIOS beep -- I have no idea if it is complaining that it lost power or is thanking me for restoring power.  For you see, on my notebook, at least, the power cord can appear to be plugged in when not actually making contact.

Thanks for all the comments -- Vincent

[Darwin]

I should have been more explicit - I was suggesting that the functionality that is built into my Gateway (and nitemonkey's brother's Compaq - it occurs to me that this might be an Intel vs. AMD thing, or a Centrino thing? as my wife's Compaq is an Athlon 64+) would be a great way to accomplish what Kruskal is after. I *think* that this must be a BIOS setting or an OS feature and not a software install and in my world it's always nice to accomplish these things without having to resort to installing anything.

I'm a complete dimwit when it comes to coding so I may be right out to lunch on this....

[Laughing Man]

It's probably do your settings regarding battery life. I have three options to choose from, little power usage, balanced, and high performance. Which..they really don't change much but the screen brightness. So I leave my laptop on balanced. What happens when the power cable is plugged in, is the laptop detects that it's getting power so it switches it to high performance (hence my screen at full brightness).

Oh and I have a Centrino. To add any possible information.

[skrommel]

Here a simple command line utility.

BatteryRun - Run commands when the power plug is connected or disconnected.

Command line:
  BatteryRun.exe "<connect command>" "<disconnect command>"
Example:
  BatteryRun.exe "ding.wav" "calc.exe"

You'll find the downloads and more info at 1 Hour Software by Skrommel.

For multiple actions, I suggest making an AutoHotkey script.

Skrommel

[Kruskal]

Here a simple command line utility.

BatteryRun - Run commands when the power plug is connected or disconnected.

Command line:
  BatteryRun.exe "<connect command>" "<disconnect command>"
Example:
  BatteryRun.exe "ding.wav" "calc.exe"

You'll find the downloads and more info at 1 Hour Software by Skrommel.

For multiple actions, I suggest making an AutoHotkey script.

Skrommel

That's fantastic!  May I ask what the basic hook you used is?

I note that you left it as an exercise for the reader to figure out how to simply play a WAV file.  Putting the WAV file as a command, as you suggest, brings up the Media Player UI.  I found many discussions about how to simply play a WAV file from, say, a BAT file which concluded that you can't.  But one lead me to SNDREC32 used, I think, to make recordings.  SNDREC32 /PLAY /CLOSE /EMBEDDING Sound.WAV will simply play a sound -- no UI or other irrelevances.  It does take a long time to play -- I'd still like a simple and FAST WAV player.

So the entire Target of my BatteryRun shortcut is:

"C:\Program Files\Utilities\BatteryRun.exe" "C:\WINDOWS\system32\sndrec32.exe /play /close /embedding C:\WINDOWS\Media\tada.wav" "C:\WINDOWS\system32\sndrec32.exe /play /close /embedding C:\WINDOWS\Media\Windows XP Battery Critical.wav"

Thanks -- Vincent

[skrommel]

It's kind of simple, I think it needs a proper options screen, but I only had an hour last night.

It uses GetSystemPowerStatus, so a lot more alarms can be added, like battery low, 70% recharged, or whatever.

I've added automatic WAV and MP3 detection to BatteryRun v1.1.

Skrommel

[Kruskal]

It's kind of simple, I think it needs a proper options screen, but I only had an hour last night.

It uses GetSystemPowerStatus, so a lot more alarms can be added, like battery low, 70% recharged, or whatever.

I've added automatic WAV and MP3 detection to BatteryRun v1.1.

Skrommel

It's much more responsive with the build-in WAV support -- thanks.  And has a more comprehensible call.

BTW the new BatteryRun does nothing with my old call.  I think it parses out the WAV extension and doesn't realize that it is an argument to the command to call. 

Personally, I feel no need for an options screen.  If you add one, it would be nice if everything could also be specified on the command line and, in that case, there would be no INI file.

Vincent

[Kruskal]

It's kind of simple, I think it needs a proper options screen, but I only had an hour last night.

It uses GetSystemPowerStatus, so a lot more alarms can be added, like battery low, 70% recharged, or whatever.

I've added automatic WAV and MP3 detection to BatteryRun v1.1.

Skrommel

I tried specifying an MP3 file and nothing sounded.

Vincent

[skrommel]

I haven't tried it, but according to the AutoHotkey manual:

All Windows OSes should be able to play .wav files. However, other files (.mp3, .avi, etc.) might not be playable if the right codecs or features aren't installed on the OS.

So what features could be missing?

Skrommel

[Kruskal]

I haven't tried it, but according to the AutoHotkey manual:

All Windows OSes should be able to play .wav files. However, other files (.mp3, .avi, etc.) might not be playable if the right codecs or features aren't installed on the OS.

So what features could be missing?

Skrommel

I have no idea.  When I double-click on an MP3 file, RealPayer comes up and plays it.

Thanks -- Vincent