Battery Alarm May Not Play Sound or Display Message (190356)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows 98
This article was previously published under Q190356

SYMPTOMS

If you have configured a low or critical battery alarm to play a sound and display a text message, the message is displayed when a low or critical battery condition occurs, but the sound may not be played. The sound may be played when you click OK to close the message window, or when the window closes automatically after a five-minute delay.

If you configure the battery alarm to perform an action (such as standing by or shutting down the computer) in addition to playing a sound or displaying a text message, the standby or shutdown action is performed when the battery reaches the specified power level, but the sound may not be played and the message may not be displayed.

CAUSE

This problem may occur on computers that conform to the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification, if any action is configured for the battery alarm in addition to notification by playing a sound.

RESOLUTION

To work around this problem and receive notification by sound for a low or critical battery alarm, do not configure any other type of notification or action in addition to the sound alarm.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Windows 98.

MORE INFORMATION

To configure battery alarm actions, follow these steps:
  1. Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, double-click Power Management, and then click the Alarms tab.
  2. To configure a low battery alarm, click to select the "Set off low battery alarm when power reaches" check box to enable the alarm, move the slider to the appropriate power level, and then click Alarm Action.
  3. In the Notification section, click to select the Sound Alarm and/or Display Message check boxes to enable notification by sound and/or text message. Note that the sound played is the Windows Exclamation sound, as configured in the Sounds tool in Control Panel.
  4. To enable an additional action, click to select the "When the alarm goes off, the computer will" check box, then click the action you want from the list. Depending on the capabilities and configuration of your computer, these actions may include Standby, Hibernate, and Shutdown. To force the action to be completed even if a program may be preventing it, click to select the "Force standby or shutdown even if a program stops responding" check box.
  5. To configure a critical battery alarm, repeat steps 2-4, clicking the controls in the Critical battery alarm section of the Alarms tab.
  6. Click OK when you are finished configuring alarms.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:12/16/2004
Keywords:kbenv kbHardware kbPowerMan kbprb KB190356
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