questions about the task bar icons

hi this is my first vista laptop and i have a question about the charging indicator on the task bar. there was one time i had the battery in the laptop and connected the charger. when i hovered my mouse over the icon it said plug in but not charging even though the battery is still in there. but that was resolved by unplugging and replugging. any ideas why that happened?

another question is that when i plug in the charger, the indicator will have some kind of animation on the task bar that will indicate the "juice" going full and empty and then full and then to the current amount of charge. why does that animation stop after a few seconds even if i am still charging.

i have attached a picture of what i am talking about. it will do what it says in the first line but then it stops filling at 10 % increments and just stays at what shows in the 5th row. but it is still charging.

this is all kind of hard to explain so if any clarifications are needed, i will provide more info.

 

It is possible that you have hp power management, instead of leaving the power management to vista. Many newer manufacturers power management will stop charging when the battery is at about 50-85% full, claiming that battery's life can be prolonged this way (?).

Try using Vista power management and see if any differences. And yes the animation usually goes away until next time you hover your mouse pointer over it, and it stops after it performs its show. Animated tips/hints do not stay on after they start

cheers ...