Thats really great news... It would be even better if Microsoft would release vista drivers for their own devices.... eg Microsoft Smart Battery Subsystem

for more details see here

forums.microsoft.com/.../ShowPost.aspx

Hello,

here is the contains of the battery.inf file in Windows XP for smartbatteries not managed in Vista.

I hope it could help, I don't know how to extract the PnP codes of the material.

Kind regards,

[Version]

Signature="$WINDOWS NT$"

Class=Battery

ClassGuid={72631e54-78a4-11d0-bcf7-00aa00b7b32a}

Provider=%MSFT%

LayoutFile=layout.inf

DriverVer=07/01/2001,5.1.2535.0

[class_copyfiles]

batt.dll

[DestinationDirs]

class_copyfiles= 11

DefaultDestDir = 12

[ControlFlags]

;

; Exclude all devices from Select Device list

;

ExcludeFromSelect = *

[ClassInstall32]

AddReg=System_Class_Addreg

CopyFiles = class_copyfiles

[System_Class_Addreg]

HKR,,,%REG_SZ%,%BatteryClassName%

HKR,,Icon,%REG_SZ%,"2"

HKR,,Installer32,%REG_SZ%,"Batt.dll,BatteryClassInstall"

HKR,,NoInstallClass,,1

HKLM,SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BattC,MofImagePath,%REG_EXPAND_SZ%,"System32\Drivers\battc.sys"

HKLM,SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CoDeviceInstallers,{72631e54-78a4-11d0-bcf7-00aa00b7b32a},%REG_APPEND_MULTI_SZ%,"Batt.dll,BatteryClassCoInstaller"

[Manufacturer]

%MSFT%=Microsoft

[Microsoft]

%ACPI\pnp0c0A.DeviceDesc% = CmBatt_Inst,ACPI\pnp0C0A

%ACPI\acpi0002.DeviceDesc% = SMBBSUB_Inst,ACPI\acpi0002

%SMBBATT\SMART_BATTERY.DeviceDesc% = SMBBATT_Inst,SMBBATT\SMART_BATTERY

%ACPI\acpi0003.DeviceDesc% = AcAdapter_Inst,ACPI\acpi0003

%NTAPM\APMBATT.DeviceDesc% = ApmBatt_Inst,NTAPM\APMBATT

%HID_DEVICE_BATTERY.DeviceDesc% = HidBatt_Inst,HID_DEVICE_UP:0084_U:0004

%PowerWareUPS.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV,SERENUM\DEL0001

%PowerWareUPS.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV,SERENUM\EXI0001

%PowerWareUPS.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV,SERENUM\FPS0001

%APC.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV,SERENUM\APC0000

%APC.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV,SERENUM\APC0001

%APC.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV,SERENUM\APC0002

%APC.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV,SERENUM\APC0003

[HidBatt_Inst]

CopyFiles = @hidbatt.sys

CopyFiles = @battc.sys

[HidBatt_Inst.Services]

AddService=HidBatt,%SPSVCINST_ASSOCSERVICE%,HidBatt_Service_Inst

[HidBatt_Service_Inst]

DisplayName    = %HidBatt.SvcDesc%

ServiceType    = %SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER%

StartType      = %SERVICE_DEMAND_START%

ErrorControl   = %SERVICE_ERROR_NORMAL%

ServiceBinary  = %12%\HidBatt.sys

[ApmBatt_Inst]

CopyFiles = @apmbatt.sys

CopyFiles = @battc.sys

[ApmBatt_Inst.Services]

AddService = apmbatt,%SPSVCINST_ASSOCSERVICE%,ApmBatt_Service_Inst

[ApmBatt_Service_Inst]

DisplayName    = %ApmBatt.SvcDesc%

ServiceType    = %SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER%

StartType      = %SERVICE_DEMAND_START%

ErrorControl   = %SERVICE_ERROR_NORMAL%

ServiceBinary  = %12%\apmbatt.sys

[CmBatt_Inst]

AddReg=CmBatt_Addreg

CopyFiles = @CmBatt.sys

CopyFiles = @battc.sys

[CmBatt_Addreg]

HKR,,PowerSourceType,%REG_BINARY%,00,00,00,00

[CmBatt_Inst.Services]

AddService = CmBatt,%SPSVCINST_ASSOCSERVICE%,CmBatt_Service_Inst

[CmBatt_Service_Inst]

DisplayName    = %CmBatt.SvcDesc%

ServiceType    = %SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER%

StartType      = %SERVICE_DEMAND_START%

ErrorControl   = %SERVICE_ERROR_NORMAL%

ServiceBinary  = %12%\CmBatt.sys

[SMBBSUB_Inst]

Copyfiles = @smbbatt.sys

[SMBBSUB_Inst.Services]

AddService = SMBBATT,%SPSVCINST_ASSOCSERVICE%,SMBBSUB_Service_Inst

[SMBBSUB_Service_Inst]

DisplayName    = %SMBBSUB.SvcDesc%

ServiceType    = %SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER%

StartType      = %SERVICE_DEMAND_START%

ErrorControl   = %SERVICE_ERROR_NORMAL%

ServiceBinary  = %12%\SMBBATT.sys

[SMBBATT_Inst]

Copyfiles = @smbbatt.sys

Copyfiles = @battc.sys

[SMBBATT_Inst.Services]

AddService = SMBBATT,%SPSVCINST_ASSOCSERVICE%,SMBBATT_Service_Inst

[SMBBATT_Service_Inst]

DisplayName    = %SMBBATT.SvcDesc%

ServiceType    = %SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER%

StartType      = %SERVICE_DEMAND_START%

ErrorControl   = %SERVICE_ERROR_NORMAL%

ServiceBinary  = %12%\SMBBATT.sys

[AcAdapter_Inst]

AddReg=AcAdapter_Addreg

CopyFiles = @CmBatt.sys

CopyFiles = @battc.sys

[AcAdapter_Addreg]

HKR,,PowerSourceType,%REG_BINARY%,01,00,00,00

[AcAdapter_Inst.Services]

AddService = CmBatt,%SPSVCINST_ASSOCSERVICE%,AcAdapter_Service_Inst

[AcAdapter_Service_Inst]

DisplayName    = %AcAdapter.SvcDesc%

ServiceType    = %SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER%

StartType      = %SERVICE_DEMAND_START%

ErrorControl   = %SERVICE_ERROR_NORMAL%

ServiceBinary  = %12%\CmBatt.sys

[NO_DRV]

[NO_DRV.Services]

AddService = , %SPSVCINST_ASSOCSERVICE%   ; null service install

[strings]

MSFT                     = "Microsoft"

BatteryClassName         = "Batteries"

ACPI\pnp0c0A.DeviceDesc  = "Batterie à méthode de contrôle compatible ACPI Microsoft"

ACPI\acpi0002.DeviceDesc = "Sous-système batterie intelligente Microsoft"

SMBBATT\SMART_BATTERY.DeviceDesc = "Batterie intelligente Microsoft"

ACPI\acpi0003.DeviceDesc = "Adaptateur secteur Microsoft"

NTAPM\APMBATT.DeviceDesc = "Batterie APM Microsoft héritée"

HID_DEVICE_BATTERY.DeviceDesc = "Batterie onduleur HID"

CmBatt.SvcDesc           = "Pilote pour Batterie à méthode de contrôle ACPI Microsoft"

SMBBSUB.SvcDesc          = "Pilote du sous-système de batterie intelligente Microsoft"

SMBBATT.SvcDesc          = "Pilote de batterie intelligente Microsoft"

AcAdapter.SvcDesc        = "Pilote d'adaptateur secteur Microsoft"

ApmBatt.SvcDesc          = "Pilote de batterie APM hérité Microsoft"

HidBatt.SvcDesc          = "Pilote de batterie onduleur HID"

PowerWareUPS.DeviceDesc  = "Onduleur PowerWare"

APC.DeviceDesc           = "Onduleur APC"

SPSVCINST_ASSOCSERVICE   = 0x00000002

SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER    = 1

SERVICE_DEMAND_START     = 3

SERVICE_ERROR_NORMAL     = 1

REG_SZ                   = 0

REG_EXPAND_SZ            = 0x00020000

REG_APPEND_MULTI_SZ      = 0x00010008

REG_BINARY               = 1

Hi David

I'm so glad finally is taking care of our problem.

I got an Acer Travelmate 4002WLMi.

I have managed to install the battery and the power supply manually in the device manager, but the power icon keeps saying no bat detected.

I contacted ACER at least 20 times, resulting in them not answering anymore.

Here is the info, you need from the device manager.

Microsoft ACPI conform Controllmethod battery

ACPI\ACPI0001

*ACPI0001

ACPI\PNP0C09\4&69ee968&0

ACPI\ACPI0002\6&1d3ce835&2

acpi\pnp0c0a

Microsoft PowerSupply

ACPI\ACPI0002

*ACPI0002

\Device\00000069

00000020

CM_DEVCAP_SILENTINSTALL

ACPI\ACPI0002\6&1D3CE835&2

ACPI\ACPI0001\5&3525d9e8&0

acpi\acpi0003

THX again for helping.

Martin

Dear David

First, I want to take the opportunity to thank you for all your support and help, in the name of all concerned.

Second, I have looked at the url you have typed above and must report, that this list is not complete and for example, my ACER Travelmate 4002WLMI ( as written above) is not on the list, although it has only reached the age of 1.5 years.

I have tried to install those items nevertheless, of a similar notebook and nothing happened.

Thx anyway, because you are listening to our problem.

Martin

Hi David!

I would run the tool if I could... It only runs on XP Professional SP2 (or Vista) and I have reverted my notebook to XP Home SP2... It didn't make any sense to continue on using Vista, so I gave it back and installed XP again...

Windows Vista Categories Before Hardware Upgrades After Hardware Upgrades

Premium Ready 0 1

Capable 1 0

Not Capable 0 0

Insufficient Data (Not Inventoried) 0 0

So, finally got through to the report.

Tested 3 computers in my private home network, resulting in all 3 are Premium READY, only one needs a little upgrade in RAM 768 up to 1024.

No other problems detected.

So, what's next?

Regards

Martin

Dear David

You can't imagine, how thankfull I am, that finally, someone is really taking some interests in this topic and trying to help us.

I thank you cordially for every second you spend on this, no matter what outcome it may have.

THX a lot.

Martin

Hi David

For about one week now, I'm trying to get the Vista Hardware Assessment 2.0 Public Beta Release, but whatever I do, I can't download it anywhere.

The only way is microsoft connect and then I have to fill out forms, I don't know what they want.

Is this WVHA 2 really necessary to get things going?

Or is it basically the same?

If no, is there a possibility to download it without selling your soul to MS?

Regards

Martin

Hi David,

ist there any progress or new information in solving the "Smart Battery Subsystem"-Problem (missing driver) in Vista?

Regards Paul

Yes, I too was hoping for a solution fairly soon after replying to your request for information about PnP codes.

Any news?

Thanks

Dear David,

First of all many thanks for your help so far.

Second point: I have talked many times with the support team of acer germany and europe. They don't even answer my mails anymore. Concluding, that they will never ever build up a new bios or integrate this sytem, due to the end of this product-line.

I have communicated with the guys of e-support.com resulting in that they have no newer or adequate bios and won't write any; this answer costed me 35 bucks.

There is a guy, quite questionably reworking the bios, due to the lack of responsibility from Acer, but I don't know how safe it is flashing the bios with his version.

If you have any possibility to check that wph file, I could search for it and send it via email.

So, to cut the long story short:  

ACER will NEVER ever again implement this product to Vista, although they have put it on the Vista Compliant list on their site. They say, it is not worth it.

And MS so far has neglected the interest and keeps saying that they don't care for single person problems, although a huge community has protested via microsoft forums.

So, what shall we do?

We can't give our Vista back to the vendors, it has taken too long.

We can't work with our notebooks far from AC plugs.

We can't write drivers or BIOS ourselves.

Who shall we bother?

Regards.

Martin

Hi David,

I can't understand why there should be a bios change by the vendor when the battery is reported and managed correctly under XP. If Vista would handle/recognize this device like XP does, it should work correcly.

To report it as a device that will not function correct with Vista wouldn't solve the problem because it is shown as unknown ACPI-Device when you have installed Vista and doesn't work. Otherwise Vista-Upgrade-Advisor hasn't shown it as an unsupported device at all before buying and switching to Vista.

Now Microsoft says go to vendor... vendor says go to Microsoft... silly situation that only makes the users angry.

If you know BenQ, you also know that there wouldn't be a BIOS-Change - bad support in anyway. I'll never buy a BenQ-Product in future - but also no new hardware for Vista. If I really must buy new hardware for Vista, even the hardware is sufficient and should run (only bug is a simple battery rocognition, which worked under XP), and there wouldn't be a solution... then I will think about switching to Mac when I will decide to buy new hardware in the future.  

Regards Paul

Hi David,

in addition to my earlier comment today, I would let you know that it should't seem that I'm angry to you. I'm very happy to talk toward one person at microsoft who tries to help. It's only a silly situation. All my hardware worked fine under Vista - only this one but really important thing for a notebook (MS smart battery subsystem) won't...

... waiting for further info.

Thanks, Paul

Hi David!

I understand completely what you say. Microsoft and hardware manufacturers tryed to push sales on new products. As a manufacturer point of view I can understand that, however from Microsoft point of view I can't.

These machines are able to run Vista, so Microsoft in the end will loose customers due to these staggering.

In the long run, will it give more money to Microsoft? Well, usually it's normal that software vendors ally themselves with hardware vendors, pushing this way the market, however, there is a small problem: consumers.

As the consumer point of view, if the machine is able to run the new os, then you won't buy a new one! Reasons to buy a new one: machine fails to work, machine fails to run the software the end customer wants to run on it.

This is not the case, so why have we all to be obliged on doing something completely unnecessary?

It's like some MB vendors, giving support on C2 Duo on their first 775 boards and others simply don't giving it...

Or like, Vista drivers to some line of products... Some give support to it, some don't... Well, what I am seeing is that consumers in the end will buy new products from hardware/software vendors that are actually caring about them.

It's a simple question of consumer support, and Vista brought it... We are now seeing the brands that actually care about their customers and the brands that simply want more money...

Consumers are seeing these, and in the end they will buy new produtcs, but not from the brands that have poor consumer support/respect.

I have now, a few brands, after Vista arise, that I thought to be good and I bought several things to them in the past. Now, I will continue to buy new hardware, however not anymore from any of these brands in any product of their line... Acer is one one them, Creative is another, Abit another, well, they will simply loose to others a customer, and believe me, there are brands actually seeing this and responding to this... As for Microsoft, well, I will not go to Mac or Unix, but from them there are other ways...

Shame on them...

Bye David, and many thanks to the interest you showed on this! It's much more than we can say on others...

Hi David,

thanks for your explanation about multiple supported power shemes in XP and only ACPI supported in Vista. So I can understand the problem a little.

Although it is annoying that I've spent a lot of time in upgrading to Vista because MS Vista Upgrade Advisor did not report this problem before I decided to switch to Vista. I also upgrade two notebooks from 512MB to 2GB RAM for working better working with Vista.

Fortunately I found out this problem before activation of Vista because I didn't activate Vista direct while installation process. And fortunatley I had a retailer where I had the opportunity to take back Vista and get back my money because of this - let it call "serius bug" which will result in data loss while working mobile.

In any way, I will not buy new hardware for Vista... and for the time beeing I'm working on XP again.

Interesting annotation: Linux will recognize all hardware in my BenQ notebooks (including battery managemen) without any problems.

You could be sure I will vote by my feet in future like you told to Vitor. First related to hardware vendor (BenQ - with disastrous support at all), next to other hardware vendors I knew with also nearly negative support in this or other topics - and maybe related to MS when I will buy new hardware in future.

Even so I hope there would be a solution for this problem by MS... and in any way thanks to your respond/support...

... please let me know at this point in web, if there would be a solution to this.

I will look here sometimes for a possible solution - till I decide to switch to new hardware in future.

Kind regards

Paul

Dear David

Thank you for all the efforts you made since now, to get our thing working.

So, you say, if I got it right:

Change the bat with a bat in an ACPI -case and everything will be allright?

Would our system work then without flashing the bios?

Bytheway, as mentioned earlier, I got a file, containing a manipulated bios which should possibly solve our problem.

The point is, that I can't recognize whether it is malware or really helpful. So, if you yourself or somebody you know, is able to check the wph file, it would be great.

I will again begin hammering my notebook manufacturer, asking for their help.

Thx in advance,

Martin

Hi,

What I've understood is that we need to upgrade the bios of our PC's to be Vista compatible. Looking for this update on the bios manufacturer site www.phoenix.com, I've found a link to upgrade the bios in the site www.esupport.com/global but It request 30$ to send us the bios file!

Do you think we should pay for this?

Kind regards,

Ben

Hi Ben, Hi everybody.

Forget esupport.com !!!

I have contacted them over 3 months ago, paid the 30 bucks and waited!

After one week, I got a mail saying that they regret telling me, that for the Acer Travelmate 4000 series, there is no newer BIOS available than those 3A10 from Acer's site.

They told me to contact the manufacturer to tell them, that it is their decision, to write a new BIOS or not.

If Acer gives the order, Phoenix writes a new one.

So, I contacted Acer with this info and all they told me ( Yes, at that time, they were still responding to my mails) , that they won't give the order, it wouldn't be worth it.

The notebook is not meant to be Vista compliant, although they have included the TM 4000 series in their list of Vista capable notebooks, dated Nov. 2nd 2006.

Conclusion:

They don't give a *** about us!!!

They will never (their words) build up a compatible driver nor give the order for a new BIOS!

Well, this may be the sad end of the story, if we don't find a cordial guy or company to write us a new BIOS.

So, please help us, dear stranger in the orbit.

Martin

Hi

I got a final comment from Acer:

They will never and under no circumstances support the installation of Vista on the TM 4000 series and tell us to downgrade to XP.

Sad, to hear this from them.

Well, I have read in another MS TechNet forum, that other manufacturer have come out with new Bioses and then, everything went on and the bat was detected.

So, we need someone to modify our BIOS.

David, dou you know someone, who is able to do such a thing, if we give him the original wph file?

Regards

Martin

;o((((((( i say nothing!!!! never again an acer notebook!!!!!!

Hi

After some recherche in the net, I foud some very interesting atricles showing up the same problems about 2.5 years before with the OS Ubuntu and other Linux derivates.

So, to cut the long story short:

The people concerned simply changed the dsdt? part of their Bios or the driver signin in the OS, and got things working.

It is all described on acpi.sourceforge.net

The problem is, that I am not that PC geek to implement this stuff.

It woud be therefore great, if someone would voluntere to try so...

There is the changed BIOS file for exactly our Acer Travelmate 4002 WLMi.

So, I would be more than happy, if someone would give it a try, or ask a third person to do so.

Thx and greetings.

Martin

Hi again.

I have contacted the guy from the web page above.

He says, that he is not educated in MS OS. He only knows Linux.

So, anybody asked somebody yet?

Has anyone collegues who could be able to help us?

I got the Phoenix Bios Editor and the files, but no clue, how to work this.

Someone help us, please...

Hi guys and gals

Well, by now, I got the Hardware Assessment 2.0 running on my PC, the result is astonishing:

No change needed, Vista Ultimate Ready.

All hardware parts are installed correctly.

Is it a joke?

I try to reach on everybody on my circle to handle this problem, and MS keeps saying, there is no problem.

Regards,

Martin

Dear David

I have never and under no circumstances meant to offend you.

I know that you are doing more than ever thinkable.

I was just spreading my thoughts to see, if someone else may have found out something different.

I know, that MS as every other company wants to be going with the edge of tech.

The only problem I see is, that some manufacturers simply sell products, which work really good - my notebook is faster under Vista than XP - and then decline them of beeing compatible.

I want to thank you for all your tries, unconcerned of their outcome.

Regards,

Martin

Dear David.

By now, I have successfully integrated my battery in the Device Manager, reporting that both, the MS ACPI conform controllmethod battery, as well as the Smart Battery Subsystem, work excellent.

But it didn't help with the power icon, where it can't find a battery.

Acer says by now, they have checked the system, it is not their fault, and there is no need for a new BIOS, only the driver implementation in Vista.

They say, it is your turn, now.

Regards

Martin

Dear David

Thank you again for your help.

I want to thank you for giving us a platform to share our thoughts and ideas.

I hope, that through the e-mail I wrote you a couple of minutes ago, it will be a break through for this issue.

I wish you a pleasant day.

Martin

Hi Martin,

could you please describe how you've integrated your battery in Vista?

Many thanks!

Ben

Hi,

it's good to see people patiently co-operating on this. I just wanted to post on behalf of myself and others - who are watching developments on this page eagerly in the hope that their Acer / whatever laptops soon will be able to use Vista, I think there's quite a few of us in the same boat, a breakthrough would be great news for all of us.

Paul

the MS ACPI conform controllmethod battery, as well as the Smart Battery Subsystem, work excellent.

But it didn't help with the power icon, where it can't find a battery.

yes it works,,,i have a acer extensa 3002 wlmi the bios is the same at the travelmate 4000  ver.3A10

Dear Ben.

After the installation didn't work automatically, I went to the device manager.

Then I right-clicked the unknown device.

Properties.

Driver actualization.

Manually install from group.

Battery.

MS ACPI conform controll method battery.

Second unknown device appears.

Install manually from group.

MS Smart Battery Subsystem.

This was it.

I got then a power icon in the tray, saying: No Bat detected.

Well, as said by Acer and other companies, it shall not be a problem of the BIOS, but of the driver of MS Vista.

This is the last stand of my information.

Regards and good luck,

Martin

the system diagnostictool from vista,,,,show me the infos off my batterie,,,,capazity,voltage,manufactor,,,usw,,,,,hmmmm,,,,,,its not ah driver bug david??

Dear David.

I have simply loaded the Vista own driver, which he found himself as the only compatible and which is digitally signed by MS.

It all went without a scratch.

I thank you for your help.

Martin

Hi Dee

Which system diagnostic tool did you use?

Regards

Martin

hi martin

i see it on the reliability and achievement monitoring. on the hardware/energieclass

its ah german vista system, his say:

root\cimv2:SELECT * FROM Win32_Battery 0x0

Zurückgegebene Objekte

root\cimv2:SELECT * FROM Win32_PortableBattery 0x0

Zurückgegebene Objekte

Win32_PortableBattery.DeviceID="Portable Battery 0"

Eigenschaft Wert

CapacityMultiplier 1

Chemistry 6

Description Tragbarer Akku

DesignCapacity 4400

DesignVoltage 14800

Location Right Side

Manufacturer Sanyo

MaxBatteryError 100

Name Sanyo

SmartBatteryVersion Bat123

Hi Dee.

I found the same battery listing, too.

Now, that's weired.

Why does he install it and find it in the reliability and performance monitoring, but not in the power icon???

I'm some kind of dazzled now.

Everything seems good, but it doesn't work.

Regards

Martin

Hi everybody.

Has someone got anything new?

I asked a resident company for advice.

They told me, that it is for sure, NO matter of the BIOS, BUT a driver issue of Vista.

They only can't help, because they have no possibility.

Regards

Martin

I'm using Aspire 1682WLMi and is also having problem with the battery. Same with all of you out there, my BIOS version is 3A10

Hi guys and gals.

Long time no see.

Well, today, MS released two new and essential KB Updates, to stabilise the system and improve the performance nd the RAM.

But, unfortunately it doesn't concern our issue.

I have talked to several IT-pros but no one has a clue about the new driver signin in Vista.

I know, there is some advice in Ms connect, but I'm simply not that nerd, it takes to understand it.

I hope, you have come to better results.

Don't hesitate sharing your infos with us.

Regards,

Martin

Has someone yet tried the pre-beta Service Pack1 for Vista?

Is there something helpful for our issue?

Pingback from  underclock « diesonne

Hi guys,

 it seems nice that Micrsoft make a forum where we can share the problems, i have read the above lines, but the problem with Battery is still there, i have update my windows vista ultimate every day, i got Travel Mate 4000, with 1.23GB Ram, windows is working fine, but problem is just with the battery, David or Martin seems to be active in this forum so can you please tell me have you find any solution for Acer battries or not yet?

with best regards

Ikram Faried Chaudhry

Hi Ikram

Sorry for having to tell you, that there has been nothing new recently.

I have tried anything possible, but it seems to be a MS Driver problem.

Waiting for people to respond from SP1 drivers.

Don't know, what David found.

Regards

Martin

Hi David

I appreciate a lot the new look of your site.

It was worth the efforts.

Regards

Martin

Having reported this issue to Microsoft through their Beta Client tool around the Vista Beta 1 timeframe, I think they knew what was coming. Acer has treated some of their otherwise excellent products *very* poorly support wise. My laptop is among the worst of them support wise ( Travelmate 4501WLMi ). It has Radeon 9700 and runs Aero Glass satisfactory and I've upraded to 2 GB of memory.

What did Acer do with this model? They had it available for around 3 months, it hasn't got a single driver update since April 2004. You can't get driver updates from ATI since ATI wants you to get them from Acer/OEM.

However the battery status issue in Vista being the only problem, I've been quite satisfied with it. Though given the latest ATI driver from Acer is from spring 2004, the WPF is not accelerated in XP. Thankfully it is in Vista :-)

For me it's not been that big deal though since atleast this model will blink the physical battery indicator light when it's starting to run low whether or not the SMBUS 1.0 Host Controller driver ( ACPI0001 & ACPI0002 ) are installed and I keep it mostly as a desktop replacement.

What's been said here makes a lot of sense so I believe the way to get it working is the BIOS mod. For my model there is an updated DSDT ( acpi.sourceforge.net/.../view.php ) however given the risk/benefit from this is only the software battery indicator working I'm not going to risk it at this point.

Hi ac

You reported from the exchange of the DSDT.

I have downloaded a similar file.

How is it possible to exchange the DSDT in the BIOS using Vista?

Thankfull for any advice, since my Travelmate 4002 WLMi has no LED Bat-Indication.

Regards

Martin

Hi AC

Can you please tell us, how it is possible to exchange the given Linux-DSDT with the one in our BIOS.

It is worth a try, since I have no LED-Bat indication in my TravelMate 4002 WLMi.

Regards

Martin

my laptop, acer aspire 1680, has same problem. everything is ok, but the smart battery. after several tries, i got installed both drivers: MS smart battery subsystem and smart battery. both are reported to work ok by the system (vista ultimate). Movility center is activated, but system says there is no battery . Both are connected to this raw: ati pci express (3gi0) filter driver---> lpc intel 82802dbm 24cc interface controller ----->MS ACPI compliant embedded controller. Looking  around on some forums, i found out a possible reason for our problem: not bios nor battery drivers, but chipset. Some people has updated chipset drivers, reporting solved problem. Mine is intel 852/855, installed with MS drivers, which as far as i´ve noticed, are similar in vista and xp. In fact, vista uses xp drivers for this chipset (!!!!!). Unfortunately, intel has no vista driver for this chipset. Even more, they say xp driver, version 6,  will be the last one for this chipset, so new driver would not be expected. intel update inf utility, version 8, which is the last one, doesnt include 852/855 support. Acer has no vista update for my machine, so nothing to do with them.

have you tried updating chipset drivers (if found)?

Actually, Vista does not supply any driver for Smart Battery. It only has the driver for Smart Battery Subsystem. If you check Windows XP's driver, the Smart Battery driver is smbatt.dll (or something like that, sigh... I forgot). Vista only come with cmbatt.dll and hidbatt.dll

So, the problem now is not a Vista driver is not working, instead, there is no Smart Battery driver for Vista.

Anyway, I am wondering about the extra feature (the pro) of Smart Battery. All I can think of is problem. Curse the creator of Smart Battery.... err... well, at least if you designed something, you should support it.

Btw, my Acer Aspire 1682WLMi has a battery indicator. The only problem is, it does not have any audio indicator when the battery is low (unlike most of the ACPI battery powered Acer laptops, which beep when the battery is low). So, I normally aware that the battery has finished when the laptop turns off.

Hi David

Long time no see.

What's happened with your intention from July 19?

Do we have any results now?

Does the SP1 help us in our issue?

Is it right, what Nic Poh wrote?

Why then, are we all able to install the devices and get a result, saying, everything is working perfect, although we still have no Bat indication.

Even Vista Hardware Assessment 2 didn't find any problems.

We are desperate and longing for help.

Thx for everything, you have done so far.

Regards,

Martin

Hi David,

thanks for all your help... but it seems to take soo long to get a solution and I don't want to wait again for month... for me I'm sure... if there wouldn't be a solution until the end of year I will not buy Vista... not for my actual notebooks and also not for newer hardware. Fortunately brought back my first Vista-Version because of this "bug" and got my money back...

Regards Paul

Hello Martin

I too have an Acer TravelMate 4002 WLMI and  the same problem with the battery. Please excuse me if this is a bit off-topic, but i have another missing driver.

It is a Mass Storage Controller: PCI bus 2, device 6, function 3.

I have Vista Business 6.0.6000

Did you have the same problem?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Alex

Yes, I had the same problem.

It is the driver of the Firewire port.

Simply install it and it will find the drivers for the Texas Instrument Mass Storage Controller, automatically.

Regards,

Martin

By the way. Is someone able to integrate a DSDT table into a BIOS?

Hello David,

many many thanks for your effort to get the Acer Travelmate 4000 Series Battery Symbol work with Vista.

Although there ist no solution yet, your help is greatly appreciated. I think you didn't guess, that this will be an Acer Travelmate blog, when you started it. ;-)

If you could go on with finding a solution, many Acer users will be very grateful.

Best Regards

André

Hi Dave,

i managed to keep device manager in vista ultimate sp1 (pre-beta), as now the smart battery and ac adapter seem to be happily installed...although the smart battery was upset without sp1..however i didnt put too much effort in trying to get it installed...anyway...the battery icon is in da taskbar..HOWEVER..it says battery not detected...although mobility center is now activasted in control panel...i have an acer aspire 1684wlmi btw

keep it up mate and regards...

Hi Doof

Where did you find the sp1 update. Would you please share your solution with us? I have an acer 4002wlmi (like many others)

Hi Doof,

I could do the same trick as you did and indeed now the icon is on and it shows in the tray, but it says "no battery detected!". This is not a solution.

My acer TM 4001 died last month... The radeon mobility maked some artefacts then blackout. So for me this story & the PC history are finished... Welcome Mac world. And it seems more beautifull without this kind of problem send back from MS and constructor to the customers....

Hope your problem will be solved soon. But I guess it will never be case.

Hi David

It is almost 2 months since your last log.

What have you achieved so far?

Anything new or even helping?

Do you have any news about SP1?

Can it offer a solution?

Regards,

Martin

please help for me  Acer travelmate 4000flci Battery driver vista suport

hi david.

maybe the following could be useful. i´ve compared acpi structures of vista and xp and found out:

xp: MS ACPI compliant embedded controller (pnp0c09 device) ---> microsoft system management bus host controller (acpi0001) ---> microsoft smart battery subsystem (acpi0002) ---> smart battery (smart_battery).

vista: MS ACPI compliant embedded controller installed and working ok. i´ve tried to install MS SMbus host controller using vista driver, which is included in acpi.inf (c:\build\filerepository\acpi.inf_82ade08b\acpi.inf) but got error 39. ( device installed but can´t initiate). as a result of that, vista doesn´t detect ms smart battery subsystem nor smart battery.

so, it seems acpi0001 device driver is the main problem as vista doesn´t support it even with its own driver, which includes smbhc.sys and smbclass.sys.

on a different approach, i´ve been looking for another device with same device id and found out that acpi0001 identifies smbus ver 1.0, while acpi0005 identifies smbus ver 2.0, and there is no other device identified with acpi0001, in order to install its driver.

maybe you can make a suggestion to the team you´re talking to,  on taking a look on smbch.sys and smbclass.sys?

regards.

nostromos

hi again.

i´ve read rigth now something that could explain part of the problem:

msdn.microsoft.com/.../windows_030404.aspx

where people from MS says that smbus host controller is just generic and not supporting all chipsets. after 3 questions about, speaker admits MS don´t even have a list of supported chipsets, so third party drivers must be used.

bad news, as acer has no smbus host controller driver, as far  i know.

keep on searching.

regards

nostromos

Hi David,

From some other forums I found that Vista build 5308 still come with the smbhc.sys and smbclass.sys for the APCI0001 device. However, don't know why they are removed in subsequent builds. Are you able to get these two files from that build for my testing? I managed to install the SMBus host controller with the two sys files from XP-SP2 or Windows 2003 but fail to let Vista to use them normally.

Thanks,

Andrew

Hi Nostromos

THX for your further interest in our heavy duty problem.

Well, I think, that Acer's SMBUS HOST CONTROLLER driver may be either included in the Intel(R) chipset driver version 6.0.0.1014 or the Acer ePower-Management.

The thing is, that I have installed the latest version of the whole Acer eXXX Series, but even then, I didn't get any new results concerning the appearance of the BAT.

My only question is:

How is it possible for Vista to install the BAT, reporting, it works perfect in the device manager, even finding it with Vista's own reliability monitoring tool, telling the exact specification, but still showing a BATTERY NOT DETECTED in the icon ?

Keep us posted about further ideas and possible successes.

Best regards

Martin

Hi, Martin.

here my own experience: i´ve been making a lot of tries before i put attention on device ids:

-first, i installed ms smart battery subsystem attached directly to MS ACPI compliant embedded controller (pnp0c09 device), and then a second unknown device appeared,  attached to smart battery subsystem, so i installed smart battery. system reported ok to all devices. but as you know, no battery detected on icon tray, altough got movility center activated.

-then i did my second try, uninstalling smart subsytem and installing instead "Microsoft Windows Management Interface for ACPI". Again a second unknown device appeared and i installed "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery", because i tried to install smart battery but, although device manager said ok, system didn´t allow movility center to activate. system reported everything ok with this second configuration too, but still no battery on icon tray. (movility center activated, too)

as you know, all these devices are clearly different, with their own device ids, notwithstanding device manager accepts some erroneous configurations as correct ones.

so, the correct sequence of devices seems to be: pnp0c09 --> acpi0001 --> acpi0002 ---> smart_battery.  The problem is mainly that acpi0001, even installed, shows a exclamation mark on device manager (error 39) (installed but not initiated), even when using vista driver. That makes me suppose there could be some error on information from bios to vista (and other SO, as linux, by the way), being this information ok for xp. so i think the possible solution is to modify dsdt tables, as done on some linux distro, using intel asl compiler and ms asl compiler 3.0.

im trying actually to get information about.

keep on searching

regards

nostromos

it's useful?

www.rm.com/.../GeneralDownload.asp

Hi SmartBattery

THX for your efforts, but unfortunately the downloadable file is nothing more than a specific add-on for RM computers.

It doesn't do anything with my devices.

Sorry.

Please don't be shocked.

We are happy for any idea and help.

KEEP ON GUYS!

Regards

Martin

Hi guys and gals

I just let VHA 2.1 run over my system, resulting in the same way, as before.

"Tatarata": Your system needs no change, everything works excellent. You are Premium Ready!!!

Well at least, it never gets boring ;-)

Regards

Martin

Dear David

I did by no mean, want to offend you or anyone of MS, nor do I say, MS would be XXX nor did I ever say anything bad about Vista.

I do know very well, that every development takes time and that standards do change. I never blamed MS for this, but am angry that ACER knowing this new obstacles and standards, did nothing - absolutely nothing - to help their costumers.

I just wonder, why ACER denies to take any responsibility and why the VHA2.1 tells me, there would be no problem, although I have no Bat-indication.

Anyway, what do you mean with "you can't appreciate the hurdles .. .legal"?

I am not doing anything illegally!

We all know that changes take time, so why don't we all try to be more pacient and friendly.

Martin

Dear David

I'm sorry for possibly having overreacted.

I know very well, that you and MS have to keep to a list of legal actions before you can say anything.

Therefore, I am very happy, that we have found our counterpart in you, as an understanding and patient guy.

I'm happy, that you still put effort in this subject, even if the chances to succeed are low.

We all are very thankfull for your help and advice. Go on!

Best regards,

Martin

Hello David and Readers,

As a Travelmate 4002 WLMi owner I would like to state a few things:

1. People affected by this incompatibility issue have been very understanding (actually I am surprised that this did not end up in a class action lawsuit already for misleading customers). I for one do not like to go to court over stupid things and especially not for this... but come one...! I have talked to both Acer (Hungary and Germany) and they  all pointed to MS saying it is their fault that the systems (other manufacturers also) are not supported.

2. Despite the fact that I cannot see the remaining battery life I am using Vista (5 licenses so far, not counting those for the company). I am participating in customer experience improvement initiatives  for nearly all MS products on many PCs. VISTA IS NEARLY ONE YEAR OLD NOW! How much time does it take to come up with a driver or a service or a patch to read the lousy battery info from a notebook? Vista was 5 years in development and I bought my notebook (with Radeon 9700 graphics) with compatibility in mind.

<moderated>

Have a great day,

Kadar Zsolt

Hi guys

After some more than 3 months, someone from Acer decided to answer my last mail.

He mentions, that with the Vista SP1 release, our problem possibly can be solved, but also says, that this is just a rumour.

He also told me to install the launch manager from a Travelmate 3000 series notebook, which he thinks is helpfull, but did nothing in my eyes.

So, anyone else something new?

Regards

Martin

Hi guys,

I have been reading your posts for a wile and i think it is time to write something too. I have a travelmate 4001 wlmi with vista because i use it in a firm witch is microsoft partner, so i upgrade to vista. unfortunately i have the same problem with the battery. I work in the computer distribution market so i know very well that a lot of information that cames to public is not true and a lot of times what they (manufactures)  wont to do is completely different from what they say. Anyway, i, actually don't believe that this problem cames to happy end. For me the only thing to do is change the laptop or downgrade to Xp. It is a wast of time trying to understand wy  microsoft don't solve this problem. You have the code, this is not a secret battery from CIA, actually is a lousy common smart battery.

Best regards

Octávio

Hello group,

I've done quite a bit of reading on this topic.  I too am the owner of a TM 4000.  As I understand it (and correct me David) this issue is a hardware issue.  The method Acer used to report battery stats isn't compatible with the method Vista uses.  Above that, Vista's method is standardized and generally accepted.  When the TM 4000 was developed it was designed to run on Windows XP (and likely 2000) which allowed for their non-standard battery monitoring.

It may or may not be possible to correct this with a simple BIOS or driver update.  This isn't the first time technology advances have abandoned old methods in favor of better ones.  Who wants to re-introduce 5 1/4" floppies?

Acer may have been a bit late to the game in updating their hardware in advance of Vista's debut but it runs great for what its designed to run on. If this problem requires a hardware change to correct you can rest assured that won't happen.

I myself intend to Ebay my 4000 while the XP fever is still hot.  I've been running Vista business on my desktop and found only a few old apps that had to run in VPC.  Over time those will upgrade as well.

Robert

Robert,

To make it clear, the problem actually does not only affect Acer's laptop. It affect all the laptops that uses Smart Battery. Smart Battery should be better than ACPI but I'm not sure why nobody is using it now. Maybe that is the reason why Microsoft abandon Smart Battery support. To make thing worse, the group that introduces also seems to abandon Smart Battery. The last update on it's site is around 1998.

It's sad that most laptops that uses Smart Battery are near high-end laptops and are able to run Windows Vista Ultimate with no problem.

Hi guys

I may hope, that all of you somehow sled well into our by now old new year.

I have again communicated with Acer Inc., but I asked Acer PanAm for help this time.

Well, compared to Acer Germany, they were quite gentle, telling me, that they won't interfere in problems of Microsoft. They frankly told me to start a petition or go public- which I won't do!

It is now need of making companies angry -> then they won't do anything.

Well, I have managed to install at least my ACER BT-700 USB Bluetooth dongle to Vista - WITHOUT ACER'S OR MS'S HELP.

Hi David

Have you achieved scores in our issue?

What about the guys you wanted to contact?

It is now 3 months since your last post!

Thx anyway!

Best regards and a HAPPY NEW YEAR ! ! ! !

Martin

Dear David

I don't blame you, because I am happy, that we here had at least a platform to discuss our problem.

I may have found a way to fix our problem, but I need help to change the existing DSDT table with a DSDT.DSL file, which is said to be able to fix it.

Anyway thx a lot for what you did for us.

Take care

Martin

Options:

1. We either kepp Vista on our unsupported systems and wait for our notebooks to die, or...

2. We stay Windows XP like sooo many other people did last year (with 270 million PC sold in 2007 Microsoft has 100 million licenses out there)

... and MS is unhappy with people petitioning  for longer XP market availability. I am wondering what surprises the Server 2008 launch will bring to early adopters.

You wanna hear something funny? Today a PC sales guy tried to talk me out of buying a Lenovo Thinkpad that comes with Windows Vista Business and instead he pushed another model that has XP preinstalled (the Vista model was 200 USD more expensive) saying that Vista will certainly have problems with webcams, scanners and other peripherals I might have. They do support the systems they sell, so they are probably tired of listening to people complaining of compatibility and lack of drivers.

It is kinda' sad that this happens even after a year of Vista's launch.

I will not complain anymore. I moved on... that is away from Acer.

After reading these posts, i've started to search for Vista5308, found the drivers in the installation Container "install.wim".

Created new inf files for them (edited originals), to be able to remove them afterwards.

I was able to load the smchc.sys and smbclass.sys for the ACPI0001 device (and are started).

Loading the drivers for APCI0002 didn't succeed, timed out, and restarting Vista gave me a continued startup screen.

Digging deeper, I found the source of the smbbatt.sys in the MsWDK, I'll peek into this deeper to find out if this will be a solution of the Acer TM400X battery trouble...

Dear Jan

We are happy, that you have made positive progress.

It would be great, if you could share the differing data with us, for us being able to see the difference and possibly helping in solving the problem.

Thx in advance

Martin

Is SP1 going to resolve the problem  (in my case, 4002 WLMI)? And when will it be realeased to the public?

Jan,

Are you able to install smbbatt.sys also by modifying the battery.inf? Would you mind to upload the smb*.sys files (including smbhc.sys, smbclass.sys, smbbatt.sys, ..) extracted from Vista 5308 for my testing?

Thanks,

Andrew

Hi guys

I reinstalled the bat.

It still went through like butter, but this time something NEW happened.

I had a vista problem troubleshoot pop-up, saying, that the problem with the microsoft acpi conform controll-method battery can be solved by updating the "Apple Desktop Null Driver".

I have nothing from apple installed and not even the guys from Apple Inc. I have contacted know anything about htis driver.

Somebody got a clue?

Possibly a solution?

Regards

Martin

Hi, I've just installed SP1 RTM on my Windows Vista Business machine - Acer TravelMate 4001, and the problem with battery is still there - no change, just like before the SP1.

Martin:

The Apple Desktop Null Driver is a legacy driver for unused or unsupported device. Don't waste your time looking for it. I started a thread on the CNET forums way back and I got my answer: sometimes manufacturers use these null drivers to keep a device from reappearing in the device manager (as unknown device) and asking for drivers all the time.

For me David's post was clear: MS will not say that this notebook is unsupported because of legal issues (they have enough trouble with the Vista Capable stickers as it is), but they will do nothing to support it. My suggestion: sell your Acer with either XP or Ubuntu installed and buy a Lenovo or a Fujitsu-Siemens instead with Vista pre-installed.

Dear Kadar

I want to thank you for your info, I have seen your post earlier last week. I still have a bit of optimism saying that someday, this issue, which should be none in my eyes, will be solved.

Hopefully sooner than later.

I ahve heard from some guys, who are designing their own drivers and marching on forward. Slow but steady.

I have thought about buying a new notebook, but I have paid so much for it one year ago and won't get more than 250€ now, so I say, I will use it till end of summer and then buy a new quadcore notebook with a huge GPU.

I only have to collect some money.

So. I still am waiting for Jan to answer.

See you soon!

Martin

Hello

I have great respect for developers, but in this case I doubt that anyone besides MS and Acer can come with a solution. As I understand the problem is that MS made changes at core level during the development of Vista (and made it public at WinHEC conference) and the old drivers are no longer supported by the RTM version.

If the No.1 in OS (MS) and No.3 in notebooks (Acer) cannot (will not) solve this, a developer is not likely to succeed.

We have to thank David again for providing a place for our rents (too bad nobody else listened).

Zsolt

Hi guys

I hope, you all had a pleasant start into the spring.

I have looked for the drivers of XP and Vista, and I have found some more drivers in Xp than Vista.

Is it generally possible to implement a XP driver into Vista driver database for batteries?

If yes, how?

Thx for the moment,

Martin

Has anyone installed SP1on a 4002wlmi? Any problems during installation?

Hi,

I have successfully installed SP1 on my 4002 WLMi, through the Windows Update.

No problems at all.

But also no reason for happiness cause nothing changed.

Still no battery sign and my monitor still goes black on start up, where the password is asked. Simply, I have to close the lid and when I open it, the monitor lights up again.

So, install it, it helps e.g. with the vista defragmenter,...

Anybody got an answer to my question above?

David, do you know someone to help us?

Best regards,

Martin

No News?!!?!! I Hope so,,,that the battery acpi driver problem will Ending....   the sam prob, whit Sp1 as Martin

no battery sign and my monitor still goes black on start up, where the password is asked. Simply, I have to close the lid and when I open it, the monitor lights up again.

dee

Dee... and others!

Just touch/tap the touchpad and the screen will light up again without closing the lid and opening it again. Alternatively you can disable the Ask for password after standby/sleep mode option and the desktop will pop up immediately.

Have a good day!

Zsolt

hey Zsolt ,  vista thake this every boot........ vista have allways install a Standart- Monitor driver,,,,and wen i thak the lid, his install the pnp-monitor driver ,,and his run! its that not a problem of de upnp module in vista??!!? or its a prob. whit the ACPI driver?!?!!  my sys its a Acer Extensa 3002Wlmi with radeon 9700

Hi Dee

The problem you have with the screen going blank on startup is only a driver problem, which can be solved by installing an older driver, but then it won't work with the CCC anymore.

Your decision, which one you need more.

I hope, that helped you a bit.

So guys, is there nobody out there, who can tell me how to change the DSDT tables in my BIOS???

I do have Phoenix BIOS Editor 2.1.

I just need some instruction.

This might be one solution to our main issue!!!!

So, ask other people, perhaps someone knows some other person, who could help.

I have a working DSDT table from a Linux system, which had exactly the same problem in 2005 and they solved it by changing this table!!!

Hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,

Martin

Has somebody yet tried, replacing the existing Vista drivers with XP drivers?

Unfortunately, I have no XP anymore, could someone please give it a try?

THX

Martin

thx for the help martin, it works with different drivers from a other acer with a mobility radeon, and the CCC work about!! ;o)

i have de xp drivers for the battery saved. Vista say by de installation of this drivers,,,driver not found ;o(

hm,,,,  would it modify the xp drivers, for working on vista?!?!

peace

dee

ohhh,, i see i have not saved the .inf files from the battery driver, i have saved the two .sys files :o\

Martin, I did that since Vista is first released. It doesn't work.

Thx for the feedback.

Unfortunately it seems that Vista doesn't accept XP drivers. Possibly David can give us a hint how to implement old XP drivers into Vista.

Has somebody yet tried changing the DSDT table in the BIOS?

Is somebody able to advise me how to do it?

I do have the Phoenix BIOS Editor and the changed DSDT table that worked for Linux.

Regards,

Martin

Hi Martin,

I think changing the dsdt tables could be a solution to our problem...

I found a Toshiba laptop with the same trouble, they fixed the DSDL table,

after comparing the (Decompiled) dsdl tables, I think it will be possible to change

the acer tables as well and put them in our custom bios...

But... it's risky... my laptop still works.. want it to keep working...winxp still works

I used the Phoenix editor to extract the tables, and decompiled them with the asl compiler from intel (3.0).

Have you seen the modified bioses on SoundForge (acpi.sourceforge.net/dsdt/index.php) ?

w.r.

Geert Jan

Hi All,

I'm not succesfull with either the XP drivers (creating correct inf's for Vista is okay, loading the drivers it's different),

drivers from the old Vista builds it's all the same... not working.... ;-(

About the DSDT tables, I've found after searching some more info...

sourceforge has a site about modified dsdt tables in the bios (acpi_sourceforge_net).

After peeking in a bios from a Toshiba (they solved the same problem for their customers),

I started comparing the DSDT tables, looking where the difference might be...

To me it's possible to modify the bios, and make it work in Vista...(more to come)

I used the Phoenix editor (intel site), and the ASL Compiler (also intel) to decompile an compile the files...

w.r.

Geert Jan

Hi Geert

Wow, I am very proud and happy, that at least somebody has the knowledge and ability to modify the DSDT table.

Please tell me more about the way, how to replace the table.

I will post as soon, as I succeed or fail.

Big THX to GEERT JAN!!!

Martin

Hi Dudes

Well it's over 6 Weeks since our last entry here.

I am still waiting for Geert Jan to give me some instructions, of how to change the DSDT table, or at least tell us his results.

Did it work?

Did it break?

What happened?

Dear David don't you know somebody who is capable of this?

I would try it, with your help.

Regards

Martin

Hi guys

So, every once in a while, I give it a try, installing this Vista own driver for the unknown device - self finding, pathed in ms acpi controller.

Well, this time, after not automatically finding the driver, it suddenly drove off to problems and solutions and found a hint.

It says, this issue is caused by an "Apple Desktop Null Driver".

Whatever this may be, unless Geert Jan show us another way, this can be a new solution.

Searching for this gave a mess in my mind.

On MSDN Technet, they say, it is a possibly ?not existant? driver, that should be installed to force the device function in raw mode!

Well, asking Apple, they tell me, they have no such driver.

What shall we do now?

Does anyone know something, or at least, how to change the DSDT table in BIOS?

Possibly David does know someone??

Greetings,

Martin

Hi

Has anybody yet made the effort to compare the .inf files from XP and Vista?

Give it a try, I found the difference, and am trying to install the according drivers for the Microsoft system Bus-Hostcontroller, which should resolve the prob.

Only thing, it finds the necessary drivers, but while installing, it says, file not found.

So, I am rewriting my whole INF directory.

If it works, I will tell you.

If I don't post within one week, it was the wrong way.

C U

Martin

Well,

it has started well, only, I do need two files, I can not find.

The unknown device, and for that I am sure, cause Vista managed to identify is:

Microsoft System Management Bus-Host Controller.

The two missing files are smbclass.sys and smbhc.sys

I think, David should have the possibility to get those, cause I didn't find them on my notebook, and they are neccessary for further going.

So, we will wait!

Regards,

Martin

Hi David

Could you please be so kind to send me the two files posted above.

SMBHC.SYS

SMBCLASS.SYS

These two missing files and the associated shall help in our issue.

Big THX

Martin

How is it possible to integrate an XP driver into VISTA???

Since May 10th, I am talking here to myself.

Doesn't someone want to give me an answer?

It is said to be simple, but nobody is helping.

Shame on you!

Sorry Martin,

You're still not alone, I'm too busy right now,

I'll let you know asap.... how to extract the DSDT

and where i got the required programs...

p.s. don't get angry....

wr.

Geert Jan

Dear Geert Jan

I didn't aim on you with my last annotation.

I am just wondering about the others, who were interested in the beginning, or those who claimed to be helping!

I appreciate your help and am patiently looking forward to your results.

BIG THX to you.

WR,

Martin

i testet windows 7 and it is NO SMART BATTERY DRIVER includet.........

since vista its final,,,,and it have no battery drivers i use Linux&xp Dualboot,,,, its better as Vista.......  

I hope a fix for this problem wil come,,,,,,

Hi Dee,

Nice to see, at least someone is still behind this subject.

Since Geert Jan doesn't post anymore, I have no clue, what he has achieved.

I found the driver files from XP and tried to install them.

I also found out, that the problem is the driver for the Ms System Management Bus Host Controller, when I install it, it begins, although it is not signed, but aborts half way, saying, files are missing, and I have no clue which.

Perhaps you have more luck either this way, or changing the DSDT table in BIOS.

Regards,

Martin

I have a similar problem on a Travelmate 3200.

I have another problem that the keyboard stutters when the computer polls the battery's status.

I've decided that it's Acer's fault for making a naff BIOS that doesn't conform to standards.

Dear Peter,

I'm sorry, that your notebook sucks, too.

Whoever's fault it may be, the problem is, that noone is helping us.

I got the DSDT table to correct the BIOS, but have not the knowledge to change it.

Vista doesn't accept the XP dirvers.

So, we are stuck!

Neither Gert Jan, nor David post anymore.

Happy New Year!

Martin

Martin,

the reason I no longer post is because I'm out of options.  I wish I had a solution, but I don't.  Add to that the unfortunate request to stop due to a threat of legal action from a member, there is nothing more I can do.

Sorry

David

Dear David,

I'm sorry for the way, this all is gone.

And I want to thank you for giving us this platform.

I just needed some help to change the DSDT table in the BIOS.

I know nobody with this knowledge, and I had by chance thought, that you might know someone, who could give me some instruction or a hand.

We don't want to sue nobody.

We are desperate.

Btw., I got a new problem.

My Vista refuses to update.

Whenever I try, the WUpdate says, that it needs an update itself, but due to error ox8007371C, it fails.

Even when downloaded manually, no Windows update is installable anymore.

What can it be?

I have Vista Ultimate, SP1.

I have no IE8

THX,

Martin

Hi David and Martin,

I've got some good news........

Got the batteries working, after quite some hours spitting inside acpi documentation and my system hardware structure.........

I'll post more in a few day's.....

greetz,

Geert Jan

Hi All,

As promised....

How to adapt an Acer Travelmate 2300,4000 or 4500 series for Vista and Windows7.

It's a little old laptop but still working nicely with Windows XP,

but after the arival of Vista and now Windows 7 (beta runs

very well)  to come, how nice would it be that Vista (and

Windows 7) recognizes :

- the Battery.

- the Ac Adapter

One problem rises :

The newer Windows (Vista and Win7) versions don't support Smart Batteries anymore.

There are more way's to coap with this problem :

1-Kick Acer in the butt and let them deal with this problem...

 (this doesn't work though)

2-Sell the laptop and buy a new one with Vista...

 (maybe it's cheeper this way, cost the same as buying a

 new Vista License)

3-Write the drivers our selves...

 (it's beyond my knowledge at this moment)

4-Modify the Bios and resolve the issue our selves...

 (what Acer should have done)

I chose the last option.........How hard would it be.....

I got curious after reading a post about a Toshiba Laptop with the same problems,

they made a Bios upgrade that solved the problem.

They (succesfully) converted the "Smart Battery" to "Control Method Battery".

Hmm... time to peek in this laptops BIOS.....

After spitting around in the BIOS, one of the big changes is the way the Battery is described in the DSDT Table (see ACPI specification).

They Removed the following devices :

- "Microsoft System Management Bus Host Controller" (ACPI0001),

- "Microsoft Smart Battery Subsystem" (ACPI0002).

Added some new funtions to acces the "System Management Bus", some extra conversion functions

and added two new devices :

- ACAD, "Microsoft AC Adapter" (ACPI0003),

- BAT1, "Microsoft Control Method Battery" (PNP0C0A).

After Comparing the difference between the old and the new bios of this Toshiba Laptop,

one could easy find what to change in another Laptop (my Acer Travelmate 4001WLMi for instance).

Next Problem, how to change this.......

Lucky me, Phoenix made a tool for this, called "Phoenix Bios Editor" (BIOSEDIT).

But the problem is that if I'm changing any thing to that DSDT table my Windows 7 Beta installation

complained i didn't had a ACPI complient system (what the hell.....)....

It turned out that i used a to new version of the ASL compiler (i now use the old V1 in stead of the new V3).

I even accidently (i was warned, checksum error) destroyed the BIOS (you all be warned !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!),

had to remove the old chip (physically) and replace it with a new fresh programmed one (placed in a socket, for quick removal). Before there would be any risk I unassembled my laptop, to be sure that I could replace the chip, at my work i have a Flash Programmer (lucky me), new flash chips cost about $3,-.

Now at this point Windows 7 finds the "Ms AC Adapter", "Ms Control Method Battery" and

the "Microsoft Composite Battery".

Only problem is that the Batteries level is only changed after plugging in or out the AC Adapter.

Hmm... There is more to find out...

All the powermanagement (among other things) is done by the Embedded Controller (or LPC), this is a small

computer system controls those things, in my laptop it's done by a Nuvoton Embedded Controller

(previous Winbond and before that National Semiconductors), according my laptops block diagram a PC97551.

A close relative of the PC87591, this microprocessor is also booted from the laptops BIOS chip (first 56K).

I also stumbled over the BIOS of an Acer Travelmate 4010, which is based on the same hardware platform

called "Kestrel" (stated in the DSDT table and the Service Manual).

Next thing i tried is using the Code of this Embedded Controller and the Modified DSDT Table and voila...

for now Succesfull.....Battery levels are updated, some of the information did not updated correctly (voltage current etc).

Next thing I did was peeking in other Acer laptop Bioses.

The 4010 (most similar) DSDT tables used most of the Battery discription as Toshiba did, but with a modified registers list (a bit) from the Embedded Controller

All i did was adapting this info and added a lot of comment.

As far as I know, it's all working, even the current for charging and discharging is showed in a battery

monitoring tool (BatteryMon).

So here's the list what you need to do it on a different (make/model) laptop than mine :

- Microsoft ASL Compiler (v1.0b and v3.0a)

 v1.0b is required for compilation, v3.0a to decompile your laptops DSDT code

- Phoenix Bios Editor (v2.2.0.1) (put the ASL.EXE from v1.0b in this programs directory)

- Phoenix Bios Flasher, Again be carefull or don't be afraid to solder.

- Notepad++ (or any decent editor, with C/C++ color syntaxing).

- ACPI specification(www.acpi.info)

- Your Laptops Technical Information (As much information as possible, Service Manuals etc..)

 this is the way to know your systems hardware structure.

- A few hours spare time (or more).

How to do....

1 - Open your laptops Bios file with BIOSEDIT (file open), ignore any warnings and press YES or OK

   to continue (keep it open, don't do anything else).

2 - copy the ACPI0.AML from the TEMP (c:\program files\Phoenix Technolgies Ltd\Bios Editor) folder

   to a working directory.

3 - Decompile it with the ASL (v3.0a) Compiler (/u option)

4 - Compare the DSDT table (acpi0.asl) to another (prefered same manufacturer with CMBATT) one and try to

   pinpoint the difference in the Battery discription, best way is to start comparing the Toshiba L10

DSDT tables to find the things they changed and use that knowledge to do yours....

5 - If your laptops Embedded Controller needs a bios upgrade as well, try to figure out which one is used,

   find a newer one in another (same manufacturer) laptops bios (if not all the battery values show up correct).

For my laptops EC (PC97551) its the file HOLE2.ROM (56Kbytes) in the Phoenix TEMP location.

Keep this file to replace your laptops old EC bios, by replacing the file with the same size,

Sometimes it's HOLE3.ROM (intel video based).

5 - open in BIOSEDIT the ACPI tables by expanding ACPI Module and click ACPI0.AML.

6 - Mark all source text (Ctrl-A) and delete it, past your new DSDT table content in this empty window,

7 - now Build the BIOS (file>build bios), if all went okay, you are asked to save the new bios.

   if it went wrong, try to compile it in a dos box with ASL v3.0a and deal with the DSDT error.

8 - If you were sucesfull, flash the modified version..

tip - make a bootable (dos) recovery CD/DVD with the Phoenix PHlash(dos) program and the original Bios,

     try WinImage to create a bootable Floppy Image and use this to create a bootable CD/DVD with for

 example NERO.

 (you never know, I used it several times)...

This is how you might figure it out as well, as far as I know more laptops have the same problem.

More to come................................in a few days.........

w.r.

Geert Jan Laanstra

WOW!

Congratulation!

The part with the difference is still not that clear to me, but I will try it soon.

I got a 4002WLMi, do you possibly know, what I should look for?

Did you know, there exists a working DSDT table for Linux.

Can I use that one?

Many many thx,

Martin

Hi Geert Jan

I did, as you explained, I just took the already customized acpi0 from the linux dsdt table and pasted it. Only problem, when I hit build bios, there appears an error:

unable to write temp files

asl compile error.

What shall I do now, how can I build the bios?

Regards,

Martin

thanks for the effort JAN.

please post the modded BIOS or some kind of link to it, so we can use this fix.

all Acer Travelmate 4000 models have the same BIOS, they only differ because of the graphics (Intel or AMD), but the Intel notebooks cannot run Vista/Windows 7.

alternatively, you can send the attached BIOS by email...

Thanks again,

Kadar Zsolt ([email protected])

Hi Martin (and All others),

BIOSEDIT requires Admin rights (Run-As) to its own TEMP folder, that should help with that problem.

I don't think the Linux DSDT table is sufficient.

You'll need more.... (see the rest of my post)

I've modified the bioses of the 2300, 4000 and the 4500.

The only one i've tested is the 4000 ATI one..

Keep in mind that the others are at OWN risk !!!!!!!!!!!

You'll find everything here :

ftp.sas.ewi.utwente.nl/.../TM_2300_4000_4500

- Bioses, (original, extracted info, modified dsdt, rebuild)

- Drivers for Vista and Windows7 (WLAN = WinXP version)

- Manuals, Datasheets etc..

- Usefull Tools

If anyone of you tested the other roms please tell me....

(2300 and 4000 with Intel based Video)

Questions, youre free to ask..

have fun with it...

Geert Jan

Hi All,

I've put a bootable recovery ISO image there as well......

Including all Bioses, Drivers, Info and Tools...

bye..

Geert Jan

Dear Geer Jan,

God bless you!

You have done a milestone in this issue.

Thank you very very much.

Take care.

With the very best regards,

Martin

I'll try it next week! ;-)

try with confidence. I flashed the TM 4000 series BIOS for ATI graphics and it works great.

again... great work JAN

have a great day

Zsolt

Hi Zsolt,

Could you please send me your bios file by mail.

I know, we got the same source.

Best regards,

Martin

[email protected]

Hi All,

An ftp server wasn't enough for me, I had to make some

webpages about how to renew the life of some old hardware (including the Travelmate 4000).

www.sas.ewi.utwente.nl/.../laanstra

I'll add more pictures and other stuff in the future...

w.r.

Geert Jan

Geert Jan,

i looooovvvvveee youuu,,,hehe ;o))))

GoD Bless You Forever!!!!!

I will Download the Bios an tested in Win7Beta, i give you than a request of this install,,,, i wish me soo that it Works..... when it Works, you are the Greatest Guy in the Univers... ;o))

Yes,Yes,Yes.....

God Bless you all

dee

Hi all.

Its great this bios for Acer TM4001 now can i see the battery on vista.

Im trying to upgrade my TM4001 with 2GB RAM and HDD160GB Samsung 2008 series but the bios dont have LBA 48bit enabled its show only 137GB and slowdown the HDD performance. I try to search on bios editor and i can see 48bit funcion but i canot enable.

Need some help

thks

Hi Geert Jan!

Can you look, if the bios for the Acer TM 3002WLMi is nearly the same as for the TM4002WMLi?

Thanks

Michael

hey michael,

i have the bios from the TM4000 on my Extensa 3002WLMI and it works very fine.

is the bios from TM3002WLMI the 3A10 than i think you can use this. Check the version of your Bios first.

And Geert Jan, you are the best.

My Extensa 3002Wlmi run with Win7Beta and it works very very fine..... ;o)

Its possible user HDD 160GB? 48bit LBA.

Hi Geert Jan,

many thanks for your BIOS mod !!! I have updated my Extensa 3001WLMI (ATI) perfectly. Unfortunately my WD 250GB ide shows only 137GB. What about a 48bit LBA bios support?

I would appreciate it very much :-)

thx, Greg

Now that Win7 is released (RTM), has anybody successfully managed to get Windows 7 working with the battery on a TM4002WLMi ?

If so, did the BIOS from Geert did the trick?

Hi Victor,

my Acer Extensa 3001 (same hardware as TM) works fine with battery on Windows 7. I took Geerts BIOS link for my update:

ftp.sas.ewi.utwente.nl/.../ZL1E3A10.WPH

Hi,

I have modified the BIOS from Geert for LBA-48bit and USB-boot.

At moment Geert is testing my modification. If he is sure about these modifications, he will add this new BIOS to his page.

Hi all,

I burnt Geert( (thanks!) boot cd and flashed my TM4002WLMi (ATI) with the "new" bios, the battery is now detected but now the icon shows (on AC or not) a red X on it with:

Fully charged (100%)  |  xx% remaining

Consider replacing your battery

Besides that, it seems to handle the power ok (dims the screen when not in AC, upates the battery %, etc.).

Anybody with the same symptoms and a possile fix?

HI,

I burnt Geert boot CD and flashed bios with the "new" one. Now my TM4002WLMi (ATI) shows the battery and updates the icon accordingly but has always a red X mark on it plus the warning "Consider replacing your battery."

Anybody else has the same symptoms and a possible fix?

VIctor

My problem was that the battery was not calibrated (a powercfg -energy output report showed under 40% capacity and this triggers those messages -- this did not happen before Windows 7).

After a full discharge + charge cycle, the "last full charge" is now higher than 40% and Windows 7 stopped complaining. So, good to do a few cycles to bring the full capacity meter a bit high since my TM4002 is now a bit old...

Hi, this is what I was looking for the solution to my aspire 1680. By the way someone tried the bios on Aspire 1680 ... works ?????? I'm afraid ......

I just did this on an Aspire 1680 and the battery is detected fine now. It also recommends the battery is changed as per the couple of posts above, but in my case I already know the battery is shot (10-12 mins max life) so that's no great surprise. Time to hit eBay for an 4400mAh replacement ..only £25.

Any news about LBA-48bit and USB-boot BIOS support?

What about the modified 2300 bios, anyone sucess ?

Hi All,

The bios files are available for the

Aspire 1680

Travelmate 2300

Travelmate 4000

Tracelmate 4500

As far as for LBA48, it worked for a while, but due to disk corruption, i had to conclude that not all was working for LBA48....

See Ya..

Geert Jan

Geert, I sent this to your email box:

--------------------------------

Subject: RE: Thanks - Acer TravelMate 4002WLCi works with Windows 7

Hi Geert,

Many THANKS for your link (www.sas.ewi.utwente.nl/.../Laptop_Acer_Travelmate4000.htm ). The battery indicator in this laptop is now showing up in Device Manager. By the way, I used the WinPhlash utility (download it from Gateway's support server http://bit.ly/bwkk5q ) that's made by Phoenix Technologies and was able to flash from Windows 7 since the application was written for Vista and XP. You just have to run it as Administrator in Vista. :-)

One other thing...shutting down after the BIOS update in Windows 7 was impossible. It was in an eternal shutdown loop. I could NOT even use the power button so I had to remove the battery. Afterwards, I pressed F2 and noticed that the BIOS was now updated to version 3A10 from 3A06. :-)

I would suggest Windows 7 users also run the utility in Vista compatibility mode...I forgot to do that but it still worked. :-)

Once again, many THANKS!!

- Maxwell (aka Max "The IT Pro")

-----------------------------

could anyone mod/patch this bios to recognize large harddisks? i recently upgraded to a 160gb harddisk but the system only recognizes 128gb

info page here www.sas.ewi.utwente.nl/.../Laptop_Acer_Travelmate4000.htm

bios in particular here ftp.sas.ewi.utwente.nl/.../ZL1E3A10.WPH

thanks in advanced!

Acer 2300 boots and shows battery, but screen keeps flashing as if going onto power and back again.