Why we hate GetSystemPowerStatus.

Greetings all.

I find that whenever I use the GetSystemPowerStatus API call it returns 255% battery life. This is obviously impossible, and it quite irritating. However, if I pop open Control Panel and look at the battery meter there- Magic! GetSystemPowerStatus starts reporting the right percentage until the next reboot.

My question is: How to I make GetSystemPowerStatus to behave properly through code? Is there some kind of flag I need to set with another API call?

~Zero the Inestimable

VB Code:

Private Type SYSTEM_POWER_STATUS
        ACLineStatus As Byte
        BatteryFlag As Byte
        BatteryLifePercent As Byte
        Reserved1 As Byte
        BatteryLifeTime As Long
        BatteryFullLifeTime As Long
End Type
Private Declare Function GetSystemPowerStatus Lib "kernel32" (lpSystemPowerStatus As SYSTEM_POWER_STATUS) As Long
Private Sub Form_Paint()
    'KPD-Team 2000
    'URL: [url]http://www.allapi.net/[/url]
    'E-Mail: [email][email protected][/email]
    Dim SPS As SYSTEM_POWER_STATUS
    'get the battery powerstatus
    GetSystemPowerStatus SPS
    Me.AutoRedraw = True
    'show some information
    Select Case SPS.ACLineStatus
        Case 0
            Me.Print "AC power status: Offline"
        Case 1
            Me.Print "AC power status: OnLine"
        Case 2
            Me.Print "AC power status: Unknown"
    End Select
    Select Case SPS.BatteryFlag
        Case 1
            Me.Print "Battery charge status: High"
        Case 2
            Me.Print "Battery charge status: Low"
        Case 4
            Me.Print "Battery charge status: Critical"
        Case 8
            Me.Print "Battery charge status: Charging"
        Case 128
            Me.Print "Battery charge status: No system battery"
        Case 255
            Me.Print "Battery charge status: Unknown Status"
    End Select
End Sub

It return 255% to me to so I thinkg it's normal...

Well that's just the point. 255% battery life is not normal.

Obviously the Windows Power Meter is initializing something that gets the API to work. What is it?

~Zero the Inestimable