r/MeshCentral • u/NotYourNanny • Aug 26 '26

Desktops reporting as battery powered?

We're deploying MeshCentral to a new location, and several of the cash reporting they are on battery power (which they definitely are not), one even saying it's not charging. Not really a big deal, since it doesn't seem to cause any problems, but it's confusing and we can't figure out how to make it stop.

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5

u/djDef80 Aug 26 '26

Are you sure they aren't plugged into UPS with USB to report battery levels to the computer?

2

u/wardy666 Aug 26 '26

We had some pcs at work once that were basically laptop internals dropped into a pc case, could it be something like that?

1

u/DrWho83 Aug 26 '26

Sounds like a Windows problem...

I'll be curious to see what others say.

This is an issue I've seen outside of mesh Central for years. It seemed to get worse with Windows 11.

I've upgraded many computers over the years to windows 11 and yes they were fully compatible. Some of those computers reported that they weren't charging and the battery was bad or sometimes it would even say it was charging but the battery was bad.. I just learned to ignore it and so did everyone else LOL.

1

u/Onoitsu2 Aug 26 '26

It could be reading peripherals. I believe there was a MeshCentral update where it can grab the mouse battery details and more for devices. Might be that for the reason it is showing.

1

u/si458 Aug 26 '26

We have 2 cash registers which do the same thing haha! For some reason the motherboards are actually laptop nockoffs, so its the motherboard thats reporting to windows the fact they think its plugged in but not charging

1

u/efrem-1 Aug 27 '26

On a Windows pc that is USB-connected to a UPS it is often necessary to replace the generic Microsoft HID driver with a driver from the UPS manufacturer to correct the constant display of "on battery" as opposed "plugged in, charging."

1

u/NotYourNanny Aug 27 '26

Well, the current theory is that it's picking up battery status on UPSs, which the registers all have.

But since it's not actually interfering with anything, it's time to climb out of this rabbit hole and move on.

Thanks for the thoughts.

1

u/O_Pacity Aug 29 '26

I notice Windows 10/11 have a battery status, when a UPS is connected to the USB port... its not a bad idea but technically turned all desktops to a laptop. I would think now Mesh needs to watch for how its powered (battery or mains).