Battery icon in systray stuck on "On AC Power" for laptop

Dell Inspiron 300m, BIOS A07, Windows XP Pro - my battery icon will not appear when the AC adapter is unplugged. The icon for "On AC Power" appears in the system tray, even when running on battery power. If I uncheck the box for "show icon on taskbar" and click apply in power management properties, the icon will go away, and then I do the same thing to get it back, but it still shows up again as the AC Power icon. I can't get the battery icon and charge status.

Help would be appreciated!



-Brent