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I have a desktop computer (not a laptop) running Win 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit with VirtualBox 4.1.18. I am installing a Windows Server 2008 R2 guest.

After the install completes the Notification tray for the Win 20008 R2 guest displays a battery icon (at 100%)? The install is done using a .bat script with vboxmanage commands:

VBoxManage createvm --name "%VMNAME%" --ostype "Windows2008_64" --basefolder "%VMPATH%"
VBoxManage registervm "%VMPATH%\%VMNAME%\%VMNAME%.vbox"
VBoxManage modifyvm "%VMNAME%" --cpus %VMCPU% --memory %VMMEM%
VBoxManage modifyvm "%VMNAME%" --firmware bios --chipset piix3 --pae off
VBoxManage modifyvm "%VMNAME%" --acpi on --ioapic on --hwvirtex on --nestedpaging on --largepages on
VBoxManage modifyvm "%VMNAME%" --boot1 dvd --boot2 disk --boot3 none --boot4 none
VBoxManage modifyvm "%VMNAME%" --nictype1 82540EM --nic1 nat
VBoxManage modifyvm "%VMNAME%" --monitorcount 1 --vram 27 --accelerate3d off
VBoxManage modifyvm "%VMNAME%" --keyboard ps2 --mouse usbtablet --audio none
VBoxManage modifyvm "%VMNAME%" --clipboard bidirectional --usb on --usbehci on

The script hasn't changed in weeks, but after upgrading to VirtuallBox 4.1.18 the guest appears to think the host hardware is a laptop.

This becomes a problem when you want to install a Windows Service Pack - Service Pack's won't install if they think the computer is running on battery power.

I'm trying to figure out if this is a an actual bug, or some configuration issue I have missed.

The issue appears if the host computer has a USB connection to an APC (or OEM'd APC) UPS. The USB connection signals the host when there is a power issue (e.g. the host is running off the battery and should shut down in x minutes). It seems the UPS information makes the guest OS think it is running on a laptop. If I unplug the USB cable from the host and install the guest OS, I can then plug the USB cable back in with no guest issues.

I wrote a small VBScript to dump the WIN32_Battery class values when the IBM APC is plugged into my host system. The WIN32_Battery propeties that contain a value are:
Availability: 2
BatteryStatus: 2
Caption: Internal Battery
Chemistry: 3
Description: Internal Battery
DesignVoltage: 27270
DeviceID: AS0735111450American Power ConversionIBM UPS1500TLV FW:601.1I1.D USB FW:8.1
EstimatedChargeRemaining: 100
EstimatedRunTime: 52
Name: IBM UPS1500TLV FW:601.1I1.D USB FW:8.1
PowerManagementSupported: False
Status: OK

I am not sure why, all of sudden, guest OS installs are reacting to the external battery, but temporarily unplugging the data connection to the UPS solves the issue.