Disappearing battery icon from menu bar after 10.4.9 upgrade

After doing the 10.4.9 software update on my iMac the battery icon would occasionally disappear after rebooting!

I have the battery icon on my menu bar as part of the “Energy Saver” system preference which I use to control my UPS. Pulling and re-inserting the the USB cable to my UPS would make the battery icon magically re-appear.

However strangely (and annoyingly!) this would normally only survive about two reboots and then would disappear again ;-(

The solution which worked for me was to follow the usual first step advice when troubleshooting Mac problems….

1. Repair disk permissions
2. Download & install latest combo update package

This is the first time I’ve ever had to follow this procedure but it does seem to work!