[hardy] hal does not update status for my laptop's battery

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug.
I think it's a duplicate of bug #194719, but I'm not sure, because you said the problems were solved after you restarted hal. Do you recognise the symptoms described in the bug I gave you? If you think it's a duplicate, feel free to mark this bug as a duplicate of the other bug, or tell me so I can do it.
Otherwise, can you please place the information you get as result of <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingHal>?

It looks like I have a problem similar to #194719, but KPowersave does react if I insert or remove the AC adapter.

Well, this is interesting:
alex@wasp:~$ acpi -b
     Battery 1: discharging, 21%, remaining
[At this point, I plugged in my AC adapter]
alex@wasp:~$ acpi -b
     Battery 1: charging, 21%, charging at zero rate - will never fully charge.
[A minute or so later...]
alex@wasp:~$ acpi -b
     Battery 1: charging, 22%, charging at zero rate - will never fully charge.

I've posted test packages at http://www.trilug.org/~crimsun/hal/. Please leave feedback here.

I have exactly the same problem so the bug 197412 I have just posted is a duplicate. Restarting hal doesn't fix the problem but updates the state once.

I have 64bits Ubuntu hardy so I can't test your packages.

Still not working...

$ acpi -v
acpi 0.09

Copyright (C) 2001 Grahame Bowland.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
osteenbergen@nuxWeb:~$ acpi -V
     Battery 1: charging, 100%, until charged
     Thermal 1: ok, 40.0 degrees C
  AC Adapter 1: off-line

So no power connected but still charging...