How to Reset a Battery Gauge

By Harvey Birdman

Laptops need regular maintenance like any other complex piece of hardware.
i laptop image by Angie Lingnau from Fotolia.com

The battery in your laptop is a complex and sensitive piece of electronic hardware. One of the ongoing quirks inherent in lithium ion batteries is that the actual power level in the battery and the power level read by the battery gauge can differ due to battery memory. To rectify this, manufacturers allow for their batteries to be calibrated, thus resetting the gauge to a proper power reading and allowing you to use your laptop to the full extent of its battery time.

Turn off your lap top from within Windows and allow it to fully shut off before your shut the lid. Place the laptop in a cool, dry area out of the sun. Plug in the power cord and check for the power LED light to come on to ensure that the power is actually flowing.

Wait eight hours to unplug the power cord to ensure that the battery is fully charged. Turn on the computer. Right-click on the battery icon in the lower right hand of the display and open the power options menu. Create a new power plan that does not allow the computer to shut down or go into standby or hibernation at all. The point of this plan is to make it fully draw down the battery to reset the gauge.

Use the laptop until the battery goes dead, even when it starts to give you warnings about low battery levels. When the computer shuts off from lack of power, plug the power cord back in and turn the power plan back to normal.

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