If that’s the 4% you’re referring to, I believe you’ve misunderstood the usage / processing of this value. It doesn’t hides 4% to background process. I knew I was smelling something…
Here’s a simple test for you…if this was true:
Set reserve battery level to 99%. Then that means, according to you, it hides the 99% from the user. And you only have 1% left in the front end. And it should have jumped to gracefully shutdown the system.
You would get a popup alert at battery level (graphically reported) 99%…but nothing else, you would still be able to view the battery level go down as it normally would. i.e. The 99% is not hidden from you, and you would only get a graphical alert.
Also, the default for this value is not 4%. 4% from your screenshot is something that you’ve or software on your end have set.
@A_A Apologies if that’s not the case. I’ve usually came across this issue on my phone, where the battery is discharged, I can turn it on and it says 0%. I think this is the standard for all devices. If this is not the case for windows, it still is in effect 0%,
Example 1 : Macbooks.
When the battery is critically discharged, they shut off and display the Red-battery icon. When you plug them in and turn them on, they show 0%.
Example 2: Phones.
Same idea here. The phone can turn it’s screen on, and my Samsung reads 0% battery. This also reads when I turn it on, thats it’s 0% charging
In the above case that both of these examples above are false, then it is not in the power of windows or the firmware to change this (hardware possibly, but that involves much danger and circumventing the hardware protection). Batteries cannot be discharged to 0.0 volts, and the capacity drops exponentially the closer you get to its limit. The problem with Zero Volts stack exchange Answer.
Battery life is estimated from the voltage curve of the specific chemistry, and as it is calculated, there may be an error of a few % (No reference on this one). My main reference on the turnoff is the Battery University discharge page
I think the original question is about a battery threshold vs. a battery limit. A limit manages the top end. The threshold is the point to which the battery level discharges before charging begins. One could have a limit of 80% and a threshold of 40%, for example. (I found this thread looking for a threshold option as well - I realize this thread is old!)
