Why does a laptop say it’s at 6-8% charge, and then it dies, but when it’s at a higher charge, going from 60% to 59% takes a while?

Question

Why does a laptop say it’s at 6-8% charge, and then it dies, but when it’s at a higher charge, going from 60% to 59% takes a while?

In: Technology

Answer 1

If it’s shutting down at higher percentages it’s likely just calibrated poorly because it’s an older battery.

Either way, you can trust that that displayed percentage is somewhat disconnected from what’s happening with your battery.

The battery charging ICs in your laptop very carefully monitor the battery voltage, charging current, and discharging current, and force a shutdown at a particular voltage regardless of what the OS says.