Battery: Frequently asked questions
Here are answers to some common questions about your battery, the battery icon, and the battery meter.
That's because the icon might be hidden. Here's how to show the battery icon:
Press and hold or right-click an empty area on the taskbar, and then tap or click Properties.
Under Notification area, tap or click Customize.
In Notification Area Icons, tap or click Turn system icons on or off.
On the Turn system icons on or off page, under Behaviors, tap or click On in the drop-down list next to Power, and then tap or click OK.
If you can't change the power setting, your PC might not have a battery installed (for example, a desktop PC) or this setting might be managed by your system admin. For more info, see Why can't I change a Windows setting?
Notes
The battery icon won't appear if you're using a desktop PC without an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), or you're using a UPS that's connected to your PC by a serial cable.
If you're using a UPS with a USB connection and you don't see a battery icon in the notification area, make sure that the USB cable from the UPS is connected to a USB port on your PC. If you still don't see the battery icon, check the info that came with the UPS, or update the UPS device driver.
The following table shows the different battery icons you might see, what they mean, and why they change.
| Icon | | Explanation |
|---|
| |
Your PC is plugged in and your battery is charging. If the battery level remains low, this might be because it's an older battery or because of a problem with your PC’s hardware. |
| | Your PC is plugged in and the battery is fully charged. |
| | Your PC is running on battery power and the battery is discharging. |
| | Your battery charge has reached the low-battery level—this usually means you have 10 percent charge left. It’s a good idea to plug in your PC at this point. Note To change the low-battery level, see the "How can I change when Windows tell me about a low battery?" question in this topic.
|
| | The battery charge has reached the critical battery level and you should save your work and plug in your PC immediately. To change the critical-battery level, see the " How can I change when Windows tell me about a low battery?" question in this topic. |
| | Windows can’t determine the percentage of battery charge remaining. |
| | Your PC is plugged in but Windows can’t detect a battery. There might be a few different reasons for this—the battery wasn't installed properly or there's a problem with the battery or PC hardware. To learn more, check the documentation that came with your battery, or go to the manufacturer's website. |
The rate at which your PC uses battery power changes constantly, depending on what you're doing and how long you spend doing it. For example, watching a DVD uses much more power than reading and writing email. For these reasons, the battery meter often lags in showing the charge and the estimated time remaining.
You can only see the battery meter on PCs that don’t support connected standby. Windows chooses the two power plans that appear on the meter, but you can change them.
Battery meter showing power plansTo change the power plans that appear on the battery meter
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Open Power Options by swiping in from the right edge of the screen, tapping Search (or if you're using a mouse, pointing to the upper-right corner of the screen, moving the mouse pointer down, and then clicking Search), entering Control Panel in the search box, tapping or clicking Apps, and then tapping or clicking Control Panel. In Control Panel, enter Power in the search box, and then press Enter.
Do one of the following:
By default, the power plan that you select or create becomes the active plan and it then appears on the battery meter.
Windows warns you twice—once when your battery charge is low (usually 10 percent) and again when it's at a reserve level (usually 7 percent). If you don't have enough time to finish your work after seeing these warnings, you can increase the battery level at which you’ll be notified. This can be especially useful for older batteries, which might not have as much storage capacity. When your battery is almost out of power, (critical battery level), your laptop or tablet will turn off.
To change battery levels at which you're notified
Open Power Options by swiping in from the right edge of the screen, tapping Search (or if you're using a mouse, pointing to the upper-right corner of the screen, moving the mouse pointer down, and then clicking Search), entering Control Panel in the search box, tapping or clicking Apps, and then tapping or clicking Control Panel. In Control Panel, enter Power in the search box, and then press Enter.
On the Choose or customize a power plan page, tap or click Change plan settings next to the plan you want to change.
On the Change settings for the plan page, tap or click Change advanced power settings.
On the Advanced settings tab, expand Battery, and then depending on what you want to change, expand the Low battery level, Reserve battery level, or Critical battery level.
Tap or click Apply and then OK when you’re done.
Notes
You can't set the critical battery level below the minimum level set by your PC manufacturer.
You can also change the shutdown actions (Sleep, Hibernate, Shut down, or Do nothing) associated with the low and critical battery levels.
