Battery alarm

I was just wondering how the "Alarm" tab in Windows (under power managament options should look) on my Asus laptop. I attached a screenshot of my settings. Are they good or not?

 

good enough for me Perhaps 15% is a bit high for the first alarm, by default I think it's 10.

 

Yeah, 15% is a high setting. Figure 1-3 minutes per percent on the battery depending on what you're doing, so on those settings you could get an alarm 20 minutes before it forces standby - depending on how you use your notebook, that could either be a good thing or completely annoying.

I've personally got mine set for 7% alarm and 3% hibernate; I use the battery widget from NHC in my taskbar that shows the current number, and I tend to keep a close eye on my battery charge since my usage time is inconsistent and sometimes I'll only use it every other day, so I want to know when to plug in the AC overnite to top it off.

 

When Windows shows 1% remaining battery power, does that mean that the battery actually has a charge of 1%? From what i've read you can't completely discharge the battery unless you use a resistor or something of the sort. Can someone please clarify this for me?

 

You can't completely discharge the batt since that would be harmful to it. So, actually when Windows says 0 (1) percent (getting its reading from the logic on the battery via the BIOS ACPI functions), there's still a certain amount of charge stored in the battery, as required by its designers.

 

But, when Windows says 0%, the computer will shutoff. If you turn the power alarms off, Windows will just cut out. I would set mine at 8% and 2%.