Windows 7 For ASUS Laptop users: how to reset your battery charging threshold back to 100%

  • Thread starter Thread starter VirtualAries
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VirtualAries

I have been trying to figure out how to reset the power/battery charging threshold on my ASUS laptop for well over 2 months, ever since I bought my new Zenbook. And I figured it out...read on below for solution. (scroll down to ****** for the answer and to skip the rest if you want, most of this is to help search engines locate this post so it's easily indexed and presented as a valid return against the original query)


On initial start-up out of the box, the system asked if I wanted to maximize the potential of my battery's life by setting a power charging threshold of 80%. Of course, this sounded like a very smart idea (and it's a great feature to have turned on in ideal situations) and so I confirmed. There had also been an option to set the charging threshold to 60% or keep it at 100%. After confirming that first day, I hadn't been able to relocate that option in the settings under power management, power profiles, or under battery settings.


And all was fine really, until I took some all day courses over an entire week which heavily relied on my use and access to a laptop. It wasn't long before I realized that my poor laptop was not going to make it for the last 2 hours of class based on the rate estimated by the default battery keeper. So I had to be selective when I used it, closing it when everyone else was navigating to important websites. I felt lost in the course because I couldn't properly follow-along. I needed my battery % to be higher than the 80% charging threshold if I was going to get through the rest of the week and catch up. I did my best, but because I couldn't figure it out, I kept having to put it to sleep and pick and choose when I would participate in the class when it involved using my laptop. To say the least, I was extremely frustrated and feeling like I'd committed an irreversible action to my laptop forever limiting it's usefulness to me.


Adding insult to injury, the battery never reached the 80% I had initially confirmed, as it was only really ranging from 76% to 78% before switching to "Plugged in, Not charging" status. I know that 2 to 4% may not seem like much, but when you're already missing 20% of your battery due to a power charging threshold that seemingly can't be changed, I want that extra 2% to 4% that I'm not getting. When I get focused on something I'm working on, I'm not always eagle-eyeing the battery %. And those times I am watching it like a hawk, my work suffers as I'm constantly distracted with paranoia that my laptop is going to die and that I'll lose any work I may have not thought to save in the past 5 minutes or so. Constantly being vigilant towards the battery is not conducive to productivity and a train of thought. On one particular day late into my week long course, I had been working on a big project for the course which was due the next day. At one point I had turned my head away from my laptop to focus on the lecturer and on what he was writing on the whiteboard, a few minutes later I turned back to find my laptop was dead. When I went home that evening and plugged it in, there wasn't even an auto recovery document; and apparently my original document had somehow been corrupted, as if it had attempted to auto-save just as the laptop died, creating a glitched save file that was unreadable. So, I had to start from scratch. Had I not been missing a whole 22% to 24% of my battery, had this feature been easily located, this wouldn't have needed to happen.


I also don't have a consumer friendly removable battery as it's installed inside the casing of my laptop, so no option for backup battery. Portable chargers are fine in a pinch, but I didn't want to have to deal with that, I just wanted to switch back to 100% charging for the remainder of the class, and then at the end of the week I could revert back to the power charging threshold of 80%.


I don't know if this is an oversight, or not, but it apparent that ASUS is not the only manufacturer that seems to have this ghost setting situation. I've read about this issue on multiple forums. The option presents itself usually on initial startup at time of purchase, and then disappears into the background never to be seen or heard from again, and without direct links to it in battery settings or power management settings.


Even worse, trying to do a search via Cortana's default search bar doesn't seem to do anything but bring you to Microsoft's website, or to the same battery management setting that doesn't address the issue here. I don't know why this power charging threshold feature can't be more intuitive to find in the settings; a link to it belongs within the power management/battery sections of the settings. It's not appropriate to keep it as an obscure stand alone function that isn't easily discovered without first knowing exactly what the manufactures have decided to call it so you can search for it. Without knowing what it's officially called prevents you from doing a proper search, simply typing battery takes you to the wrong place, and searching even for power charging threshold takes you to the online Microsoft help page where you have to start from scratch with your search, and you still don't know how to properly search for it without knowing what it's officially called. Any success in discovering this hidden feature amounts to either pure chance or trial and error in a majority of cases.


It took days to even get close to figuring out what it might be called, and knowing what the function was called still didn't help me search for it, because I had to know what the manufacturer called it to find it in my laptop. It took me another couple of hours tonight to figure out(read: guess) what it was being called, and at that, it still did nothing for me, because most answers on the majority of forums were either referring to the issue as "bad/dead battery", or reinstalling some software. Neither of those were the answer to what was going on here: an obscure battery management feature.


It wasn't until I read another thread on the same subject, about what it was being called by a different manufacturer (Samsung), that I got an idea. They kept saying go to the Samsung Folder under the start menu and under all options and you'd find it.


Of course I figured this wouldn't help me with my ASUS brand laptop, but wondered if perhaps a Samsung component might have been used in my laptop and might be regulating the power charging threshold function. It was worth a try....but no such luck. But it gave me an idea!!!


And to my amazement it worked: Voila!


******The solution: In a moment of desperation, I went out on a hunch and wondered if I typed ASUS into my Cortana search field, if that might work instead for me. I didn't know if ASUS would have attached their name to the actual name of the hidden battery setting/feature, but I'd hoped that if one manufacturer had done this, perhaps ASUS had too.



And there it was, the first option that popped up at the top was: "*ASUS Battery Health Charging*". I clicked on the link and sure enough, it was exactly what I had spent 2 months looking for. Seems simpler than it is, harder than it needs to be. Just add a darn link to the power options menu. This may seem like an ASUS problem, but they are still using the Windows operating system and framework. This would be an easy link to include in the battery management menu, or power management settings. I understand that not all manufacturers allow for consumers of their branded products to change the threshold settings on power charging, but Microsoft has no problems greying out links that do not apply, they could do that here. They could add the link to the battery management menu under settings, and leave it up to manufactures to grey-out or leave as an active link to the currently obscure battery feature. This would better accommodate consumers who are looking for this feature without the need to know what it's called in order to find it first, it would be there and their curiosity about what "power charge threshold" was and why it was included under the battery management control panel setting/menu.


I'm hoping this helped someone. I'm leaving some "tag words" below for people who may be searching for this answer, but whom may not be searching for it word for word as power charging threshold, as I didn't know that's what I was looking for until I read it on another forum thread. As I'm not sure what various individuals will end up typing to get to this post, I've written it to be a little more lengthy to make it more likely to find for those searching for an answer. If this issue is going to remain an obscure feature relegated to exact specificity to locate then I can at least try to make this post easier to find. And if my post isn't able to directly help a non-ASUS consumer, perhaps knowing what this obscure function is called will help them get a leg up on their own search. That, or help them develop an informed question to punt to their own manufactures and minimize the run-around usually caused by not knowing how to ask the right question, or cause the manufacturer to assume or improperly guess as to what they think the consumer must be trying to ask. That, or I'm hoping that if their issue is the same as mine above, that knowing what to ask for from other forum members will lessen the amount of unrelated information that tends to be so readily handed out. If I'd taken to heart the first handful of recommendations I read on other forums concerning a similar complaint, I'd be reinstalling batteries, reinstalling software, sending in my laptop to geek squad or scrapping it. When in truth, all that was needed was to find the obscure function within my perfectly functioning laptop and throw a toggle switch, confirm, and close. Done! If you've made it this far, thanks for reading and pass it on. And Microsoft, if you're paying attention, please push this out in an update so its not such a headache to resolve. It shouldn't take hours, let alone days to track down this solution. It deals with our battery, add a link within the battery management function in settings that our manufacturers can toggle on or toggle off/grey out if they don't want their consumers changing this feature. At least a greyed out link can be asked about with specificity that achieves more accurate results and answers.


Thanks!


Possible Tags: Charge to 100%, battery, stuck, won't charge, battery setting, plugged in, not charging, charging, power plan, reset threshold limit

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