Update to my issue: It is now resolved. Dell support requested that I reset my BIOS back to default. As reluctant as I am, I proceeded to reset. After the BIOS was set back to default, the battery immediately showed that it is fully charged and has 100% capacity. I had never changed any of these settings since receiving my new system. Well, that goes to show me that not all is bad. I'm happy now.
I have a two year old laptop that I use almost exclusively with the charger. Today I used it on battery, and the system shut down due to low battery after less than ten minutes. I restarted the computer and have been using it for over an hour with what windows is reporting to be 0% battery. I ran Window's battery report, which told me that the full charge capacity of my battery is just 2,816 mWh, less than 10% of the original 41,998 mWh design capacity. According to the battery report, I have been using the computer at a battery level of 11 mWh for an hour, which is obviously impossible. How can I get the computer to accurately measure it's battery level and capacity? Or am I just stuck having incorrect battery measurements and no way of knowing how much charge I actually have remaining.
Laptop reporting incorrect battery capacity