For rather a lot of English there are "rather simple rules" that are flat out wrong (the order of the letters "i" and "e" when together is my favorite example). You just have to memorize them.

In the case of "The", it is often pronounced with the long E sound for emphasis, which means that the same phrase might use a different pronunciation depending on the point the speaker wants to get across. The point of emphasis is often if the speaker wants to draw attention to the fact that it is somehow unique. 

For example there's "The Ohio State University". If someone is just rattling off its official name, typically you'd hear the softer sound. However, many people are kind of annoyed at how insistent they are about the "The" at the front of the name (most US universities don't do that), so I often hear it pronounced with the harsher long E sound (and the entire word "The" louder than the rest of the name).

Variations in the pronunciation of "the"
My laptop has a 6 cell Lithium Ion Battery. Even when the battery is fully charged it shows the battery charge status at 0%. As a result if there is a power loss (when I want to move the laptop from one place to another) it immediately goes into hibernation. 



However, when I restart the laptop WITHOUT plugging in the power, it starts and the battery meter shows some figure like 95-96% remaining. The battery then runs for almost an hour and a half.

The laptop is around 2 years old. 

How can I rectify this issue? 
