This works on 3rd gen iPods and up.
This hack will, instead of showing the nonsensical battery meter, display the voltage left in your iPod battery. Much more effective scale.
Windows Xp
First make sure your computer has located the drive your iPod is on.
Click Tools -> Folder Options
Click on the View Tab and look for “Show Hidden Files and Folders” Click it.
Now exit out, and a semi-faded folder called “iPod_Control” should have appeared. Double-click it. (If it didn’t appear, hit F5).
Now that you’re in there, click on the folder “Device” (also faded out).
Attached to this thread should be a .zip.
Extract the file from it which is labeled _show_voltage.
Once it is extracted, drag it into the Device folder (which you should be in if you followed this step-by-step).
And now, eject your iPod, turn it off, and then turn it back on, and you should see a number (which shows voltage) instead of the battery symbol.
If you need any help or don’t understand something, feel free to ask something in a post and I’ll be sure to explain it more clearly.
To recap, your Device folder should look like this:
