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dsyzling

Member

Registered: 2018-12-04

Posts: 5

X1C6 Gnome Battery Indicator displaying 100% on AC Power - with tlp

Just wondered if anyone else had issues with the Gnome battery indicator jumping to 100% when ac power lead is plugged in. I'm using an Lenovo X1C6, when I remove the power lead and start using the laptop the battery level drops naturally - in my last example to 92%. If I then plug in the ac power cord the Gnome indicator jumps to 100%.

Over the recent few weeks I've also experienced a sharp drop in battery from 60% down to 5% - where I then forced a full recharge with tlp.

I'm using tlp - my tlp-stat -b stats are below. Is this related to: 'Erratic battery behavior on ThinkPad T420(s)/T520/W520/X220 (and all later models)' referred to in the tlp FAQ?

I don't often use battery a great deal - pretty much on ac most of the time, so I can't say when this started occurring - so I've really only noticed it within the last month or so. My immediate reaction was Gnome, but I'm wondering if there's an issue with these later models and tlp. Or whether I need to go through the process of recalibrating the battery - although I thought that may be more for the capacity than anything else.

--- TLP 1.2.2 --------------------------------------------

+++ Battery Features: Charge Thresholds and Recalibrate
natacpi    = active (data, thresholds)
tpacpi-bat = active (recalibrate)
tp-smapi   = inactive (ThinkPad not supported)

+++ ThinkPad Battery Status: BAT0 (Main / Internal)
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/manufacturer                   = LGC
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/model_name                     = 01AV494
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/cycle_count                    =      4
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/energy_full_design             =  57000 [mWh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/energy_full                    =  55630 [mWh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/energy_now                     =  51220 [mWh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/power_now                      =      0 [mW]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/status                         = Unknown (threshold effective)

/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_start_threshold         =     64 [%]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_stop_threshold          =    100 [%]
tpacpi-bat.BAT0.forceDischarge                              =      0

Charge                                                      =   92.1 [%]
Capacity                                                    =   97.6 [%]

ChaManO

Member

From: Pozuelo de Alarcón

Registered: 2015-09-22

Posts: 29

Re: X1C6 Gnome Battery Indicator displaying 100% on AC Power - with tlp

How old is your laptop?
Lithium-ion batteries degrade over time and there can be a difference between the voltage at which the battery is kept floating and the voltage of a full, but old battery that is unplugged.
Your 8% jump may be due to that difference.
My laptop is around 4 years old and the battery jumps from 100% to 97% when I disconnect the charger.

dsyzling

Member

Registered: 2018-12-04

Posts: 5

Re: X1C6 Gnome Battery Indicator displaying 100% on AC Power - with tlp

How old is your laptop?

6-8 months.

Your 8% jump may be due to that difference.
My laptop is around 4 years old and the battery jumps from 100% to 97% when I disconnect the charger.

Not with the age of my battery and I said, although I've seen a power drop once in the past, I've also run the battery down normally last week - where it lasted 6-7 hours. Also the power indicator jumps the other way - it doesn't drop - it jumps to 100% (from 92%) when I plug in the AC power cable - and by that I mean immediately misreporting the battery level because tlp-stat shows the real battery charge.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,743

Re: X1C6 Gnome Battery Indicator displaying 100% on AC Power - with tlp

Virtually all desktop power managers use upower for listing the battery, what happens if you run

upower --monitor

when changing the plug FWIW maybe

upower --show-info
upower --dump

might show something of interest as well.

dsyzling

Member

Registered: 2018-12-04

Posts: 5

Re: X1C6 Gnome Battery Indicator displaying 100% on AC Power - with tlp

Thanks - that's useful, when I'm back this evening I'll run a few tests with upower - that may give me the insight I'm after.

Many thanks.

dsyzling

Member

Registered: 2018-12-04

Posts: 5

Re: X1C6 Gnome Battery Indicator displaying 100% on AC Power - with tlp

Using upower --monitor-detail, when on battery battery/state is displayed as discharging which is correct and to be expected.

However when ac is plugged in state is shown as fully-charged with the percentage value set to the correct/expected value of the battery charge status - 92% - see results below.

I wonder if this is an issue with tlp which prevents the battery charging when it's between the lower and upper threshold and the state is being interpreted as fully-charged - may be Gnome is then just checking this value rather than displaying the percentage value - pure conjecture on my part. I'm not sure if there should be an alternative status of not-charging or the battery indicator should be displaying the battery/percentage value - or may be there's another issue.

Here's the results of upower - when the ac is plugged in which can also be displayed using upower --show-info /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT0:

[21:53:08.984]	device changed:     /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT0
  native-path:          BAT0
  vendor:               LGC
  model:                01AV494
  serial:               559
  power supply:         yes
  updated:              Fri 07 Jun 2019 21:53:08 BST (0 seconds ago)
  has history:          yes
  has statistics:       yes
  battery
    present:             yes
    rechargeable:        yes
    state:               fully-charged
    warning-level:       none
    energy:              51.06 Wh
    energy-empty:        0 Wh
    energy-full:         55.08 Wh
    energy-full-design:  57 Wh
    energy-rate:         0 W
    voltage:             12.467 V
    percentage:          92%
    capacity:            96.6316%
    technology:          lithium-polymer
    icon-name:          'battery-full-charged-symbolic'