ThinkBook 13s Gen3 (AMD) USB-C randomly disconnects

nickname1794 · 2021-05-28 07:39:35

Hello everyone,
I recently got my hands on this new laptop, the Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen3 with AMD Ryzen 7 5800U processor. Everything seemed to be working rather smoothly until I tried to hook it up to my setup with an USB-C docking station (which delivers power, has ethernet, video and usb HUB).
Although initially worked, at a certain point the video started disconnecting and I realised it was the dock itself. I've started looking at `dmesg` and I could see a lot of

[  +0.000155] usb 2-1.3: USB disconnect, device number 31
[  +0.066692] usb 2-1.4: USB disconnect, device number 32
[  +0.425215] usb 1-1: USB disconnect, device number 51

and then it reconnects, picks everything up, and then disconnect again and so on.

I have been looking around in a lot of different threads and pages, the most interesting ones related to the ThinkPad features related to power management (at least that's where my hunch lies so far).
Unfortunately the wiki page for Levono devices does not have yet my specific model.

I have tried both with Battery Conservation Mode enabled and disabled as described here but the problem persist.

I also have tried all three performance modes (both by setting it the BIOS and using `acpi_call` the commands described here), same result.

Interestingly enough, the checking the status of rapid charge returns an error

# set rapid charge off
$: echo '\_SB.PCI0.LPC0.EC0.VPC0.SBMC 0x08' | sudo tee /proc/acpi/call
$: echo '\_SB.PCI0.LPC0.EC0.QCHO' | sudo tee /proc/acpi/call
$: cat /proc/acpi/call | cut -d '' -f1
Error: AE_NOT_FOUND

Here is how my `lsusb -t` look like when connected

/:  Bus 04.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 10000M
/:  Bus 03.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 480M
    |__ Port 2: Dev 2, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
    |__ Port 2: Dev 2, If 2, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
    |__ Port 2: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
    |__ Port 4: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
    |__ Port 4: Dev 3, If 1, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
/:  Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 10000M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 73, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 5000M
        |__ Port 3: Dev 74, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=r8152, 5000M
        |__ Port 4: Dev 75, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 5000M
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 87, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
        |__ Port 1: Dev 88, If 0, Class=, Driver=, 12M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 89, If 3, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 89, If 1, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 89, If 2, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 89, If 0, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
        |__ Port 4: Dev 90, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
    |__ Port 2: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
    |__ Port 2: Dev 3, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
    |__ Port 4: Dev 5, If 1, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
    |__ Port 4: Dev 5, If 0, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M

I have also tried a different cables, and a HUB (not a docking!) with the laptop original power supply, same result.

At a certain point I was brought to believe it had to do with the kernel itself, I've tried all three linux, linux-lts and linux-zen packages, as well as different flags like `"iommu=soft usbcore.autosuspend=-1 acpi_backlight=vendor pci=noats`.
Please notice that currently I have only `usbcore.autosuspend=-1` as well as that disabled in `tlp.conf`. (Also tried without tlp)

I am willing to dig deeper into the matter, but I also would like to avoid having to reverse engineer half of the kernel, it would be beneficial to get any hint on where to start digging and maybe how to get more interesting debug infos.

Update

I might have been to solve the problem, unfortunately I am abroad at the moment and could only test with the Hub (yet all ports and power hooked up), I don't have the docking station with me. I will test next week and update this thread, hopefully marking it as solved

Here is what I did to solve the issue:

Installed Windows on the side with dual boot.
Installed drivers and software from Lenovo support.
Disabled Windows fast boot and played around with power setting (not sure which one did the trick honestly - if did it at all).

If this is true, it might be confirming my hunch related to power management, more specifically, it might be related to S3 Modern Standby

Update 2

Unfortunately, the issue is not solved, at least not with my docking station.

I had been on the phone for hours with the Lenovo support, which was surprisingly helpful. Nevertheless, it appears to be an issue related to my specific docking station.

Switching to another docking station solved the problem for me, although it is a bit annoying. Just for reference, my docking station was the i-tec USB-C Metal 4K Docking Station + Power Delivery 85W

Last edited by nickname1794 (2021-06-08 09:12:30)

Arch Linux

#1 2021-05-28 07:39:35