Arch Linux

H2-san

Member

Registered: 2023-01-31

Posts: 8

Dell Precision 7730 battery issues

Hi all,

Running KDE Plasma 5.27.8 and Kernel 6.5.5-arch1-1. I have a weird issue where powerdevil was accidentally uninstalled and messed with the charge settings of my battery. When the OS detects the battery at 100% SOC, I checked my BIOS and it reports the SOC at 74% for a 64 Wh battery. It also messed with a 97 Wh battery I attempted to install to get longer battery life.

Any suggestions or tips and tricks to get my Arch install to recalibrate the charge threshholds? (Also just now coming out of the Newbie corner, please forgive the occasional mess-up.)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,766

Re: Dell Precision 7730 battery issues

Powerdevil itself has no facilities that would make it mess with charge threshholds. More likely TLP/power-profiles-daemon/laptop-mode-tools or similar. Generally upower is the backend powerdevil uses for querying (but afaik not setting) battery information, what does upower --dump report?

If you are actually using TLP try using it's recalibrate feature: https://linrunner.de/tlp/faq/battery.html

Alternatively, dells are somewhat notorious for wonky firmware issues. If you aren't using TLP or the above doesn't help, try cutting power completely (take battery out if possible) wait a few seconds and restart/keep the power button pressed for a few secs.

H2-san

Member

Registered: 2023-01-31

Posts: 8

Re: Dell Precision 7730 battery issues

Considering I have TLP and use it, I'll probably use the recalibrate feature. Unfortunately, upower seems to agree with the faulty information and afaik the BIOS has detected the battery's correct SOC. upower also thinks the capacity has shrunk, which is infuriating. I'll look further into TLP with the resources provided. Update to follow.

Last edited by H2-san (2023-10-05 13:51:15)

H2-san

Member

Registered: 2023-01-31

Posts: 8

Re: Dell Precision 7730 battery issues

Powerdevil itself has no facilities that would make it mess with charge threshholds. More likely TLP/power-profiles-daemon/laptop-mode-tools or similar. Generally upower is the backend powerdevil uses for querying (but afaik not setting) battery information, what does upower --dump report?

If you are actually using TLP try using it's recalibrate feature: https://linrunner.de/tlp/faq/battery.html

Alternatively, dells are somewhat notorious for wonky firmware issues. If you aren't using TLP or the above doesn't help, try cutting power completely (take battery out if possible) wait a few seconds and restart/keep the power button pressed for a few secs.

When I attempt the recalibrate feature provided by TLP, it fails to initiate recalibration with the error below... Am I possibly missing its dependencies to work, or is there a workaround if the dependencies are present?

Error: battery charge thresholds/discharge/recalibrate not available.

The upower --dump command returns the following, noting that the full energy counter is incorrect:

Device: /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT0
native-path:          BAT0
vendor:               LGC-LGC8.42
model:                DELL H6K6V8C
serial:               [obscured for privacy]
power supply:         yes
updated:              Sat 07 Oct 2023 12:12:01 PM CDT (26 seconds ago)
has history:          yes
has statistics:       yes
battery
present:             yes
rechargeable:        yes
state:               charging
warning-level:       none
energy:              3.3744 Wh
energy-empty:        0 Wh
energy-full:         54.2716 Wh
energy-full-design:  63.9996 Wh
energy-rate:         33.9112 W
voltage:             7.782 V
charge-cycles:       N/A
time to full:        1.5 hours
percentage:          6%
capacity:            84.7999%
technology:          lithium-ion
icon-name:          'battery-caution-charging-symbolic'
History (charge):
1696698721  6.000   charging
1696698661  5.000   charging
History (rate):
1696698691  33.911  charging

Last edited by H2-san (2023-10-07 17:15:11)

topcat01

Member

Registered: 2019-09-17

Posts: 125

Re: Dell Precision 7730 battery issues

Newer XPS and Precision models have charge thresholds configurable in the BIOS. Are these currently limited?

H2-san

Member

Registered: 2023-01-31

Posts: 8

Re: Dell Precision 7730 battery issues

Newer XPS and Precision models have charge thresholds configurable in the BIOS. Are these currently limited?

Last I checked in the BIOS today, these settings are inactive and not limited. Could the 2019 manufacturing date be a problem?

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,766

Re: Dell Precision 7730 battery issues

FWIW that simply reads normal? The full-design is 64h, the full you have due to battery wear is 54. The remaining capacity is 84%, or should that be lower?

Last edited by V1del (2023-10-10 14:12:39)

H2-san

Member

Registered: 2023-01-31

Posts: 8

Re: Dell Precision 7730 battery issues

FWIW that simply reads normal? The full-design is 64h, the full you have due to battery wear is 54. The remaining capacity is 84%, or should that be lower?

The inverse of lower. Dell's BIOS & self-test firmware report a normal capacity of 64 Wh (100% battery health) and state that it can charge to that. It may be that the Dell firmware is acting up again. Plus I got this computer a little over a month ago with the brand-new battery pre-installed by the seller.

Last edited by H2-san (2023-10-12 02:25:17)