[SOLVED] AC Adapter randomly switches between being online and offline

Trinakrian · 2015-12-30 13:40:44

While I wouldn't normally care, it is affecting functionality. It goes offline sometimes for a day, other times for a few days. Thing is that my AC Adapter comes with a sensor light to let me know that I am plugged into an outlet and that light is ON, yet the system tray's icon say's I am not plugged in. I don't lose a charge from my battery AT ALL, so it is clearly plugged in.

I am curious if there is a bug, a fix, an package that let's you diagnose adapter issues or refresh/change the settings. I am using an Alienware M17 Rx3 and using KDE and i3 and the issue shows up with both.

Any help would be appreciated.

Last edited by Trinakrian (2016-01-01 14:24:05)

ewaller · 2015-12-30 16:08:42

Take a look in your /sys/class tree for files related to your power adapter. See if there are any "files" there that talk about the state of your adapter. I quoted "files" as the entries in /sys look like files, but their contents are dynamically generated by the kernel to give visibility into kernelly things. On my system:

 
ewaller@turing ~ 1012 %ls /sys/class/power_supply/ADP1/
device  online  power  subsystem  type  uevent
ewaller@turing ~ 1013 %cat /sys/class/power_supply/ADP1/online
1
ewaller@turing ~ 1014 %cat /sys/class/power_supply/ADP1/type
Mains
ewaller@turing ~ 1015 %cat /sys/class/power_supply/ADP1/uevent
POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=ADP1
POWER_SUPPLY_ONLINE=1
ewaller@turing ~ 1016 %

Let's see if those files correlate with that which you are seeing. Also, let's look at the battery. We can check if it thinks it is being charged or discharged when the AC adapter is MIA.

ewaller@turing ~ 1016 %ls /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/
alarm     capacity_level  charge_full_design  current_now  device        model_name  present        status     technology  uevent              voltage_now
capacity  charge_full     charge_now          cycle_count  manufacturer  power       serial_number  subsystem  type        voltage_min_design
ewaller@turing ~ 1017 %cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/status
Full
ewaller@turing ~ 1018 %cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/uevent
POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=BAT0
POWER_SUPPLY_STATUS=Full
POWER_SUPPLY_PRESENT=1
POWER_SUPPLY_TECHNOLOGY=Li-ion
POWER_SUPPLY_CYCLE_COUNT=0
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MIN_DESIGN=15000000
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_NOW=17271000
POWER_SUPPLY_CURRENT_NOW=0
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL_DESIGN=3040000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL=3040000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_NOW=3040000
POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY=100
POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY_LEVEL=Full
POWER_SUPPLY_MODEL_NAME=Primary
POWER_SUPPLY_MANUFACTURER=Hewlett-Packard
POWER_SUPPLY_SERIAL_NUMBER=
ewaller@turing ~ 1019 %

Note that your directory and file names are dependent on the ACPI tables of your particular machine -- you may have to hunt around a bit.

Trinakrian · 2015-12-31 16:43:13

Hi Ewaller - thanks for the reply. The content of sys/class/power_supply/AC/uevent is:

POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=AC
POWER_SUPPLY_ONLINE=0

The content of sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/uevent is:

POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=BAT0
POWER_SUPPLY_STATUS=Unknown
POWER_SUPPLY_PRESENT=1
POWER_SUPPLY_TECHNOLOGY=Unknown
POWER_SUPPLY_CYCLE_COUNT=0
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MIN_DESIGN=11100000
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_NOW=12631000
POWER_SUPPLY_POWER_NOW=0
POWER_SUPPLY_ENERGY_FULL_DESIGN=86580000
POWER_SUPPLY_ENERGY_FULL=75258000
POWER_SUPPLY_ENERGY_NOW=75259000
POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY=100
POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY_LEVEL=Normal
POWER_SUPPLY_MODEL_NAME=W851DILD
POWER_SUPPLY_MANUFACTURER= DELL
POWER_SUPPLY_SERIAL_NUMBER=111007800

Shouldn't the POWER_SUPPLY_ONLINE for the AC be set to "1"? If I change it from "0" to "1" will the computer begin to recognize that the adapter is indeed present?

Last edited by Trinakrian (2015-12-31 16:46:05)

ewaller · 2015-12-31 17:17:08

You cannot change it That "file" is generated by the kernel when you read it. Some files in /sys allow you to write to them to change the behavior of the kernel. Sadly, that file is not one of them.

I'm not sure what to tell you here. Your battery seems to be fully charged; at least as full as it can go. I'm guessing this battery is a couple years old as the energy_full is about 87% of the energy_full_design. Dell goes out of their way to make you use their charger that has a third pin for communication. What happens if you boot to Windows?

Last edited by ewaller (2016-01-01 15:11:13)

Trinakrian · 2016-01-01 14:22:25

It's purely a Linux machine - I have Arch, Manjaro and Gentoo on it.

I sincerely appreciate the help and your patience. I learned a few things on this thread. I am going to mark this as solved because it appears to be a hardware issue: where the wire connects to the housing on the "box" is the source of the issue. In this case the set is made of two pieces and apparently it does't sit right. If you make it too tight or push it in firmly I get this error. However, if I just put it in gently and not all the way, it works perfectly. I guess I'll have to learn where that sweet spot is or purchase another.

Made in China.

Arch Linux

#1 2015-12-30 13:40:44

[SOLVED] AC Adapter randomly switches between being online and offline

#2 2015-12-30 16:08:42

Re: [SOLVED] AC Adapter randomly switches between being online and offline

#3 2015-12-31 16:43:13

Re: [SOLVED] AC Adapter randomly switches between being online and offline

#4 2015-12-31 17:17:08

Re: [SOLVED] AC Adapter randomly switches between being online and offline

#5 2016-01-01 14:22:25

Re: [SOLVED] AC Adapter randomly switches between being online and offline

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