Arch Linux

Dark.Light

Member

Registered: 2010-08-09

Posts: 19

False Battery Level Reading

Hello everyone!

I'm using a Thinkpad E450 laptop with arch and arch is running very well on top of it. There aren't any issues whatsoever and everything functions very well... except for one thing.

The battery level detected by ACPI is not correct. As you can see below, as I'm writing this, I'm running the laptop on 0% battery.

I had hoped that I had found the solution to world's energy problems, but sadly this is not the case as the system will suddenly turn off when the battery is actually depleted. It should happen in next hour or so... (yes, that's long how it works on 0% battery)

After it turns off, I'll plug in the charger and charge the battery full. Doing this seems to mitigate the issue as the readings after the full charge will stay reliable for a couple of days, but slowly, as the days progress without a full power cycling the difference between battery power readings and actual battery state will grow wider and wider. I've observed this for a couple of months now...

When I fully power cycle the battery (draining it fully and afterwards charging it fully), readings stay reliable for a couple of days. The full battery capacity is around 80% actual of design capacity. But slowly as I use the system without full power cycling, the "Full" percentage will drop lower and lower. After a week it will show maybe that battery is full at 64% and will not charge above 64%. Next week it might drop to 58%.... and on and on... But if I keep running the system past 0%, it still works. So clearly the readings are wrong. Can anyone help?

BTW, I'm using tlp for power management.

x33a

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-08-15

Posts: 4,587

Re: False Battery Level Reading

What does upower say, when acpi shows 0% charge?

Also, how old is the battery.

Dark.Light

Member

Registered: 2010-08-09

Posts: 19

Re: False Battery Level Reading

The battery came with the system which was purchased about a year ago...

I just brought the system back in the 0% battery stage. Here's what it says:

[noel@Daedalus ~]$ acpi -V
Battery 0: Discharging, 0%,  remaining
Battery 0: design capacity 4388 mAh, last full capacity 3153 mAh = 71%
Adapter 0: off-line
Thermal 0: ok, 66.0 degrees C
Thermal 0: trip point 0 switches to mode critical at temperature 127.0 degrees C
Cooling 0: x86_pkg_temp no state information available
Cooling 1: pch_wildcat_point no state information available
Cooling 2: intel_powerclamp no state information available
Cooling 3: Processor 0 of 10
Cooling 4: Processor 0 of 10
Cooling 5: Processor 0 of 10
Cooling 6: Processor 0 of 10

[noel@Daedalus ~]$ upower -d
Device: /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/line_power_AC
  native-path:          AC
  power supply:         yes
  updated:              Sat 11 Jun 2016 07:34:27 AM IST (9449 seconds ago)
  has history:          no
  has statistics:       no
  line-power
    warning-level:       none
    online:              no
    icon-name:          'ac-adapter-symbolic'

Device: /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT0
  native-path:          BAT0
  vendor:               LGC
  model:                LNV-45N1
  serial:               17142
  power supply:         yes
  updated:              Sat 11 Jun 2016 10:11:43 AM IST (13 seconds ago)
  has history:          yes
  has statistics:       yes
  battery
    present:             yes
    rechargeable:        yes
    state:               discharging
    warning-level:       action
    energy:              0 Wh
    energy-empty:        0 Wh
    energy-full:         40.83 Wh
    energy-full-design:  46.97 Wh
    energy-rate:         0 W
    voltage:             10.704 V
    percentage:          0%
    capacity:            71.8757%
    technology:          lithium-ion
    icon-name:          'battery-caution-symbolic'
  History (rate):
    1465620028	0.000	discharging

Device: /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/DisplayDevice
  power supply:         yes
  updated:              Sat 11 Jun 2016 10:10:28 AM IST (88 seconds ago)
  has history:          no
  has statistics:       no
  battery
    present:             yes
    state:               discharging
    warning-level:       action
    energy:              0 Wh
    energy-full:         40.83 Wh
    energy-rate:         0 W
    percentage:          0%
    icon-name:          'battery-caution-symbolic'

Daemon:
  daemon-version:  0.99.4
  on-battery:      yes
  lid-is-closed:   no
  lid-is-present:  yes
  critical-action: HybridSleep

Last edited by Dark.Light (2016-06-11 04:44:25)

x33a

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-08-15

Posts: 4,587

Re: False Battery Level Reading

Does your laptop come with a battery calibration option in the UEFI/BIOS? If yes, then give it a try. Else, I think that the battery might be damaged for good.