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Joe avatar Ubuntu

Battery detected but not charging

cn flag
Joe

I'm running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on a HP 15-ac152. When I check the battery details using upower -i, I find

  native-path:          BAT1
  vendor:               COMPAL
  model:                PABAS0241231
  serial:               41167
  power supply:         yes
  updated:              Sun 08 Aug 2021 18:42:53 BST (66 seconds ago)
  has history:          yes
  has statistics:       yes
  battery
    present:             yes
    rechargeable:        yes
    state:               charging
    warning-level:       none
    energy:              0 Wh
    energy-empty:        0 Wh
    energy-full:         33.1712 Wh
    energy-full-design:  41.61 Wh
    energy-rate:         0 W
    voltage:             12.702 V
    percentage:          0%
    capacity:            79.7193%
    technology:          lithium-ion
    icon-name:          'battery-caution-charging-symbolic'

So the battery's detected and ubuntu thinks it's charging, but it always stays at 0% on the battery monitor and when I unplug the machine while running it powers straight off so I think there must be no charge in there.

I tried turning the laptop off, taking out the battery and holding down the power button for 30s and turning back on, but this didn't help. So I also tried following the instructions here, which involves disabling the battery in the BIOS, but I had a look through the BIOS and I couldn't see an option to disable the battery.

Does anybody have any advice on how to disable the battery from the BIOS or elsewhere, or any other kind of method to fix/diagnose what's going on? I'm happy to buy a new battery if I need to, but I suspect I can reset something and get it working and I'd like to rule that out before spending any money.

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ChanganAuto avatar
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ChanganAuto
The battery is dead.
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Joe avatar
cn flag
Joe
How do you know that?
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ChanganAuto avatar
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ChanganAuto
I know because it's old (~2014)
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Joe avatar
cn flag
Joe
I'm looking for some way to diagnose what's going on. The battery may be dead, it could be that some part of the battery management system needs to be reset, that the motherboard is broken, or something else. The age of the battery is not a good diagnostic criteria here; I was recently using a 10-year old laptop battery at 40% capacity with no problems. Also the manufacture date on the BIOS is 2016.
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ChanganAuto avatar
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ChanganAuto
The battery is dead, it's chemistry, there's no "reset", nothing. Modern Lithium Ion batteries are good for 2-3 years, after that they typically experience a very rapid decline and, depending on the rest of the hardware they tend to last <10min at the very end or not work at all if below a certain threshold predefined in the firmware. Replace it, end of story. NOT an Ubuntu question, by the way, therefore off-topic here. Comments are for clarification, this isn't a forum, it's a Q&A. Good bye and good luck.
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wstein avatar
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wstein
I had the same Issues with my Lenovo T420 70++ original battery and Ubuntu 20.04.04. I thought it was an update quirk cause the battery loaded without the OS when it was in sleep or shutdown. After this thread I went into the cellar and digged for the 45 kWh battery that was shipped (now ~12 years old). upower, power indicator and charging work as expected with this battery. I wonder if it is firmware or hardware issue, meaning the 70++ battery could have a runtime border and stops working after a specific load cycle amount BUT ChanganAuto is right no Ubuntu Issue here
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