Score:0

High battery discharge on idle Ubuntu 20.04

cn flag

I am using a brand new ASUS TUF Dash F15 gaming laptop, and on idle I have a battery discharge rate of 30W. I've made (100%) sure that I'm on my integrated graphics card (bbswitch, prime-select), but the rate still doesn't go down. Also, my brother has the exact same model as me, done nothing to his computer, and he is averaging 7W on idle. What are my options for finding the source of the problem? Thank you.

Edit: I've checked the cpu when idle or even under light load (firefox, music) using the system monitor and the total average is <5-10%. I've also checked my battery capacity when full and it says Energy when full is 77.6Wh while Energy (design) is 76.0Wh.

Edit 2: I did a full discharge and it hasn't changed the stats, so it appears that the battery itself is healthy. Also, windows 11 as a dual boot with battery saver and gpu off has the battery life at 9 hours, while a live usb boot with fresh ubuntu is still showing the 30W.

Matthias Lenmher avatar
nl flag
Could you provide some info about cpu freq governor?
Dragon Xi avatar
cn flag
@MatthiasLenmher Sorry, I don't know exactly what info to give, but updated my question with some info. Please tell me if you need anything else!
Jeff avatar
mx flag
Sounds like a battery issue. Would you consider getting a new battery?
Dragon Xi avatar
cn flag
@Jeff I would if it came down to it, but from further testing I doubt it's the battery, due to somehow high battery life on windows.
Jeff avatar
mx flag
That's interesting... I have never heard of this issue, then, and I have no solutions.
Score:-1
in flag

So it seems that your Laptop might have less Battery Health. Open Power Statistics and look for the "Energy when Full" and "Energy (Design)". If you do not have the Power Statistics App (you should) type in a terminal sudo apt install gnome-power-manager. then search "Power Statistics". if both Energy when Full and Energy (Design) are far different from each other than you likely have a low battery health. I also see that this is brand new. Maybe the battery got damaged in shipping?

Dragon Xi avatar
cn flag
Hi, I've checked the energy stats and they're really similar (updated my question), but I've heard doing a full battery discharge shows more accurate results. Should I try this or is it likely that the problem is something else? Thanks!
Sudoman avatar
in flag
@DragonXi you should try that.
Dragon Xi avatar
cn flag
So I did a full discharge and it hasn't changed the stats, so it appears that the battery itself is healthy. Also, I have just reinstalled windows 11 as a dual boot to double check and with battery saver and gpu off the battery life is 9 hours, while a live usb boot with fresh ubuntu is still showing the 30W. I have no idea what to check next, is this just a problem with ubuntu?
Jeff avatar
mx flag
@Sudoman Gnome Power Manager is automatically installed when you install Ubuntu.
Jeff avatar
mx flag
@DragonXi Is it possible that Ubuntu doesn't like the battery? Perhaps it is unsupported... Just a thought. I don't know how that would be possible, though.
Dragon Xi avatar
cn flag
@Jeff Yeah, it's really strange, since my brother's same model laptop works perfectly fine... They should theoretically be the same, but might there be some physical idiosyncrasies between laptops that might affect it? That's the only thing left I can think of.. Thanks for your suggestions though!
Jeff avatar
mx flag
@DragonXi I still think that it could be a hardware problem, especially since your brother has the same model and it works fine... I would look into it.
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