(I hope this fits this community, if not I’d be glad to know where I can post it)

Updated my firmware on my thinkpad t580. This made my external battery (3rd party) jump from 64.8 Wh design capacity to 40.4 Wh design capacity (but the computer doesnt turn off when it is “empty”, this is a software bug).

AI’s theory: The firmware update made the system stricter towards 3rd party batteries, blocking it and reporting a dummy number. This is plausible because after the firmware update the battery is no longer reporting its mAh (used to display 6000 mAh).

Rolling back to my previous firmware version (which is supported on thinkpads via fwupd downgrade) didn’t fix it…

Has anyone experienced something similar? I also tried downgrading my kernel (hoping that an older kernel wouldn’t suffer from this for some reason) but it didn’t fix it.

Guesses or fix ideas that might break something are also welcome, I’m using NixOS.

  • anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz
    14·
    24 days ago

    I would
    a) Use the reset button to fully reset the ThinkPad using the Emergency Reset Button - this has solved more than one weird hardware error for me in the past.

    b) Let the battery discharge completely, or at least to below 10% and then let it charge overnight to ensure it gets completely topped up.

    If neither of those helps I would probably unseat the battery and plug it back in again just to check.

      • anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz
        1·
        23 days ago

        And tlp didn’t help either? Is your model one of those dual battery ones?
        I vaguely remember some special consideration there to completely drain the laptop of power. I think you can disable the internal battery in bios somewhere before removing the external battery and the ac charge and then hold the power button for half a minute or so.

    • kuerbiskernoel@feddit.orgOP
      2·
      24 days ago

      Thanks! Tried a) and the reset pinhole (and a BIOS reset) and didn’t fix it yet, battery has been charging overnight, will check soon

  • rounding_error@lemmy.today
    9·
    24 days ago

    run tlp recalibrate? Rolling back firmware probably doesn’t help because it might not be reverting the EC firmware, which is used with the battery

    btw battery information is in /sys/class/power_supply/BAT* if you want to check the raw values

    It might also help if you report the BIOS and EC versions you see in the BIOS setup.

  • Hubi@feddit.org
    6·
    24 days ago

    Have you checked if the battery life has actually been reduced? I wouldn’t put too much trust in the number reported by the system anyways.

    • kuerbiskernoel@feddit.orgOP
      2·
      24 days ago

      Battery life didn’t change, but it’s annoying that the laptop just sits at 1% with a few hours of battery life remaining

    • kuerbiskernoel@feddit.orgOP
      1·
      23 days ago

      Battery life did change, only the first discharge still had the old battery life.

      My guess is the chip on the battery for some reason reset itself and fell back to some generic standard of 40.4 Wh, it’s now cutting off further charting when reaching 45 Wh, thinking the battery isn’t made for more.

      • Hubi@feddit.org
        1·
        23 days ago

        Huh, that’s surprising. Unfortunately I have no Idea how to fix this :/