Battery doesn't start charging when plugged in

User Support Hardware Issues
1

Basically what the title says. I am using 6 cell battery on my X230. This is the same battery I was using on my X220 machine a few weeks ago, and back then, I didn’t have this problem.

The power manager tray applet reports that the line power is plugged in, the battery status is 51% charged but it also reports that it is “Waiting to discharge.”

Apart from that, the battery is reported to be 89% of its original capacity full, so the battery isn’t dead yet.

I found this thread when I searched around the forum: Qubes 4.1 Librem 14 Pureboot Battery Charging Issues - #2 by Sven

It reports a librem 14 issue on their forum. One of the answers suggest checking the following:

$ cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_control_start_threshold
0
$ cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_control_end_threshold
100

The “start_threshold” reported by dom0 in my QubesOS is 0. Why is this? Is this the reason why my battery isn’t charging up, even though it is only 51% full?

2

I don’t think the X220 battery works in the X230 unless you flash the EC

3

Here is what my battery is: Amazon.com

I have pretty much this one. The ad on Amazon reports that it is suitable for both 220 and 230 models. So?

Also, do you think having

$ cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_control_start_threshold
0

is normal?

4

Not sure, but I think the default values are 0 to 100.

https://github.com/hamishcoleman/thinkpad-ec

006_battery_validate.patch

Maybe the X220 battery works in the X230, but there are issues with some batteries in the X230.

5

I just made the following observation:

When I attach the original battery (3-cell) back to the X230, and plug the power brick to the wall, X230 starts charging its own original battery.

But, when I put the 6-cell battery that I took off from the X220 machine and put that into the X230 machine, X230 doesn’t start charging the 6-cell battery.

That’s a relief because I thought I had fried the charging hardware firmware when I flashed the BIOS chip with Coreboot back a month ago, on the X230.

On the other hand, that’s a bummer, since I really like the 6-cell battery’s battery life. I think I will buy a new 6-cell battery that is specifically for X230…

6

I suppose you were correct with this statement, then.

I wonder why, though. Considering the fact that the X230 and X220 batteries are nearly identical (in outward appearance) and also both models’ batteries “clip in” each others’ battery houses.

Is it really about the charging chip’s firmware (if there is such a thing) that has a pre-compiled list of compatible brand/model names for X230, and once it sees a battery model that’s not in that list (such as the 6-cell battery I plugged in from X220 machine) it refuses to charge it up?

7

Btw, I had confused the cell number of the batteries I had. To clarify, my X220 had a 9-cell battery that I bought later. The X220 and X230 machines came with their own 6-cell batteries. I was using the X220 machine with the 9-cell battery I had bought. Now I have switched my machine to an X230, and tried inserting the 9-cell battery in the X220 into X230. That 9-cell battery isn’t being charged. But the original battery (which is 6-cell) came with the X230 gets charging when the computer is plugged into the wall outlet.

8

It wasn’t uncommon for the older IBM/Lenovo laptops to only accept whitelisted hardware, I think it’s the same with the batteries. You also can’t replace the Wi-Fi card, and on the older models like the X40 you couldn’t even replace the hard drive.

It can also be dangerous to not use a battery that isn’t fully compatible with the laptop, it could damage the laptop, or worse case burn down your house.

9

that sounds quite annoying.