Battery not charging on DELL Latituse e7440, centos 8

Shaggy1 · 01-03-2021, 09:58 AM

$ cat /etc/centos-release
CentOS Linux release 8.3.2011

$ Linux localhost.localdomain 4.18.0-240.el8.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri Sep 25 19:48:47 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Hi

I have a DELL Latitude e7440 ruunning centos 8 where it looks like the battery is not charging.

I have booted, pressed F12 and run the diagnostics which all seem to go through fine. I have also tried to reset the battery by power down, remove battery, power up, power down, replace battery, power up again. But that did not make any difference.

The battery seems to be detected and looks like it is charging, but does not seem to gain any charge.

Running the following command:

Code:

$ cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/*
0
0
Critical
6148000
6520000
61000
1000
0
cat: /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/device: Is a directory
SMP
DELL 909H538
cat: /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/power: Is a directory
1
1500
Charging
cat: /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/subsystem: Is a directory
Li-ion
Battery
POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=BAT0
POWER_SUPPLY_STATUS=Charging
POWER_SUPPLY_PRESENT=1
POWER_SUPPLY_TECHNOLOGY=Li-ion
POWER_SUPPLY_CYCLE_COUNT=0
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MIN_DESIGN=7400000
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_NOW=4943000
POWER_SUPPLY_CURRENT_NOW=1000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL_DESIGN=6520000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL=6148000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_NOW=61000
POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY=0
POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY_LEVEL=Critical
POWER_SUPPLY_MODEL_NAME=DELL 909H538
POWER_SUPPLY_MANUFACTURER=SMP
POWER_SUPPLY_SERIAL_NUMBER=1500
7400000
4943000

I see that POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_NOW is recorded as being smaller than POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MIN_DESIGN (and POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY=0).

The other tool I found I can use is upower which gives the following:

Code:

$ upower -i /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT0
  native-path:          BAT0
  vendor:               SMP
  model:                DELL 909H538
  serial:               1500
  power supply:         yes
  updated:              Sun 03 Jan 2021 15:46:03 GMT (45 seconds ago)
  has history:          yes
  has statistics:       yes
  battery
    present:             yes
    rechargeable:        yes
    state:               charging
    warning-level:       none
    energy:              0.4514 Wh
    energy-empty:        0 Wh
    energy-full:         45.4952 Wh
    energy-full-design:  48.248 Wh
    energy-rate:         0 W
    voltage:             4.937 V
    percentage:          0%
    capacity:            94.2945%
    technology:          lithium-ion
    icon-name:          'battery-caution-charging-symbolic'

Has anyone seen this before and/or has any idea what might be wrong here ? (Or does it mean, as I fear, that the battery is defective?)

While searching to try to find ways to troubleshoot battery issues some other tools were mentioned, which I currently do not have on my system:
acpi
tlp-stat
batstat
Does anyone know how I can install any of these tools can be installed on centos 8 ?

Brains · 01-03-2021, 02:56 PM

Open a terminal and run this command to get a list of all installed packages on your system:

Code:

rpm -qa | sort > installed.txt

In the directory you ran the command is a text file called installed.txt, have a look see what acpi related packages you already have installed.
Here is a list of acpi related packages you can install in whatever distribution you want, clicking on the package will eventually give you a download link so you can install it manually, but there likely will be other packages required as dependencies and it could take a while installing manually. I would think Centos has DnfDragona or something as a package manager which will satisfy dependencies, I don't know.

As for the other two packages:
tlp-stat
batstat

computersavvy · 01-04-2021, 08:06 PM

I had an Asus that I bought new some years ago. Kept it charged and seldom used it on battery. After about 4 years I found it said the battery was charged but when power was disconnected the battery was dead.

Those batteries have a limited life that may vary in length depending on usage but is still limited. If you remove the battery and check the voltage at the terminals you can check the charge (voltage). If not at spec then the battery is bad since those batteries have a flatline power ouput curve and voltage drops sharply when it is drained or starts to fail.

frankbell · 01-04-2021, 08:49 PM

That machine is easily six or seven years old.

The most likely fix is to purchase a new battery.

Be careful to vet the seller of any battery; I have read in authoritative sources that many of the batteries offered on EBay and similar sites turn out to be-er--less than desirable. If it were me, I'd get one directly from Dell, if Dell offers them; reliability is worth paying for.

ondoho · 01-05-2021, 03:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shaggy1

The battery seems to be detected and looks like it is charging, but does not seem to gain any charge.

This can happen, sooner or later.
I had an old laptop that worked only with the charger connected.
After a few years, the battery started actually pulling energy away from the system, so it would only work with the charger connected and the battery removed.
That's when I decided it's time to get a new machine.

Shaggy1 · 01-06-2021, 10:11 AM

Thank you very much for the replies.

It seems as I thought it is just a case of the battery being kaput.

I notice DELL does sell these batteries, so I should be able to get one from there.

> After a few years, the battery started actually pulling energy away from the system,
Ah. If I leave the machine running and idle for long enough, even when it is plugged in, it eventually just shuts down for no apparent reason.
I thought it might be to do with a setting in centos 8, though I have all power options set to Never, but perhaps this is what is happening.

michaelk · 01-06-2021, 11:16 AM

The battery charger is independent of the operating system and typically if the laptop is plugged in it will be running off the power supply versus the battery.

The battery is probably bad but should not necessarily cause it just to shut down. Something else is also bad.

I do not know if it still true but Dell powers supplies contain a memory cell that tells the laptop its power rating. If it goes bad the battery will not charge but it should run when plugged in.

The battery pulling energy away from the laptop when plugged is kinda of strange and I've never seen it but that does not mean it can't happen.

Shaggy1 · 01-08-2021, 05:31 AM

> The battery is probably bad but should not necessarily cause it just to shut down. Something else is also bad.
Yes this may well be the case - the behaviour is certainly odd. The computer does run when plugged in, but if left idle (although I have not sat and actively used it for a very long time, so it may happen regardless) for a long time (not timed it and length of time may vary, but 12 hours usually does it) inexplicably shuts down.
When I take the battery out (and leave it on mains) the shutdown issue does not happen.