[svlug] question - my laptop won't charge to 100% even though plugged in and using AC power

[Darlene Wallach]

On Sun, May 3, 2009 at 1:52 AM, Deyan Bektchiev <dejanb at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 1:05 AM, Darlene Wallach
> <freepalestin at dslextreme.com> wrote:
>> Chris,
>>
>> On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 12:55 AM, Chris Miller
>> <lordsauronthegreat at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 12:42 AM, Darlene Wallach
>>> <freepalestin at dslextreme.com> wrote:
>>>> I always use my laptop plugged into AC power. The last few days I've noticed
>>>> the yellow light is blinking and will not turn green. When I hover the mouse
>>>> over the plug it shows the computer is charging. Does this indicate I need a
>>>> new power supply? The power supply gets warm - it used to get hot. I just
>>>> bought one last summer, July 2008, just before I left for Gaza. Or does this
>>>> indicate another problem?
>>>>
>>>> Thank you for any insight. Thank you for your attention.
>>>
>>> Lithium Ion batteries do loose their ability to hold a charge as time goes by.
>>>
>>> I have noticed that sometimes the battery's internal meter becomes
>>> "confused" and fails to recognize that it's holding as much as it will
>>> be able to hold in its degraded state.
>
> I had a ThinkPad battery that simply "died" and would not recharge at
> all and was showing the exact same symptoms. The ThinkPad power
> manager (unfortunately only available in Windows) showed that the
> battery was bad and I called Lenovo to have it replaced under
> warranty.
>
> Run "cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT*/*" and look at the output to see if
> the battery is really holding charge.
>

$ cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT*/*
alarm:                   365 mWh
present:                 yes
design capacity:         4400 mWh
last full capacity:      3656 mWh
battery technology:      non-rechargeable
design voltage:          11100 mV
design capacity warning: 365 mWh
design capacity low:     182 mWh
capacity granularity 1:  644 mWh
capacity granularity 2:  8 mWh
model number:            245XIX
serial number:           0001
battery type:            LiOn
OEM info:                OEM
present:                 yes
capacity state:          ok
charging state:          charging
present rate:            unknown
remaining capacity:      3605 mWh
present voltage:         12516 mV


> Regards,
> Deyan
>