Ubuntu Version:
Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS
Desktop Environment:
GNOME 42.9
Problem Description:
When booting into Ubuntu, the battery indicator is stuck at zero percent, saying it’s not charging. Some quick background info: I do almost all of my work with the laptop connected via USB-C to an external monitor (which means it’s always charging), and for that reason I wanted to see if there were any ways to control the battery charging thresholds, with the hopes of avoiding always charging to 100%. I came across TLP, installed it, and followed the steps to set the battery charging thresholds in the config /etc/tlp.conf. I’m pretty sure the problem originates from when I did this, because the battery indicator was now stuck at the percentage it was right before starting TLP, but it went down when unplugging the charger. So basically it was either constant, or going down.
A couple of weeks later I used the laptop without charging, and “drained the battery”. The status after this is that I can use the computer normally as long as the charger is plugged in, but the indicator is stuck at zero and not charging. When I unplug it, I get the critically low battery error before it eventually shuts down. However, when i boot into Windows 11, there seems to be no problems at all. This has led me to believe the problem may be software related issues with Ubuntu.
Relevant System Information:
I am running Ubuntu on my ThinkPad T14 Gen 5. It is dual booted with Windows 11, but i mainly use Ubuntu with Linux kernel version 6.8.0-51-generic.
Screenshots or Error Messages:
Kernel version:
$ uname -r
6.8.0-51-generic
This was the first unusual info I found regarding the battery status:
$ sudo upower -d
[sudo] password for vegardhoug:
Device: /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT0
native-path: BAT0
power supply: yes
updated: Mon 27 Jan 2025 09:12:12 AM CET (83 seconds ago)
has history: yes
has statistics: yes
battery
present: yes
rechargeable: yes
state: charging
warning-level: none
energy: 0 Wh
energy-empty: 0 Wh
energy-full: 0 Wh
energy-full-design: 0 Wh
energy-rate: 0 W
charge-cycles: N/A
percentage: 0%
capacity: 100%
icon-name: 'battery-caution-charging-symbolic'
History (charge):
1737965532 0.000 unknown
History (rate):
1737965532 0.000 unknown
This error message is interesting, based on the fact that the issue seems to not be hardware related:
$ sudo tlp recalibrate
Setting temporary charge thresholds for BAT0:
start = 96 (no change)
stop = 100 (no change)
Error: discharge BAT0 malfunction -- check your hardware (battery, charger).
Battery recalibration aborted.
The BAT0 status information given here is quite interesting, especially the negative cycle count:
$ sudo tlp-stat -b
--- TLP 1.5.0 --------------------------------------------
+++ Battery Care
Plugin: thinkpad
Supported features: charge thresholds, recalibration
Driver usage:
* natacpi (thinkpad_acpi) = active (charge thresholds, recalibration)
Parameter value ranges:
* START_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0/1: 0(off)..96(default)..99
* STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0/1: 1..100(default)
+++ ThinkPad Battery Status: BAT0 (Main / Internal)
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/manufacturer = (not available)
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/model_name = (not available)
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/cycle_count = -1
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/status = Not charging
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_control_start_threshold = 96 [%]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_control_end_threshold = 100 [%]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_behaviour = [auto] inhibit-charge force-discharge
What I’ve Tried:
I feel like I’ve tried everything, but I’ll try to list everything here.
- Disconnected and connected the actual battery.
- Disabled the built in battery in BIOS, before rebooting.
- Reset battery settings; while shut down, unplugged the AC, held power button for one minute before plugging back the AC.
- Updated and booted into latest kernel version.
- Removed TLP completely. Reinstalled and reconfigured it again.
- Performed UEFI hardware diagnostics.
- Tried
$ sudo tlp fullcharge, before rebooting.
None of these has worked, unfortunately.