Ubuntu
gnome-power-manager package

"Current Charge" in Battery Device Information incorrect when fully charged

Bug #436052 reported by Janne Hyötylä
6
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
gnome-power-manager (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: gnome-power-manager

When an older battery is fully charged and connected to AC, the "Current Charge" entry shows the same value as "Design Charge". After unplugging AC and waiting 1-2 minutes, Current Charge jumps to the actual charge of the battery.

Here my battery:

Product: Laptop battery
Status: Charged
Percentage charge: 100.0%
Vendor: Samsung SDI
Technology: Lithium Ion
Serial number: 51645
Model: DELL PC7647
Capacity: 88.2% (Fair)
Current charge: 57.7 Wh
Design charge: 57.7 Wh
Charge rate: 0.0 W

After unplugging, Current Charge will jump to 50.2 Wh (or so). I don't know if this is my battery misreporting it's status, but cannot remember seeing this bug before karmic.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Thu Sep 24 18:57:41 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-power-manager
Package: gnome-power-manager 2.28.0-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-10.35-generic
SourcePackage: gnome-power-manager
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-10-generic i686

Revision history for this message
Janne Hyötylä (janne-hyotyla) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Janne Hyötylä (janne-hyotyla) wrote :

Interestingly,
the real energy is reported correctly:

battery.charge_level.current = 50882 (0xc6c2) (int)
battery.charge_level.design = 57720 (0xe178) (int)
  battery.charge_level.last_full = 50882 (0xc6c2) (int)
  battery.charge_level.percentage = 100 (0x64) (int)

But DeviceKit mixes something up:
Device: /org/freedesktop/DeviceKit/Power/devices/battery_BAT0
  battery
    state: fully-charged
    energy: 57.72 Wh
    energy-full: 57.72 Wh
    energy-full-design: 57.72 Wh
    percentage: 100%
    capacity: 88.1538%

(non-related entries removed)

Revision history for this message
Nicolò Chieffo (yelo3) wrote :

This also causes the chosen icon to be wrong, because if your battery stops to charge at 20%, the 100% icon is used.

Revision history for this message
Pedro Villavicencio (pedro) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. A new version of GNOME Power Manager is available on Maverick and we are wondering if this bug is still an issue for you with that version? Could you please test and comment back? Thanks in advance.

Changed in gnome-power-manager (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Janne Hyötylä (janne-hyotyla) wrote :

I still have the bug in Maverick.

The wording has changed a bit.
The situation is now:
When laptop is on AC and battery is fully charged, I have:
Energy: 57.7 Wh
Energy when full: 57.7 Wh
Energy (design): 57.7 Wh

After unplugging and waiting 2 minutes, I get:
Energy: 43.3 Wh
Energy when full: 57.7 Wh
Energy (design): 57.7 Wh

43 Wh is approximately what this battery now has with full charge; the battery is 3 years old, so for sure it has lost some capacity. Also certainly I did not use up 15 Wh in 2 minutes (the displayed rate was 25 W, times 2 minutes equals less than 1 Wh).

If I can provide any help just let me know (tests, settings etc.).

I can reproduce this with 2 different batteries (1 Dell, 1 Samsung; 1 in normal battery slot, 1 in the module bay).
I don't know if it's related to my laptop brand/model. I will test with a different when I have access to it in a few days.

Changed in gnome-power-manager (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Confirmed
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