14.10: Battery indicator stuck on 64%

Question

Yesterday I saw that when I plugged my laptop the battery indicator still showed me that I was on battery life instead of direct power. The percentage was 65% and after a few hours on power the percentage stucks on 65%.

When I unplug and replug the power the battery indicator is not changing. It never gets to 100% and never goes down if I stay on power.

Any ideas how to resolve this issue?

Some information:

Linux mva-laptop 3.16.0-31-generic #43-Ubuntu SMP Tue Mar 10 17:37:36 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 14.10
Release:    14.10
Codename:   utopic

description: Notebook
product: N56JN (ASUS-NotebookSKU)
vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
version: 1.0

EDIT 1

I have followed the instruction given in the comments and this is the output of upower command:

  native-path:          BAT0
  vendor:               ASUSTeK
  model:                N56--52
  power supply:         yes
  updated:              wo 18 mrt 2015 22:26:26 CET (10 seconds ago)
  has history:          yes
  has statistics:       yes
  battery
    present:             yes
    rechargeable:        yes
    state:               discharging
    energy:              52,968 Wh
    energy-empty:        0 Wh
    energy-full:         54,21 Wh
    energy-full-design:  56,628 Wh
    energy-rate:         0 W
    voltage:             10,89 V
    percentage:          97%
    capacity:            95,73%
    technology:          lithium-ion

EDIT 2 I just discovered that when I connect my Bluetooth mouse The percentage is dropping to 64%. Which still feels odd, because these are the statistics of the Bluetooth mouse. The statistics of my laptop battery aren't changed.

  native-path:          hid-6c:5d:63:29:b2:7f-battery
  model:                Rapoo 6610
  power supply:         no
  updated:              vr 20 mrt 2015 08:27:41 CET (4 seconds ago)
  has history:          yes
  has statistics:       yes
  battery
    present:             yes
    rechargeable:        yes
    state:               discharging
    energy:              0 Wh
    energy-empty:        0 Wh
    energy-full:         0 Wh
    energy-full-design:  0 Wh
    energy-rate:         0 W
    percentage:          30%
    capacity:            100%

If I understand it correctly it seems that my Bluetooth mouse has 30% battery left. And my laptop battery has 97% left. So why is it displaying 64%? And why is it saying my laptop is discharging when I have the power adapter plugged in?

Solution 1

Try the following:

upower --enumerate 

...and detect the battery canonical name. After that, you can issue:

upower -i /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT0

(change with your name). This will give you the full statistics of the battery. If it's old, you can have a maximum capacity different form 100%:

energy-full:            44.69 Wh
energy-full-design:     47.52 Wh 

...and that means that the battery is "old" and had lost (in my case about a 10%) part of its capacity. If the battery is three-four years old, losing a 35% could be a normal thing.

EDIT: Given the new data on the question, this seems a bug of the power indicator; it is averaging the battery of your bluetooth and the main one. You can check http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-power to see if you find it, or posting a new one; but it is probably related to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-power/+bug/850728.

Solution 2

I have a similar laptop (N56VJ) and have the same problem. Here is how I fix it:

1. Turn off computer;
2. Remove power adapter;
3. Remove battery;
4. Wait one minute;
5. Plug everything back in.

I'm not sure why it happens, but my guess goes to some problem with ACPI management done by Linux kernel. It does not happen with Windows.

Comments

[Rmano]

In the listing above the battery is at 97%... repeat the command when you see the sudden drop. Thanks!

[Mark Veenstra]

@Rmano just updated the question with a second edit with some more info. Thank you

[Rmano]

Ok. So this seems a bug of the power indicator; it is averaging the battery of your bluetooth and the main one. You can check bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-power to see if you find it, or posting a new one.

[Rmano]

Probably related to bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-power/+bug/85072‌​8

[Mark Veenstra]

I have executed this and it would be odd to have a big difference. This laptop I am using is bought like 4 months ago. So it is relative new.

[Mark Veenstra]

Yesterday evening when I shutdown the laptop I followed your steps. This morning I had some kind of different issue. When I booted the percentage was 97% but after a minute it was 64% (still on power adapter).

[Hugo Vieira]

That is strange... Have you followed the instructions of Rmano when it reaches 64%?

[Mark Veenstra]

At this moment my battery displays 64% in the top bar, but the upower command still gives me the same result of 97%