ASUS N550 laptop not charging on ubuntu after updating kernel

Question

I'm using Ubuntu 13.10 on a pretty new ASUS N550jv laptop.

When I was using kernel linux-image-3.11.0-11 everything was quite well (kinda..), however, when I updated the kernel using the automatic update, the kernels which were released afterwards (12+) were faulty on my machine, and caused the battery not to be charged and only stay at their current charging level (even when the machine was off!)

The only fix I had was to roll-back to the '..11' version (on boot screen - advanced options), and hard-reboot (AC cord disconnected and reconnected) but now version 14 was released and "pushed away" the good old version 11.

How can I fix that?? Please help me...

Solution

I have been having this problem since kernel 3.9.5 and I found a workaround to solve it instead of opening the laptop up or draining the battery which is to shutdown the computer and while the battery LED is still blinking press and hold the power button down until all LEDs turn off (about 5 seconds) this solves the problem until something triggers it again.

I wrote about it here when I first had in September 2013 [link] So it seems to me to be a bug in UEFI that get cleared after a hard power-off like removing the battery or doing the solution I suggested, also a BIOS update fixes it since after the update the BIOS powers off the machine or maybe clears that faulty thing/variable/register!

Comments

[DanteTheEgregore]

Are you absolutely certain the latest kernel image is causing this issue? Have you checked your charging cable is plugged in properly and the battery is not loose? Charging is vendor/firmware specific and is not dictated by the OS installed on your laptop.

[OBY Trance]

It's not only the latest kernel. This is a "known issue" for me... Every kernel update (after the initially 11) had the same problem and only after switching back to version 11 the prob was solved.

[DanteTheEgregore]

What bios version are you on? Have you tried updating to the latest version made available by Asus?

[DanteTheEgregore]

Upon further investigation it appears there are many other documented cases of this and similar issues. It appears to be a hardware or firmware issue that is, in fact, somehow being aggravated by one or more versions of the Linux Kernel.

[OBY Trance]

I know about those unsovled problems... Do U know how can I roll back to version 11 of the kernel?? I'm not such an expert on the linux OS but I can handle stuff...

[OBY Trance]

Unfortunately, that didn't do the trick... I've already tried that before with no luck. What I did (then and today as well) was removing the battery and reinserting it again. This issue is very annoying, and I would recommend anyone who plans to purchase this machine and use the same setup to consider purchasing another machine. (Performance wise however, this machine is great!)

[OBY Trance]

Tnx @Tberdy for Ur answering attempt... However that was already been done and was even harmful to my sys since the BIOS is now alerting me about the OS. Very important tip on the battery issue - had to learn it the hard way... :-\