Lenovo Energy Management - Battery life on dual boot

Question

For nearly two years I was running only Ubuntu on my Lenovo G570 laptop. Recently I changed to dual-boot with arrival of Windows 8.1 Preview. With that I installed some Lenovo provided applications, prominent one being Energy Management.

After few days of application usage, Energy Management suggested that I use 'Optimized Battery Health', based on my usage pattern, to extend battery life. After making this change the battery never charges beyond 50% (I'm always connected to a power source). My understanding is the application controls charging and maintains constant battery level. Whenever I boot into Ubuntu the same situation (battery never crosses 50%) prevails there. What puzzles me is, there is no Lenovo application on Ubuntu. For that matter I don't use any battery manager on Ubuntu other than the default one.

On Ubuntu the battery status shows as 'charging' but the percentage does not change. On Windows the status is 'Not Charging'.

I'm now concerned about the long term implications of using this option on Windows. How does a Windows based rule apply on Ubuntu? Does Lenovo Energy Management write something to battery firmware (I don't know about firmwares, just a wild guess). What will happen if I remove Windows altogether from my machine?

Solution

First a remark that the thread Energy Management does set to Optimized Battery Health says this (03-23-2013) :

The lenovo energy management of windows 8 is having some problems. Could you use the windows 7 version and see if the option works?

Second, as regarding the Battery setting:

Maximum Battery Life generally means Energy Management will try to squeeze out as many minutes as possible when the laptop is running on the battery.

Optimized Battery Health means Energy Management limits the battery charge to 60% so that the battery life is not prematurely shortened. When a battery is charged to 100% for a prolonged period of time it can actually shorten the life of the battery. That means if the battery can last 5 hours in normal usage when it is new, that battery life will decrease somewhat quickly over time if the battery is always kept at 100% charge. It has to do with the way a lithium battery works.

Third, to have this same effect on Ubuntu, the application must have changed some parameter(s) in the BIOS. Boot into the BIOS to search for them and to change back, or set the Battery back in Energy Management to Maximum Battery Life to charge to 100%.

Comments

[Carlos Lindberg]

I had asked the above question in Lenovo community forums as well. Like any OEM support, a specialist replied stating that the issue has occurred due to dual boot. He also added a note saying Lenovo does not recommend or support multi boot OS as the computer.. Read more

[harrymc]

-1. Doesn't seem to be related to the question and doesn't explain Ubuntu.

[Carlos Lindberg]

I was unable to find any battery related things in BIOS settings.

[harrymc]

There must be something in the BIOS, because there isn't any other connection between Windows and Ubuntu. It might be well-masked, or maybe even not displayed/externalized at all. In the later case, Energy Management is then the only tool that can change these settings.

[Carlos Lindberg]

Finally I switched to 'Maximum Battery Life' option. It worked flawlessly on Windows 8.1 Preview.