Lenovo X1 Thinkpad battery not charging in 17.04

Question

I have a 8 month old Lenovo X1 Carbon (5th generation) which was originally running 16.04LTS.

When I upgraded to 17.04 I noticed the battery is no longer charging. When the AC is plugged in battery indicator / upower / Power Statistics all show the battery as "charging".

However the battery doesn't charge - it just stays at it's current rate (38%). Using the laptop when it's not plugged into AC just depletes the battery further.

I have tried three different chargers with the same results. I doubt there is any physical issue with the battery as the laptop is relatively new & the issue has only just started after the upgrade to 17.04.

Any help appreciated.

Solution 1

This worked for me:

1. Shutdown computer
2. Pressed power button to turn it on & pressed F1 to enter BIOS
3. In BIOS go "Config" > "Power" > "Turn off Battery"
4. After computer has turned off I unplugged AC & plugged it back in again.

The laptop is now charging.

Solution 2

Same situation here, but my battery died completely and I could not turn laptop on at all. Called Lenovo tech support and their awesome rep (Joshua) instructed me to do a "static reset." Steps are:

• Unplug laptop;
• insert end of paper clip in small hole on bottom of laptop;
• hold for five seconds; let go; plug laptop back in;
• hit power/start button.

Worked like a charm! Apparently, electricity builds up inside laptop with nowhere to go. Reset button on bottom releases it so battery can recharge as it should. Thank you, Joshua!

Solution 3

This is a long-standing problem that Lenovo hasn't solved in years, and basically ignored. I've been having it with my X1 Carbon 7th gen too. If the other methods don't work, there's a last resort, though temporary:

1. Open the bottom cover
2. Disconnect the battery cable
3. Connect it back.

The battery should resume charging.

This solution is temporary. The battery will get screwed up again within a few days or weeks at most (charge drops to zero, it becomes not detected, says "not charging" even when plugged in etc.). Replacing the battery may help but only for a few months. BIOS updates 1.38 as of Aug 2021 haven't helped as of May 2022.

Another solution, with the same effect, was to let the battery drain completely (make sure to save your work), then reboot. This is useful if you can't unscrew the bottom cover.

One user claims they fixed the problem for a longer term by bending slightly with a fine needle the "3 (out of 7)" [that's wrong, there are 8 wires] inner contacts ("not the red/black power outer conductors") of the battery JST connector. It's not quite clear where you should "clamp"/press.

By slightly bending the metal clips on the connector, especially the inner ones, you are insuring electrical contact of all the wires to the board. It's hard to say exactly what to do, just take a fine needle and push the metal so that when the connector attaches to the board, you are assured electrical contact.

Another user wrote,

The plastic component that the wires feed into has 2 parts (male / female plastic-y connector pieces). (Don't try to disconnect it).

I manually with my fingers grabbed the top and bottom of that piece (the bottom being the side the wires feed into) and squeezed them together. I also recall taking a very small metal tool and seeing if I could gently / firmly press down on the metal connectors that are exposed on the top of the plastic piece.

Another supports that claim and offers as an alternative fix cleaning the connectors with DeoxIT.

Other users reported that sending in the laptop for repair made the issue recur weekly rather than daily.

The consensus is that the cause is the poor connection of the battery cable to the motherboard.

Affected models:

• X1C 4th, 7th and 8th Gen
• X1 Yoga

Comments

[HenrikB]

I'm confirming this approach worked on a five-month old Thinkpad X1 Carbon (6th gen) aka "X1C6". Symptoms started 10 mins ago w Ubuntu's power notification alternating between "charging" & "not charging" while the LED charging light was dark indicating "not charging". Went from 10% to dead in a few mins. After doing a few rounds of 5-second paper-clip presses in that small hole on the back (could feel a smell "click") eventually I could get the LED light to turn red (indicating charging) and the notebook would boot up. Thank you Marta for sharing this - you spared me lots of time & stress :)

[Admin]

Electricity is not "building up". All modern battery packs contain both cells and control circuitry to manage how cells are charged and discharged and to protect the cells from damage. What you are doing is resetting that circuitry (which can be thought of as a little computer) so that it allows the cells to be used again.

[Md. Tazbir Ur Rahman Bhuiyan]

It worked on my X1 Carbon 7th gen. Thanks a ton!!

[Jeremy]

Worked on X1 1st. gen. too! Thanks!!

[Monstercrunch]

Worked on X1 carbon gen 7 too :)

[user2989643]

Worked on my Lenovo X1 Carbon 4th Generation in 2021. ❤️

[Dan Dascalescu]

This is only a temporary solution unfortunately.

[Dan Dascalescu]

This is also only a temporary solution. You'll have to do it again in a few days/weeks.

[Marta]

Not necessarily, Dan D. I did the “paper-clip reset” over three years ago and haven’t needed do it again. And I use my X1 nearly every day, for several hours a day.

[BaronGrivet]

@DanDascalescu - I'm sorry to hear you're having issues. I only just retired that (gen 5) X1 after 5 years & never had any issues with the battery after doing this fix.