RetroFedThinkpad help - firmware update bricked battery?
(I hope this fits this community, if not I’d be glad to know where I can post it)
Updated my firmware on my thinkpad t580. This made my external battery (3rd party) jump from 64.8 Wh design capacity to 40.4 Wh design capacity (but the computer doesnt turn off when it is “empty”, this is a software bug).
AI’s theory: The firmware update made the system stricter towards 3rd party batteries, blocking it and reporting a dummy number. This is plausible because after the firmware update the battery is no longer reporting its mAh (used to display 6000 mAh).
Rolling back to my previous firmware version (which is supported on thinkpads via fwupd downgrade) didn’t fix it…
Has anyone experienced something similar? I also tried downgrading my kernel (hoping that an older kernel wouldn’t suffer from this for some reason) but it didn’t fix it.
Guesses or fix ideas that might break something are also welcome, I’m using NixOS.
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I would
a) Use the reset button to fully reset the ThinkPad using the Emergency Reset Button - this has solved more than one weird hardware error for me in the past.
b) Let the battery discharge completely, or at least to below 10% and then let it charge overnight to ensure it gets completely topped up.
If neither of those helps I would probably unseat the battery and plug it back in again just to check.
Thanks! Tried a) and the reset pinhole (and a BIOS reset) and didn’t fix it yet, battery has been charging overnight, will check soon
Sadly didn’t help. But thanks.
And tlp didn’t help either? Is your model one of those dual battery ones?
I vaguely remember some special consideration there to completely drain the laptop of power. I think you can disable the internal battery in bios somewhere before removing the external battery and the ac charge and then hold the power button for half a minute or so.
Dual battery, yes
I fear the chip inside the battery was overwritten, but will try that, thanks.
run tlp recalibrate? Rolling back firmware probably doesn’t help because it might not be reverting the EC firmware, which is used with the battery
btw battery information is in /sys/class/power_supply/BAT* if you want to check the raw values
It might also help if you report the BIOS and EC versions you see in the BIOS setup.
Recalibrated, now it still says design 40.4 Wh, but says current 45.15 Wh (literally 2 days ago it said design 64.8 Wh and current 64.8 Wh)
Thanks, will try that today.
BIOS: N27ET51W (0.1.37), the one I upgraded to was 0.1.41, then rolled back again.
EC: N27HT26W (0.1.15), don’t know if it rolled back too
https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-t-series-laptops/thinkpad-t580-type-20l9-20la/downloads/ds502394-bios-update-utility-bootable-cd-for-windows-10-64-bit-linux-thinkpad-p52s-t580?category=BIOS%2FUEFI
Thanks, this tells me my EC didn’t update which is great. I’ll report back what happened after recalibration of the battery, if that doesnt help could it fix it to reinstall BIOS using one of those ISOs?
Your EC is on the latest version, I don’t think it changed at all
The ISOs should be identical to fwupdmgr. They might also need Windows.
They need windows? I guess I’ll try without first, hopefully works.
Have you checked if the battery life has actually been reduced? I wouldn’t put too much trust in the number reported by the system anyways.
Battery life didn’t change, but it’s annoying that the laptop just sits at 1% with a few hours of battery life remaining
Battery life did change, only the first discharge still had the old battery life.
My guess is the chip on the battery for some reason reset itself and fell back to some generic standard of 40.4 Wh, it’s now cutting off further charting when reaching 45 Wh, thinking the battery isn’t made for more.
Huh, that’s surprising. Unfortunately I have no Idea how to fix this :/
Update: Wrote the manufacturer and I’m getting a new one for free (I love EU consumer rights)