Odd battery drain while Toshiba A205 is powered off

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Helmsdeeper

Odd battery drain while Toshiba A205 is powered off

Post by Helmsdeeper »

Recently I installed Elyssa on my Toshiba A205-S4707 laptop over both Vista and Klikit .1-9RC2, letting it take the whole drive. So far Elyssa runs great, and since I've heard bad things about Toshiba laptops not playing well with linux I figure I'm doing pretty darn good so far.
However the issue is battery drain while the laptop is powered off.
I can have a fully charged battery, power the laptop completely off & unplug the external power cord, then turn the laptop back on 12 hours later and the battery life will be down to 70-80% while it was sitting. I am not selecting sleep or hibernate either so I am at a loss. It never did this while Vista was on the hd, battery power would stay full or close to it.
If I pull the battery pack out after being full charged & put it back in the next day it stays full.
Any ideas or suggestions (other than putting vista back on :lol: ) ?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Husse

Re: Odd battery drain while Toshiba A205 is powered off

Post by Husse »

Toshiba and Linux don't play nicely
I have to see if I find something about this, but it will take time as it is such an odd thing
Toshiba Response Team

Re: Odd battery drain while Toshiba A205 is powered off

Post by Toshiba Response Team »

Sounds like a tricky situation. Unfortunately, this problem seems pretty complicated so I don't have a solid answer for you, however, I can direct you to a site that might be able to help you out. Consider checking out the Answers from Laptop Experts site sponsored by Toshiba. The experts on there should be able to help you out with your Toshiba. laptopexperts.net

Good Luck!

-Toshiba Response Team
Helmsdeeper

Re: Odd battery drain while Toshiba A205 is powered off

Post by Helmsdeeper »

Thanks, I'll check out laptopexperts.net.
I appreciate the help!
*********
Update
I have submitted my problem on the laptopexperts website, now waiting for a response.
Helmsdeeper

Re: Odd battery drain while Toshiba A205 is powered off

Post by Helmsdeeper »

I have yet to receive a response or a confirmation email from http://www.laptopexperts.net.
It looks like I'll just have to continue to leave the battery out until I get ready to use the laptop.
Husse

Re: Odd battery drain while Toshiba A205 is powered off

Post by Husse »

I've been thinking - Microsoft gets to see all the specs - the Linux developers not
There may be some firmware thing that cannot be handled well by Linux because of this so something is not turned off completely
I've noted something similar in my HP530
Helmsdeeper

Re: Odd battery drain while Toshiba A205 is powered off

Post by Helmsdeeper »

Hmm, not yours too. :shock: I was kinda wondering if something like that might be the culprit. I wonder if the shutdown logs might offer a clue as to what might not be getting properly powered down....hmm.
So have you tried taking the battery out for a few days to give it a good test? I'd be real curious to see.
Husse

Re: Odd battery drain while Toshiba A205 is powered off

Post by Husse »

Come to think of it - my wifes Toshiba laptop with XP has a battery drain in "Off mode" too...
Helmsdeeper

Re: Odd battery drain while Toshiba A205 is powered off

Post by Helmsdeeper »

Husse wrote:Come to think of it - my wifes Toshiba laptop with XP has a battery drain in "Off mode" too...
I have considered buying an extra battery pack to try, mine came with the standard 6cell 10.8V/4000mAH pack model #PA3534U-1BRS.
Just to check, I put the battery back in just now and fired it up. I haven't used it since Monday morning @ 6am (was fully charged). Mint comes up and I've got 97% with an estimated 1hr 45minutes.
Husse

Re: Odd battery drain while Toshiba A205 is powered off

Post by Husse »

I found the cause for my HP. The battery was not inserted correctly, so it was not charged. It was a very minute difference, impossible to notice - or it was just that I removed and inserted it again - don't know...
Helmsdeeper

Re: Odd battery drain while Toshiba A205 is powered off

Post by Helmsdeeper »

I wish I were so lucky. I left my battery in since my last post, turned it on this morning and it was down to 74%.
Glad you got your wifes working properly.
Helmsdeeper

Re: Odd battery drain while Toshiba A205 is powered off

Post by Helmsdeeper »

Update -
I just received a response from laptopexperts.net, interesting to say the least especially the part about the Asus EEE. Looks like I am not alone. Here is a paste of it....
-------------------------------------
"Helmsdeeper,

I found your post on the Linux Mint forums–evidently you submitted a question some time ago, but I literally received it just this evening. I apologize for any delay.

I ran this past Ryan at Ars Technica, as he’s the person who handles all aspects of our Linux/OSS coverage. He and I agree—the only way this could be a software bug is if there’s a bug in the distro’s power management software. Ryan says this is possible—apparently his Asus EEE has a similar problem. A laptop that’s gone into deep sleep or hibernation is physically indistinguishable from a laptop that’s been shut off; the only way to tell the difference would be if an LED remains on or blinking, and that’s obviously not occurring.

It looks like this is what’s occurring. You write: “If I pull the battery pack out after being fully charged & put it back in the next day or even a few days later it stays full or at least upper-mid 90% range.”

This is what I’d expect, given our hypothesis. If the laptop *isn’t* shutting down all the way, pulling the battery out while it’s disconnected from AC power would complete the shutdown process. Put the battery back in, at that point, and the laptop is off–no drain occurs.

As for what your options are, I think you have several. You can try talking to whoever manages the Mint Elyssa distro—I have no idea what your chances are of establishing a solid line of communication, proving the bug, or even getting them to look for it are, but it’s worth a shot. Alternatively, you can try a different Linux distro, and see if they work properly. The bug, however its occurring, is probably within how the OS communicates power states to the CPU.

If you can’t establish a dialog or find an alternative distro, you still have the option of using Windows XP. If you aren’t willing to do that, or don’t want to pay for an old OS, then yes, I’d say you’re back to using Vista."
------------------------------------------

I appreciate their response, though long in coming I'm very grateful. I had already given up on a response so this was welcome news indeed.

Since Ryan @ Ars Technica has experienced this with the EEE it brings me to wonder (or assume) if his EEE is still running the default Xandros that ships with the unit or another distro, which kernel is being ran etc. My install of Elyssa is very stock, default 2.6.24 kernel with no mods. I have only added a couple of programs (like banshee, gftp) since install.

I am very pleased with Mint, but may try dualbooting a different distro to see if battery drainage is handled differently upon shutdown. I guess the question of the day would be which distro/kernel etc to try? I suspect since Elyssa has the 8.04 core with Mint extras I might need to try non-buntu distros to avoid redundancy, such as Debian, Fedora, PClos etc. Any suggestions would be appreciated. :)
Husse

Re: Odd battery drain while Toshiba A205 is powered off

Post by Husse »

Perhaps even a non Debian...
I am stumped...
To take it from the beginning - this is with the laptop shut down, not suspend?
Helmsdeeper

Re: Odd battery drain while Toshiba A205 is powered off

Post by Helmsdeeper »

Yes, always shut off. Honestly, with Elyssa I have never even tried hibernate or suspend. Two days ago I shut off the laptop with the battery @ 80%, it was not plugged in just running on battery power. Once fully shut down I popped the battery out for about 20 seconds plus even pushed the the power button to possibly drain any left-over power. Then I reinserted the battery, whereas before I always was just leaving the battery out till the next time I used it, and put the laptop away in my carry case. Today I pulled the Toshiba out, fired it up, once the desktop was up and running the battery showed 78%, dropped only 2%. Now that is normal! If I never had popped the battery out it would have probably been down to around 60%.

I have just downloaded the new Lenny kde live cd, and am in the process of downloading the Fedora 10 Alpha live torrent. I may also give the Mepis 8 beta a try as well. I plan on leaving Mint on the drive and either dual or triple boot the others if all checks out fine running live first. I hate the thought of all the extra wear on the battery contacts this will have in the long run, so I may very well end up with just living with the drainage problem.
Sheaky

Re: Odd battery drain while Toshiba A205 is powered off

Post by Sheaky »

For what its worth, I have the same problem with a Toshiba Satellite A105 running Elyssa. I have been removing the battery completley after shutdown to stop the drain. I will try the trick of just removing for a short time and see if that works. BTW doing an init 0, and turning off the wireless switch didn't help so the problem is deeper in the power management than that. My guess is that the smarts in the battery pack are not being told to stop.
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