Is my Laptop battery shot

[lefty1337]

Recently purchased a lenovo t61 off a friend of mine. the battery lasted all of 30 minutes on a full charge. Decided to download TLP and see how it does. After battery shows 11hours at full charge after disconnect of AC connector. within a minutes it shows 1hour charge left and drops pretty quickly from there, about 30 to 40 minutes till dead.

power statistics shows this information:

Device- battery_BAT0
type- laptop battery
Vendor- Panasonic
Model- 42t5225
serial number- 3742
supply- yes
refreshed- 0 seconds
present- yes
recharable- yes
state- charging
energy- 26.8Wh
energy when empty- 0Wh
Energy when full- 26.8Wh
Energy (design)- 37.4Wh
rate- 8.1W
Voltage 16.7V
time to full- 0seconds
time to empty0 seconds
percentage- 100%
capaity- 71.6%
technology- lithium ion

I understand that there is generally always a variance in "energy when full" and "Energy (design). But i am not sure when that gap is considered to large. Thanks in advance for any help.

System:
Linux mint 18.3 64bit
cinnamon version 3.6.7
kernel 4.13.0-32-generic
intel t7300

[Moem]

Yup. Since it lasts all of 30 minutes on a full charge, you know all you need to know.
It's gone to meet its maker, shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-battery.

[lefty1337]

I reckon I was overthinking it. Had some issues after installing TLP, saw me maybe messing up tlp after I had to change settings (Was loosing network connection, and couldn't update ppa repos in batterymode), still having the repo update issue.

But I did order a new 9 cell yesterday, it will be arriving tomorrow.

Thanks moem for taking the time to reply to such a basic and simple question! Much appreciation.

[Moem]

You're welcome, in two different ways!

[jimallyn]

I have heard a number of times that Linux doesn't run on battery as long as that other OS, but 30 or 40 minutes is ridiculous. Do let us know how long it run on the new battery, though. I'm curious.

[lefty1337]

I definitely will! it should be here tomorrow. any tips on its first charges to ensure i get it off on the right track?

[catweazel]

I definitely will! it should be here tomorrow. any tips on its first charges to ensure i get it off on the right track?

Yes, give it a good overnight charge without turning it on. The charger will continue to trickle-charge the battery even though it might show as fully charged. When I say 'without turning it on', I mean don't turn it on at all, even to test. Just plug in the new battery and charge it.

[lefty1337]

Amazon lies about 2 day. First problem I've ever had out of them. Arrived today, just plugged it up to the t61 while it is off. Currently 7:49pm and will be taking it off the charger at 6:30am when I leave.

[Joe2Shoe]

Lots of cheapo laptop batteries out there for sale. But I don't buy one unless it has Samsung cells and a 1 year warranty.
I've had good luck with BND brand on Amazon. They usually cost around $30.00 + Free S/H.
I got 1 DOA battery from them, but they quickly shipped me another new battery.
Good luck.

[Joe2Shoe]

Once a month I usually unplug the AC adaptor from the laptop, and let the laptop run until the battery is completely drained.
Then I charge it again.
On a new battery, I repeat this process 3 times in a row, then use normally until next month.
This keeps the battery functioning very well for quite a few years.

[lefty1337]

Well battery charged all night. took it to work and never cut it on. got home tonight at about 8pm. percentage in the system tray says 98% and 2 hours of battery life. its a nine cell. i plugged it back up and we shall see how it looks in about an hour.

Is it possible that i am missing a driver or an issue related to the lenovo itself?

[catweazel]

Is it possible that i am missing a driver or an issue related to the lenovo itself?

No.

Btw, I wouldn't take the advice to discharge the battery to zero once month. Doing that will certainly shorten its life.

It could be that you can save some power use. Please post the output of this terminal command:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

Enclose the results in code markers "</>", which you can select from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply.

[lefty1337]

Code: Select all

lefty@Saruman ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: Saruman Kernel: 4.13.0-32-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine:   System: LENOVO (portable) product: 765912U v: ThinkPad T61
           Mobo: LENOVO model: 765912U
           Bios: LENOVO v: 7LETC9WW (2.29 ) date: 03/18/2011
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core2 Duo T7300 (-MCP-) cache: 4096 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 7979
           clock speeds: max: 2001 MHz 1: 1600 MHz 2: 1200 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary)
           bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1280x800@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 965GM
           GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 17.2.8 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.13.0-32-generic
Network:   Card-1: Intel 82566MM Gigabit Network Connection
           driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: 1840 bus-ID: 00:19.0
           IF: enp0s25 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Intel PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN [Kedron] Network Connection
           driver: iwl4965 v: in-tree: bus-ID: 03:00.0
           IF: wls3 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (3.0% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: Hitachi_HTS54755 size: 500.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 455G used: 11G (3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.22GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 40.0C mobo: 30.0C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 0
Info:      Processes: 184 Uptime: 4 min Memory: 919.2/3872.4MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35 
lefty@Saruman ~ $ 

also i have tlp installed. it was a recommended battery software to me

[lefty1337]

Update, from 100% to 93% the llife expectancy has gone up from 2 hours to 4 hours. this is strange to me, but i guss im okay with the readings. any battery savy individuals care to explain?

[catweazel]

...

Ok, that's helpful. Your graphics device is native to the CPU so that's ok. The next thing is to look at reducing the overall power footprint.

Try this.

You've done the last one already. Also, it doesn't mention turning off all the Cinnamon bells and whistles eye candy, which is something you can look at. I don't use Cinnamon but I think you'll find what you're looking for in System Settings.

[thx-1138]

Energy when full- 26.8Wh
Energy (design)- 37.4Wh
rate- 8.1W
capacity- 71.6%

I understand that there is generally always a variance in "energy when full" and "Energy (design). But i am not sure when that gap is considered to large. Thanks in advance for any help.

26.8 / 37.4 = 0.716...ie. 71.6% (as reported in the capacity values). What that means is that the battery has lost 28.4% of it's original abilities.
Or, better said, that's what it's firmware reports. Unless it's faulty (and the reported values are foobar thereby), then *something* must be draining it too fast.
Try disabling bluetooth from autostarting, it's almost always the no1 suspect. If this laptop has a discrete card, try disabling it & use the integrated one: having both enabled can easily reduce battery duration by 40%...If under Cinnamon, disable effects / 3d accel related stuff.
sudo apt-get install powertop: check which devices draw more Watts...

For a simple comparison, on my laptop:
Energy when full- 35.5Wh
Energy (design)- 39.7Wh
Discharge rate is roughly around 7-7.5 (when idling), compared to 8.1 above...

It lasts around 4.45hrs (again, theorically speaking, supposedly if being idle). With tlp, around 5.10hrs.
Not all hardware behaves the same of course, but roughly speaking, with your values above, i'd expect at least 3hrs+ say 3.5hrs...

Update, from 100% to 93% the llife expectancy has gone up from 2 hours to 4 hours. this is strange to me, but i guss im okay with the readings. any battery savy individuals care to explain?

The first few moments after (most?) batteries have been fully charged almost always report ridiculous foobar values (eg. like...181 hrs remaining),and as you saw yourself, 2-3 minutes afterwards they start reporting normally...