I bought one of the first batches of the L14. Unfortunately the original charger went dead a while ago (approx. half a year) and I started using a replacement charger with 19V and 2,37A so 45W.
For me it worked good. However, yesterday the battery just depleted to 0%. The battery was apparently switching between charging and not charging. I am using Qubes 4.2. I was watchng Netflix and did not recognise this until it was too late.
The current situation is as follows:
I can turn on the L14 with the battery plugged-in. However, it does not go past “Starting the new kernel”.
Without battery plugged-in, neither the 45W charger nor a USB-C 65W charger works. I have tried one for HP and another for lenovo notebook.
With battery plugged-in: The LED is green (charging)
Without battery and only charger: The LED is off and L14 does not turn on. You can here some noise from electricity/current but nothing works.
I have tried the steps described at the troubleshooting page, especially the last two steps. The resistor R839 seems to have been removed already before shipping by purism. I pust some non-conducitve tape on the two “silver domes”.
Yesterday, after taking the notebook apart and reassembling it, the battery seemed to be charging. In Pureboot → System Information I could see battery charge 23% for the first time and I was very happy. I powered-off and left it charging. Today I booted up and System Information told me 100%. I was so happy.
Since, the notebook was, however, not in the right place. I closed the casing (D-shell), disconnected it from the power supply and moved it to the other place. Now I am back to 0% according to System Information of Pureboot.
I’d be happy just to get it booting one more time and make another backup of my data.
Unfortunately, I cannot buy a replacement battery from Purism, since I am not residing in the US.
What can I do?
This to me does not specifically sound like a battery problem.
Even if you disconnect or remove the battery from the laptop, it should power up and function normally when it has AC (not so sure about USB-C)
You should test if your adapter (that previously worked fine) has power at the barrel connector or not. It’s easy to do, just insert a multimeter probe + into the connector and GND probe on the external metallic surface: then you should read if there is adequate voltage at the connector itself. If not, your AC adapter is toast (better outcome); otherwise if you read 19V or above, you have a bigger problem unfortunately.
Examine the receiving connector on the motherboard to see if not broken or loose
thanks a lot for your response. Adapter seems to be ok. Yes, it is a strange problem. Probably something on the mainboard needs resoldering.
The receiving connector seems to be ok and issue is also present with USB-C adapter(s).
Yes, I have contacted the Purism Support on Friday and will await further instructions. Unfortunately, I am not from the US, so probably only remote support possible.
Looks like a crazy-opensource BMIC, you need to buy i new battery in order to fix it permanently.
I know you want to use it without battery but this may need to change the EC firmware.
thanks
Hi carlosgonz,
sorry but I don’t really understand your comment
What is a BMIC?
What do you mean “change the EC firmware”? Is usage without battery not possible with current EC firmware? Is that the reason why I cannot boot without battery?
Best
BMIC: Battery Manager Integrated Chipset.
As far as i know, lot 0f L14 suffer from a defect or malfunction of the batteries. Only changing the battery it is the only option to solve the problem, if i remember well Purism published the battery model to buy it outside the Purism store. I dont know where that info is located.
Thanks for the detailed answer. Yes published here.
I ordered with a 4-cell battery. Unfortunately cannot find any store (except purism store) that has the model SSBS79.
However, I found some stores that seem to sell SSBS73 aftermarkets. Hope they will work.
It does not even power on without battery and just charger.
SSBS73 manufacturer is better, i recommend 3-cell battery for L14.
Weird, L14 need to boot without battery. Maybe something is wrong in Pureboot or EC or Charger. I mean my L14 boot without battery plug-in with original charger plus Coreboot.
