Librem 14 Battery Won't Charge

Hardware Librem 14
10

I have seen the same problem with the trackpad on the L14 with a 4-cell battery. Is this dangerous?

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I would be interested to hear of your solution as I might contact them depending upon the outcome. Thanks!

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Yes it is.

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A swelling Lithium battery, if that’s what you have, is never a good sign!

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When it hatches, will you get little Triple-A’s?

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I was actually hoping for twins.

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That the trackpad is pushed up because the battery has expanded is a design flaw.

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17

Same link using my AnonymousOverflow instance:

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Well, design flaw or not, I can tell you that the volume of the 4-cell battery was significantly more than 1.5% when I removed it from the laptop. I don’t know exactly what went wrong in there, and I certainly wasn’t going to keep it in my house to find out.

In any event, it’s now been nearly 3 months since I recieved the replacement 3-cell battery, and almost 2.5 months since I notified Purism Support about it. (Using the instructions here.) Apart from the automated GitLab Support Bot, I have not received any response whatsoever. I’ve been running my laptop on AC power only with no battery in the case. I sent a follow-up e-mail to Purism about a month ago, but all I got out of that was a notice that a new ticket had been submitted.

I’m pretty disappointed, if I’m honest. Yes, the laptop is fully functional on AC power, and yes, I don’t often need to use it on the go these days, but it’s the principle of the thing.

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@JCS will ping the support team for you.

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20

Given a complete lack of any contact, much less support, from Purism itself I felt compelled to send this e-mail to both support@puri.sm and feedback@puri.sm today. I was not surprised at all to find that I received no response other than the GitLab bot. Twice. So be it.

Hello,

It has now been over 3 months since I first contacted Purism support regarding the replacement battery I ordered back in September of 2024. Since that time, my Librem 14 has been without a functional battery, and without any real mobility.

I have contacted support no fewer than 3 times during the past 3 months, with no response other than from an e-mail bot. While the laptop remains functional provided an AC adaptor, that isn’t the point. The battery Purism sent me is now long past the return window, and I am still unable to power the laptop using it, nor am I (apparently) able to illicit a response from Purism support (other than the GitLab bot, which doesn’t count). I will be replacing this Librem14 with a competitor’s model in the near future.

I understand that Purism is a small company. I appreciate that your staff are undoubtedly under a great deal of pressure, particularly near the end of the calendar year. However, a 3+ month delay in support responding to a request is unacceptable, by any business model.

At this stage, I expect that I will eat the cost of this battery. I can accept that. However, I will no longer be doing business with Purism. While I am in 100% agreement with Purism’s goals and philosophy, there is too much evidence that the company is over capacity, under staffed, and under funded. I do wish you the best of luck in the future because I truly do believe in the vision you offer. I only hope you are able to secure the funding, staff, and support necessary to make it a reality.

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Purism onsite staff is currently on a break:

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@JCS ?

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But given that the OP hasn’t received anything but a bot response for 3 months … is there really any difference in response when the onsite staff is on break?

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The difference is that a staff break is guaranteed to have no response from the respective staff, regardless of circumstances.

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This may have been affected by the logistical restrictions on shipping batteries standalone, which are reportedly close to full resolution.

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The issue here is that the OP only had bot communications for 3 months. That’s a “communication issue” … not a “logistical restrictions issue”.

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It’s both!

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The support team had originally responded on 5 November, and it appears that @physics never saw/received that message. I followed up 26 December, and another team member followed up again today.

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@JCS In case communications are still being lost to the internet bitbuckets, here are the last 2 e-mails:

January 7th from Purism:

I apologize as JC said for the communications issues that prevented us from resolving this issue for you. Could you please let me know how you would like to proceed to correct this?

We will cover inbound shipping for any option, so there is no cost to you.

We could exchange your 3-cell battery for a new 4-cell battery, which will work in your Librem 14 with no fixes needed.
We could ship your Librem 14 in to our facility in Carlsbad, CA, where we would apply the needed fix to your Librem 14 and reactivate your 3-cell battery.
If you'd prefer not to ship in your Librem 14, and you prefer the 3-cell battery, I can provide instructions to apply the needed fix yourself or at a local repair shop. The charging fix requires some small soldering (any repair shop could do this), and reactivating the battery requires a bench supply.

Please let me know how you would like to proceed, and we’ll be happy to resolve this for you.

– Purism Support

And the reply on January 9th from me:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting me. I would prefer to just exchange the 3-cell for a new 4-cell.

Thank you

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