Librem 14 Charging Issue

Hardware
21

So after resetting the charging going up?

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22

Im going to be using the system a lot more and stressing out the laptop with my workflow. I’ll update the thread with the results.

2 Likes
23

But shouldn’t the charger supply power to the L14 without any power going to the battery?

2 Likes
24

depends on how the power delivery system is designed

3 Likes
25

e.c v1.5: The last 2 week i used my L14 to convert a movie from one format to another so L14 was like 2 hours of full cpu intensive use, i didn’t liked too that the L14 was quite hot and the fans at moderate speed, when the fans should have been at full speed to cooling down the machine. : (

26

i mean i code and run several VMs… laptops can run hot, but not to worried about that. These things are well built from what I’ve seen with internals so… plus CPUs can run 80-90c on laptops during heavy use.

1 Like
27

After updating to the latest EC firmware 1.9, the charging is not happening if left the charging wire is plugged in continuously. I need to keep track of whether it charges or not; if not, I need to plug out and plug in, again and again, to make sure it starts charging again. And it stops charging at some point again where I need to repeat the process. And I have to admit that it’s a heavily slow charging process…

28

I think I experienced same issue when charging over DC jack, but not over USB-C. The charging led was orange, the % of charge was not raising and the laptop made some noise.

I have EC firmware 1.9 and QubesOS. I’ve set charging thresholds.

@nicole.faerber is it some known issue or should I try to investigate it further?

2 Likes
29

Exactly at the times of not charging and in DC jack charging cable connection, the fan noise starts. But as we disconnect and connect, the fan noise stops as it charges again.

As this is new EC update, most people might’ve not yet updated. So, people might din face the issue yet.

30

I did not mean FAN noise, but some electric high pitch buzzing.

31

I din observe that…

32

Have you already tried unplugging power + laptop battery + BIOS Battery for a bit? Then retrying charging? That has fix the issue for some.

33

Grmpf, yes, I found another issue, we cranked up the charge current and CPU power usage a bit too much and now if you draw a lot of power and try to charge battery at the same time you may trip the charger.

This can definitely be worked around by disconnecting the charger, power off or going into suspend and then start charging.

I am implementing workarounds in a new tree here:

Concerning type-C and barrel charging, these should make no difference at all. If there is a difference then there is something weird going on. The only difference may be caused by the different chargers used. In any case the charger in use must be able to provide at least 65W, a 45W charger will cause issue like the above very soon, even with the new EC branch. Since the EC does not know what kind of charger is being connected we have to make some assumptions and this right now is 65W since this is the smallest charger we ever shipped for the L14.

Cheers
nicole

2 Likes
34

@nicole.faerber I saw you can set the power consumption levels. I would like to tune it my self. Mainly because the heat and fan noise.

The gui uses some files to set it up, but I don’t have these on my system. Do I need some new version of librem-ec-acpi? I think I’ve had latest master.

35

Can you be a bit more specific?
The files librem-control uses in /sys have been there for some years now (Intel RAPL).

Cheers
nicole

1 Like
36

I’ve read about “Librem Control” GUI somewhere and from the source I found you can set power cap:

I don’t have the /sys/devices/virtual/powercap/intel-rapl/ In Qubes Dom0. Do I need load some module?

Tere are some loaded already:

[root@dom0 ~]# lsmod |grep rapl
intel_rapl_msr         20480  0
processor_thermal_rapl    20480  1 processor_thermal_device
intel_rapl_common      32768  2 intel_rapl_msr,processor_thermal_rapl
1 Like
37

Oh. Qubes.
Sorry, but then I can not help you with that. The RAPL interface is the one and only one I am aware of to do this.

Cheers
nicole

1 Like
38

Hi @nicole.faerber, same problem here. My librem is charging so slow, that I can’t use it when it’s below 20%. When I use it, while charging, and I’m not running anything but my email software, the level just keeps dropping till shut down. Can’t turn it on, not enough power. After this I have to wait for hours until I can use it again without the laptop shuts down soon again.
I checked your link, but I’m not sure if understand this :slight_smile: (I’ve been
linux minded for years, but my code knowledge is pretty limited :wink: ).
What’s the way around this problem.
BTW: I used to have fan noise issues and sudden crashes since the day I had this laptop, and with the latest EC firmware these are now finally over. So that’s great news.

39

My L14 is charging super-slow… I plugged it 2h ago and now it’s still at 26%, another “5:46 Until full”. Is this a normal charging time?

40

Yes it normal ATM.