Re: psu or firmware?
On Mon 20 Jul 2020 at 17:58:46 (+0100), Graham Seaman wrote:
>
> So the new battery came, precharged to 75%. Left the power in for 30
> minutes, stayed at 75%. Took the power out, dropped to 72% pretty
> quickly. Put the power back in and it stays at 72%. So the motherboard
> is reading the battery power ok but not charging it, although it
> thinks it is, and I have a motherboard fault.
>
> I do use it as a laptop not a server, mainly for browsing and text
> editing, and at home cos its too heavy to lug around. I can carry on
> using it like that just plugged into the adaptor, although the power
> plug is a bit loose and tends to fall out unexpectedly which may well
> eventually leave me with a corrupted hard drive. I either invest in
> some sticky tape to hold it in place or try to peer at the mother
> board and hope I find a popped capacitor or something I have a hope of
> fixing. Sticky tape it is then.
My laptops run a background job in X that sets the backgound colour of
the root window according to the state of the battery and, with higher
priority, the temperature of the CPU. So my ranking is
brown toast, < 15°C below critical
red frying, < 20°C below critical
DarkViolet discharging, < 10% left
DeepPink discharging, < 25% left
yellow discharging
green full
linen not charging, but not full
DarkTurquoise charging a little
DarkGreen charging
blue charging a lot
linen was a later addition: when AC is restored but the battery is
over ~95%, one doesn't charge, but just runs on the AC.
The green/yellow transition makes it very obvious when the AC power
gets disconnected for any reason.
However, this laptop, the lenovo, no longer has a functioning power
regulation. The battery shows full at all times, but if the AC is
interrupted, it's dead. It doesn't help that the connector (a USB-A
look-alike) is loose fitting, so the laptop now has to be a static
desktop, with its power cord twisted and trapped underneath in such
a manner that it can't move around.
It's not worth spending any money on because, after a hard life,
. the touchpad doesn't click any more,
. the screen is coming away from the casing at the hinge, so closing
or opening it is a delicate operation,
. the USB sockets are about as loose as the power one with some sticks,
. I've had to strap a straightened coathook to the PSU because the
cable's strain relief has broken, leaving the wires exposed and
vulnerable. (It's a replacement PSU.)
I suppose if push came to shove, and Vostros were common enough, you
might be able get another machine to charge the battery pack for you.
Cheers,
David.
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