One more thing. I checked in my /sys directory again for the power_supply just to see what happens. When I checked the first time I must not have had the battery inserted because now I have AC and BAT0 in power_supply directory.
I ran ls -last on the BAT0 directory in the sys directory and this is what came up: total 0 0 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 06:06 alarm 0 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 2011-03-10 06:04 power 0 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 05:23 charge_full 0 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 05:23 charge_now 0 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 05:23 current_now 0 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 05:23 status 0 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 05:23 charge_full_design 0 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 05:23 manufacturer 0 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 05:23 model_name 0 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 05:23 present 0 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 05:23 serial_number 0 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 05:23 voltage_min_design 0 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 05:23 voltage_now 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 2011-03-10 05:23 device -> ../../../devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0A:00 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 2011-03-10 05:23 subsystem -> ../../power_supply 0 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 05:23 technology 0 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 05:23 uevent 0 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 05:23 type 0 drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 0 2011-03-10 05:22 . 0 drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 0 2011-03-10 05:22 .. I don't know if any of this is helpful but I just thought I'd share. Just to be sure I made certain the battery was inserted and removed the AC power and it still shuts off. On Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 3:43 PM, Bob Proulx <b...@proulx.com> wrote: > Peter Rapisarda wrote: > > cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/info > > present: yes > > This information is in conflict with the previous information that you > posted saying that you didn't have any battery directories but just AC > directories. Perhaps between then and now your battery became > connected? Because at boot time if the battery is detected then it > should provide this directory of information. If it isn't then it > doesn't. It is fully dynamic with every boot. The /proc isn't really > a filesystem but an interface to the kernel. It is a memory only > filesystem presenting an interface of information and controls. > > > design capacity: 4400 mAh > > The battery says it has a vendor new rating of 4.4 amp-hours. (It can > supply one amp of current for 4.4 hours. Or two amps of current for > 2.2 hours. A typical machine pulls between 1-2 amps during running > and that would normally provide between 2-4 hours of runtime.) > > > last full capacity: 3334 mAh > > The battery says that when last charged it was able to hold 3.3 amp > hours of charge. That is a degradation of 75% from new. That isn't > terribly terrible. My own main battery is sitting at around 90% at > the moment. (I have a big extended capacity 9 cell 7.7 AH battery. > The standard 6-cell for my machine has around 4.6 AH standard > capacity.) Batteries age over time as they are used. If it were > really very bad then I would expect it to say something down in the > one amp-hour range. > > The rest of the information is vaguely interesting data about the > battery and was pretty much as expected. But there was something that > seemed a little odd to me. > > > battery technology: rechargeable > > design voltage: 14800 mV > > design capacity warning: 440 mAh > > design capacity low: 133 mAh > > capacity granularity 1: 44 mAh > > capacity granularity 2: 44 mAh > > model number: DELL53LSN > > serial number: 678 > > battery type: LION > > OEM info: Sanyo > > > > cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/state > > present: yes > > capacity state: ok > > charging state: charged > > present rate: 1 mA > > remaining capacity: 4400 mAh > > present voltage: 16748 mV > > Here it is showing that while the battery is charged that it is still > charging the battery at a rate of 1 milli-amp. If it is charged then > I would expect the rate to be zero. Otherwise it will continue to > charge (although at a very slow rate) which will eventually "cook" the > battery. Excess charge can't be stored after the battery is fully > chemically converted and the excess energy will be converted to heat > energy. This is a topic that everyone has an opinion upon and my > opinion is that this often results in out-gassing of battery chemicals > resulting in reduced battery capacity. > > > Does this mean anything to you? And just to be clear this is the old, > > presumably non-functioning, battery. > > That data doesn't look like a non-functioning battery. It looks like > it has 3.3 AH of capacity. If you removed the AC power it should > provide power to your laptop for at least some while. If you could > see the rate that it was discharging at that time then you would be > able to calculate an approximate runtime for that battery. However I > have found that in practice the firmware calculating these values may > be wildly optimistic and the values may change wildly during > operation. In other words... You have to try it and see how well it > actually performs and even though it says 3.3 AH it may result in > something much different after a few battery cycles. > > But if you remove AC power and the machine drops out immediately > without any sign of battery being used then something bad is > happening. Perhaps the firmware is lying to you. It wouldn't be the > first time. Or something else must be wrong. At that point I don't > know. > > Bob >
