Just put in the new battery and it started up right away with no AC power needed. I guess it was faulty hardware.
Thank you all so much (especially you Bob), -Pete On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 11:29 AM, Peter Rapisarda <peter.rapisa...@gmail.com>wrote: > 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 >> > >
