Battery not Present

Deanimator · 10-29-2013, 04:17 PM

I have a Toshiba Satellite M115-S3094 on which I installed ubuntu-12.04.3-desktop-i386 a few days ago.

Everything appears to be running properly, EXCEPT the battery is not recognized. The icon says (Battery not Present).

The BIOS has been updated to 1.90.

I've tried the various BIOS reset procedures.

I've seen some posts in other forums going back two or three years regarding either recompiling or patching the kernel. I would think that this issue would have been addressed by now.

Does anyone have a solution to this problem relevant to the current release that I have installed? Is it still a kernel patch/recompile, or is there a simpler fix?

Thanks.

yooy · 10-29-2013, 04:24 PM

why don't you try with newer version of ubuntu? maybe that is the fix.

Deanimator · 10-29-2013, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yooy

why don't you try with newer version of ubuntu? maybe that is the fix.

I thought that was the latest stable 32 bit version.

Which one would you suggest?

rokytnji · 10-29-2013, 04:47 PM

Try

Code:

acpi -b

or

Code:

acpitool -B

what ever number for BAT shows up in acpitool in my experience is the right battery number to put into you config for the battery icon (depending on desktop environment)

Eg: My netbook

Code:

$ acpitool -B
  Battery #1     : present
    Remaining capacity : unknown, 96.00%
    Design capacity    : 6600 mA
    Last full capacity : 6600 mA
    Present rate       : unknown m
    Charging state     : Charging
    Battery type       : Li-ion 
    Model number       : ClassMate
    Serial number      : 00001

You might not have acpitool installed though. It will tell you if that is so and how to install it. Same for acpi.

Deanimator · 10-29-2013, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rokytnji

Try

Code:

acpi -b

or

Code:

acpitool -B

what ever number for BAT shows up in acpitool in my experience is the right battery number to put into you config for the battery icon (depending on desktop environment)

Eg: My netbook

Code:

$ acpitool -B
  Battery #1     : present
    Remaining capacity : unknown, 96.00%
    Design capacity    : 6600 mA
    Last full capacity : 6600 mA
    Present rate       : unknown m
    Charging state     : Charging
    Battery type       : Li-ion 
    Model number       : ClassMate
    Serial number      : 00001

You might not have acpitool installed though. It will tell you if that is so and how to install it. Same for acpi.

I'll give that a try, thanks.

Deanimator · 10-30-2013, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rokytnji

Try

Code:

acpi -b

or

Code:

acpitool -B

what ever number for BAT shows up in acpitool in my experience is the right battery number to put into you config for the battery icon (depending on desktop environment)

Eg: My netbook

Code:

$ acpitool -B
  Battery #1     : present
    Remaining capacity : unknown, 96.00%
    Design capacity    : 6600 mA
    Last full capacity : 6600 mA
    Present rate       : unknown m
    Charging state     : Charging
    Battery type       : Li-ion 
    Model number       : ClassMate
    Serial number      : 00001

You might not have acpitool installed though. It will tell you if that is so and how to install it. Same for acpi.

I installed and ran both.

acpi -b shows battery #0 and no data and states that it will never charge.

acpitool -B shows data for battery #1.

The battery icon on the toolbar shows (not present).

What now?

rokytnji · 10-30-2013, 06:06 PM

Quote:

acpi -b shows battery #0 and no data and states that it will never charge.

Sounds Like a Hardware problem.

Quote:

acpitool -B shows data for battery #1.

I can't guess what it showed so

Quote:

The battery icon on the toolbar shows (not present).

What now?

Stab in the dark

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2066353

Deanimator · 10-31-2013, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rokytnji

Sounds Like a Hardware problem.

I can't guess what it showed so

Stab in the dark

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2066353

The machine's something like five years old, so I ordered a new battery yesterday. It should be here tomorrow.

I inherited the machine from my mother who replaced it with a new one since I was unable to go there and straighten out all of her O/S (Windows XP Media Center Ed.) issues for her. I think she used the battery a grand total of once, and then only by accident.

The machine shuts off when you pull the battery cable. I don't know if this is because the battery's bad, or because it can't charge due to O/S issues. This will eliminate one possibility. I could have sworn that the battery worked when I got it a couple of months ago. I've only had it on enough to straighten out Windows, upgrade the memory, and then ditch Windows for Ubuntu.

I'll report back when the battery gets here.

Thanks.

business_kid · 11-02-2013, 03:30 PM

The usual cycle for this issue is: Battery is overcharged, or simply charged too often, and starts leaking; Laptop starts consuming more power but nobody notices; things get worse; then either
1. Power supply blows or
2. Charge circuit goes, and the battery is not recognised - like this box I am using.

Deanimator · 11-04-2013, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

The usual cycle for this issue is: Battery is overcharged, or simply charged too often, and starts leaking; Laptop starts consuming more power but nobody notices; things get worse; then either
1. Power supply blows or
2. Charge circuit goes, and the battery is not recognised - like this box I am using.

We'll find out as soon as I get the battery.

Deanimator · 11-08-2013, 02:27 PM

I just picked up the battery.

It's installed and shows present and charging.

Looks like the old battery was bad, although it had only ever been intentionally used once in five+ years.

Thanks to everyone who helped.