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I have had a Dell Latitude-5501 (with Linux Mint 19.3 MATE) laptop for about a year. A day or two ago it stopped charging over 79% plus the battery drains pretty quickly.

I do not remember installing anything special and of course, I did not change the computer hardware.

I tried to charge the battery even when the computer was off. Charging in different sockets in the house or disconnecting and reconnecting the charger also doesn't help.

upower -i /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT0
  native-path:          BAT0
  vendor:               BYD
  model:                DELL 3PCVM9B
  serial:               17481
  power supply:         yes
  updated:              Tue 16 Feb 2021 10:58:40 IST (67 seconds ago)
  has history:          yes
  has statistics:       yes
  battery
    present:             yes
    rechargeable:        yes
    state:               charging
    warning-level:       none
    energy:              43.4416 Wh
    energy-empty:        0 Wh
    energy-full:         54.6288 Wh
    energy-full-design:  68.0048 Wh
    energy-rate:         0.130286 W
    voltage:             16.906 V
    percentage:          79%
    capacity:            80.3308%
    technology:          lithium-polymer
    icon-name:          'battery-full-charging-symbolic'
  History (rate):

System Info:

System:    Host: eden-Latitude-5501 Kernel: 5.4.0-58-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc 
           v: 7.5.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.4.8 wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia 
           base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Latitude 5501 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 10 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Dell model: 0Y8H01 v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 1.6.1 date: 11/14/2019 



Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 40.8 Wh condition: 54.6/68.0 Wh (80%) volts: 17.5/15.2 
           model: BYD DELL 3PCVM9B serial: <filter> status: Charging
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3 Answers 3

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If the battery doesn't charge over 80% while switched off, it doesn't seem to be a problem with linux.

Wrong guess: The battery 68Wh has 4 cells, so I'm shure one cell mostly died. Having a short in the cell would also explain the quick battery drain.

Add: Do you have the possibility to switch battery or laptop for a day?

Add: Seems it was a driver issue.

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  • I'm not convinced that's the reason. The operating system can put certain restrictions at the BIOS level. I wanted to know if there is a way to perform a battery analysis
    – Eden Moshe
    Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 14:29
  • If there are restrictions for off, you can find them in the BIOS. Normally in the section Energy. If there is nothing shown, there is nothing. Unless you have some CIA hacked your Laptop and they wanted to play with you.
    – Bru
    Commented Feb 17, 2021 at 7:03
  • So: I updated all the drivers, and updated to linux mint 20.1. I completely discharged the battery, I charged up to 79%. I turned off the computer and charged. Reached 100% . Thanks for the help, you deserve voteUp
    – Eden Moshe
    Commented Feb 17, 2021 at 11:06
  • Nice to hear it workes again as it should. The BIOS options Eddy763 mentioned shouldn't be used by modern batteries. I mean batteries not older than 10 Years... But better check. Thats why theese options shouldn't be there on modern laptops. Only my very old ones have theese. But there the batteries have died anyway.
    – Bru
    Commented Feb 17, 2021 at 13:44
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So: I updated all the drivers, and updated to linux mint 20.1. I completely discharged the battery, And then charged up to 79%. I turned off the computer and charged. Reached 100%

upower -i /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT0
  native-path:          BAT0
  vendor:               BYD
  model:                DELL 3PCVM9B
  serial:               17481
  power supply:         yes
  updated:              Wed 17 Feb 2021 13:02:48 (5 seconds ago)
  has history:          yes
  has statistics:       yes
  battery
    present:             yes
    rechargeable:        yes
    state:               discharging
    warning-level:       none
    energy:              54.6288 Wh
    energy-empty:        0 Wh
    energy-full:         54.6288 Wh
    energy-full-design:  68.0048 Wh
    energy-rate:         4.2256 W
    voltage:             16.969 V
    time to empty:       12.9 hours
    percentage:          100%
    capacity:            80.3308%
    technology:          lithium-polymer
    icon-name:          'battery-full-symbolic'
  History (charge):
    1613559761  100.000 fully-charged
  History (rate):
    1613559768  4.226   discharging
    1613559761  0.015   fully-charged
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On some Dell notebook BIOS, you can configure this for reducing the count of charge cycles and advance the life of your battery.

This are for life expanding of your battery like this:

  • configure a max charge value p.e. 80% # Thats what you are asked for. This configuration is related to, LiIo battery have the longest life span if the battery allways charged in a range of 30 to 70 % of his capacity. (Thats are diffrent by other battery types.)

By the way, they are the follow way for advance the life span of your battery to:

  • configure to charge onla if the charge are lower than p.e. 70%
  • configure fast charging for lower life or or no fast charging for longer life of batery
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