FC12 battery information

[Kevin J. Cummings]

On 01/10/2010 07:40 AM, Robert Moskowitz wrote:
> I just got a BIG 9 cell battery for my HP nc2400.  Before I had an old 3 
> cell battery that was only good for 1 hr.
> 
> So the system is charging and Fedora is reporting the battery is 100% 
> charge.
> 
> The battery info is now reading 70.3 Wh with a design charge of 12.7 Wh 
> (the old battery was labeled at 28Wh, but it was old).  The spec for 
> this battery is ~84Wh.
> 
> What does it take to get FC to reread the battery info from the battery? 
>   Oh, the system was in hibernation when I inserted the new battery.  I 
> let the battery charge for ~20min before turning it on.

I've swapped a new battery into a running system before, and I agree,
its a pain that the system doesn't re-read the specs for the new
battery.  I'm not sure where the problem lies, in the software not
noticing the change of the battery type, or the hardware not being able
to deal with it.

What I can tell you is that since I replaced my dying 9 cell battery
with a new one (but slightly different), I've had nothing but strange
problems with the battery applet getting confused about the new
battery's capacity.  Its fine right after a cold boot, when the battery
is fully charged, but, if I run on battery for a while, then re-plug in
the power, it eventually gets confused.  Just now (with a full battery)
I unplugged and the battery applet tells me that I'm running at 8.9% of
capacity and have 1 hour and 50 minutes of battery time left.  The time
is right, but the percentage is all wrong.

I just plugged back in, and now it reads 9.0%, Current charge: 54.6Wh,
Design charge: 73.3Wh, Last full charge: 607.6 Wh.  WTF?

-- 
Kevin J. Cummings
kjchome at rcn.com
cummings at kjchome.homeip.net
cummings at kjc386.framingham.ma.us
Registered Linux User #1232 (http://counter.li.org)