powertop does not accurately determine battery discharge rate on HP Elitebook 850 G5

[Phil Grohe]

### Summary: powertop does not accurately determine battery discharge rate on HP Elitebook 850 G5 ###

### Description ###
On an HP Elitebook 850 G5 running Ubuntu 18.10 powertop does not accurately report the battery discharge rate.

The reported discharge rate & estimated remaining time are always impossibly low / high respectively. See example snippet from powertop header below.

### Configuration ###

HP Elitebook 850 G5
Ubunutu 18.10, 4.18.0-13-generic
powertop v2.9
tlp w/default settings

### Example ###

The battery reports a discharge rate of 366 mW
The power consumed was 0.00 J
The estimated remaining time is 49 hours, 2 minutes

### Package Version ###
powertop:
  Installed: 2.9-0ubuntu2
  Candidate: 2.9-0ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 2.9-0ubuntu2 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu cosmic/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

### Steps to Reproduce ###
1. Install Ubuntu 18.10 on HP Elitebook 850 G5
2. Install tlp from repos
3. Install powertop from repos
4. Run powertop while running on battery
5. Examine header info while in the Overview tab

[Vladimír Dubsky (vlada13)]

Same here, HP Zbook 17 G5 showing something around 365mW.

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. While running an Ubuntu kernel (not a mainline or third-party kernel) please enter the following command in a terminal window:

apport-collect 1813496

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[Nils Kaiser (nils-kaiser)]

Same error on HP zBook 15 G5, with a discharge rate between 300-400 mW. Running arch linux though. Would the log files still help?

[Kai-Heng Feng (kaihengfeng)]

Which kernel version is in use?

Same bug can be observed on ZBook 17 G5, but mainline kernel fixes it. Haven't found time do bisection though.

[Nils Kaiser (nils-kaiser)]

Currently using 5.1.15-1-MANJARO #1 SMP PREEMPT. Had the same error on arch linux.

[Kai-Heng Feng (kaihengfeng)]

Do you see this issue on Linux v5.0?

[Nils Kaiser (nils-kaiser)]

Thanks Kai-Heng - Manjaro doesn't have a 5.0 kernel (only offers me realtime and that does not boot for me) but i can confirm on both 5.1 and 5.2.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Nils Kaiser (nils-kaiser)]

Confirm this is still an issue on Kernel 5.6.6-1-MANJARO #1 SMP PREEMPT

[Titouan F (d3lta0300)]

I have the same bug on a HP envy laptop using fedora and tlp.