Phantom batteries are reported on Dell E6420

[Yann Salmon]

When my Dell E6420 is on battery power, the power indicator reports two phantom batteries in addition to the real one. They appear as two menu entries as well as two items in the left column of the indicator window. Clicking on any of these superfluous entries or items causes the indicator window to not appear or to close.

The phantom batteries are reported as empty (red empty icon in the indicator window), and yesterday, even though the real battery was full and reported as such, I was informed through a black bubble that my computer was going to hibernate due to empty battery, which it effectively did. I cancelled the hibernation procedure (I am using TuxOnIce), and the hibernation-on-low-power mechanism did not trigger again.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: acpi (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-12.51~ppa1-generic-tuxonice 2.6.38.8
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-12-generic-tuxonice x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Nov 22 15:01:49 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110426)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=fr:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: acpi
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Ian Ozsvald (ian-x88)]

I'll report a similar problem. I'm using Linux Mint 12 (based on Ubuntu 11.10) with the default Gnome 3 interface. On approximately every 3rd to 5th wake-up from suspend (using the default pm-suspend) the system reports not 1 battery but 2 or 3 with the extra 1 or 2 having 0 charge.

This used to cause the machine to throw up a "Critical battery" alert and it would hibernate, it would normally not come back from hibernate (I'm not using tuxonice, I have the default power manager), it would partially un-hibernate and then lock on a black screen.

To avoid this problem I changed the system setting 'critical battery action' from 'hibernate' to 'nothing' so it doesn't go into hibernate on a critical battery warning. For Linux Mint 12 this is found using the "dconf Editor" under "org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/power”.

I have an E6420 with NVIDIA NVS 4200M, 64bit Ubuntu.

I've produced the following bug notes manually, I tried running apport but it reports an error ("The problem cannot be reported: This is not a genuine LinuxMint package") no matter how I try to call it.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10 (Linux Mint 12)
Package: acpi (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: (don't know how to find this)
Uname: Linux ian-Latitude-E6420 3.0.0-12-generic #20-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 7 14:56:25 UTC 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia (290.10 via ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates)
Architecture: x86_64
Date: Tue Dec 27 14:11:57 GMT 2011
InstallationMedia: Linux Mint 12 "Lisa" DVD 64 bit
SourcePackage: acpi
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log (fresh install)

I'm a long-time Linux user (back to Slackware and Diamond Stealth video cards), I'm happy to dig/report if someone gives me some guidance. This E6420 is my only laptop and I'd love for it to work reliably.

[Ian Ozsvald (ian-x88)]

Additionally - after un-suspending and seeing 2 or 3 batteries, if I run Power Statistics (this is a Mint package that reports batter/AC statistics) it shows the 2 or 3 batteries. After 20 seconds if I close and re-open Power Statistics it will only show 1 battery.

If I then restart Gnome (using: Alt-F2, 'r') it will correctly show just the 1 battery.

I have also physically checked the battery compartment - the battery is safely stowed and the plastic locks hold it securely in place. The laptop is only 4 months old, the battery lasts for 2-3 hours from a full charge with a fairly bright screen.

[Ian Ozsvald (ian-x88)]

It looks like this bug is a duplicate and it is now fixed:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/852406
along with the fix message at #44
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/852406/comments/44
which requires kernel 3.0.0-14.23 (I'm on 3.0.0-12-generic so will have to wait for an update).