| Summary: | Powerdevil switches to "on battery" profile when plugged in but discharging due to weak power supply, which can cause undesirable effects | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Product: | [Plasma] plasmashell | Reporter: | Snake Scaly <snake.scaly> |
| Component: | Power management & brightness | Assignee: | Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null> |
| Status: | RESOLVED UPSTREAM | ||
| Severity: | normal | CC: | fource.8mevg, ishlandmc, jgqehj55, nate |
| Priority: | NOR | ||
| Version First Reported In: | 6.3.4 | ||
| Target Milestone: | 1.0 | ||
| Platform: | Arch Linux | ||
| OS: | Linux | ||
| Latest Commit: | Version Fixed/Implemented In: | Upower 1.90.9 | |
| Sentry Crash Report: | |||
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Description
Snake Scaly
2025-04-05 17:34:39 UTC
During the time when it happens, can you hover the pointer over the battery icon in your system Tray? If you do, does it say something like "plugged in the still discharging"? My theory is that the laptop is drawing more power than the power supply can provide, and the net discharge of energy is tricking powerdevil into thinking it's unplugged, and therefore inappropriately entering "on battery power" mode. If I'm right, then technically it is using battery power, but this isn't really what the user thinks of when they think about a laptop on battery power. When this happens, it simply says "Battery at 91%". `upower -d` says "discharging". When I exit the game, after a few seconds it says "Fully charged", upower reports "fully-charged", even though the same upower report still shows the battery is at 91%, probably because I checked "Limit the maximum battery charge" in the advanced power settings. So yes, it seems like the laptop is indeed drawing more power than the power supply can provide. I think it's normal for a beast machine like this, and in my opinion, it shouldn't switch to the "on battery" profile in the middle of a game session just because the power supply is a little underpowered. I assume Lenovo figured that the power supply was powerful enough to support a long enough gaming session. Thanks, I had a feeling this is what was going on! Hi, I have the same issue on my laptop regardless of charging method. I can charge via a 180W AC charger at full speed or USB-C up to 100W (tested with a 65W charger). I thought it was just under heavy system load but it also happens under light use, such as watching YouTube. Whilst charging via USB-C, my laptop battery fluctuates between 95-100% when full (something to do with battery management, it is normal behaviour), but the hardware (i.e. the laptop LED indicator) still treats it as charging. The OS however sees it as on battery, causing large drops in performance (under heavy use) and causing severe momentary (~1 sec) stutter regardless of load level. On AC power, I have no explanation other than it never goes below 100% but Plasma still alternates between charging and battery profiles. System info: Operating System: Fedora Linux 41 KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.4 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.12.0 Qt Version: 6.8.2 Kernel Version: 6.13.9-200.fc41.x86_64 (64-bit) Product Name: ROG Zephyrus G14 GA401QM I think I have the same issue. Not when gaming though but just normal office work with low CPU use. I'm plugged in and fully charged. But Plasma keeps switching between "discharging 100%" (with a ridiculously high battery time left) and "fully charged" and it always makes a sound when it changes. (In reply to James Munyambu from comment #4) > Hi, I have the same issue on my laptop regardless of charging method. I can > charge via a 180W AC charger at full speed or USB-C up to 100W (tested with > a 65W charger). I thought it was just under heavy system load but it also > happens under light use, such as watching YouTube. Whilst charging via > USB-C, my laptop battery fluctuates between 95-100% when full (something to > do with battery management, it is normal behaviour), but the hardware (i.e. > the laptop LED indicator) still treats it as charging. The OS however sees > it as on battery, causing large drops in performance (under heavy use) and > causing severe momentary (~1 sec) stutter regardless of load level. On AC > power, I have no explanation other than it never goes below 100% but Plasma > still alternates between charging and battery profiles. > > System info: > Operating System: Fedora Linux 41 > KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.4 > KDE Frameworks Version: 6.12.0 > Qt Version: 6.8.2 > Kernel Version: 6.13.9-200.fc41.x86_64 (64-bit) > Product Name: ROG Zephyrus G14 GA401QM Update: this seems to be an upstream regression in UPower v1.90.8 which has been fixed in 1.90.9. It's rolling out to Fedora 40-42 stable repos soon, idk about other distros. I don't notice the behaviour any longer, can others in this report confirm the fix works? Thanks a lot for figuring that out! Yes, can confirm the fix. Powerdevil stays on the "On AC Power" profile even when the state is "plugged in but still discharging" |