Laptop Battery Doesn't Charge Past a point <100%

General system Newbie
1

I’ve been having issues with a laptop (with EndeavourOS obviously) that doesn’t charge past 86%. I let it charge long past the time it takes to fully charge and the issue persists. I’ve also let the battery deplete completely and charge it again. Not sure if the battery reporting is accurate or not, but it does report overall battery health as 100%. Can someone offer some advice on how to fix this?

If it helps, my laptop is an ASUS Q502LA. The battery is not OEM, but I have used it for a couple of years with no issues until now.

EDIT: My desktop environment is KDE.

2

If the battery is a few years old that’s normal, they just chemically degrade over time.

3

I know that batteries degrade over time, but my laptop should still charge to 100%. The only thing that should change over time is how long the full charge will last.

4

There are some devices that intentionally limit battery recharges to 85% of full to extend the life of lithium batteries. There’s usually a configuration setting toward this option. Is it possible your Asus offers such an option?

5

Can you run ‘inxi -b’ from terminal so we can see your system configuration?

6

If you use Gnome 48, this maybe applicable;

7

Unless this is an option in EOS, I don’t think I have it for my laptop, which is 10 years old. I don’t think limiting battery charge level to preserve overall battery life was a widespread idea back then.

8 
System:
  Host: <redacted> Kernel: 6.15.4-arch2-1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.4.1 Distro: EndeavourOS
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: Q502LAB v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: Q502LAB v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends v: Q502LAB.209 date: 07/01/2015
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 38.5 Wh (57.8%) condition: 66.6/64.4 Wh (103.3%)
    volts: 15.2 min: 15.2
CPU:
  Info: dual core Intel Core i5-5200U [MT MCP] speed (MHz): avg: 500
    min/max: 500/2700
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 5500 driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: Chicony USB2.0 HD UVC WebCam driver: uvcvideo type: USB
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.18 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.8
    compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: modesetting dri: iris gpu: i915
    resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa v: 25.1.4-arch1.1
    renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 5500 (BDW GT2)
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info
    x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    driver: r8169
  Device-2: Intel Wireless 7260 driver: iwlwifi
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 71.13 GiB (15.3%)
Info:
  Memory: total: 12 GiB available: 11.57 GiB used: 3.29 GiB (28.4%)
  Processes: 199 Uptime: 15h 17m Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.38
9

I should’ve specified that my DE is KDE. I’m going to update the original post to reflect this.

10

On a lark, there’s some remote chance your configuration has been set to reduce power and/or fast-charging. New EOS installs have had power-profile-daemon installed by default since Dec 2021.

A simple check via powerprofilesctl get might reveal something. Worth a shot. :man_shrugging:

https://discovery.endeavouros.com/hardware/tools-to-lower-power-consumption-and-device-cooling/2021/03/

11

Discovery says

You can now check which mode is in use, and which ones are available by running:

powerprofilesctl get

but I only get

$ powerprofilesctl get
power-saver

although the Cinnamon panel shows all three:

Arbeitsfläche 1_022
Arbeitsfläche 1_022327×327 21.3 KB

EDIT: Sorry for the distraction, just found that you have to use

$ powerprofilesctl list

You can also check:

$ powerprofilesctl query-battery-aware 
Dynamic changes from charger and battery events: True
12

Check in the KDE settings Power Management → Advanced for the battery loading thresholds.

13

I did this command, and it says I’m using the balanced preset. I’ve been using this preset 99% of the time, and I don’t think I came across a charging restriction while using it.

14

I ran this command and it’s also set to true for me. Does this affect the way my laptop charges? Again, I don’t think i’ve had a problem with the laptop not charging to 100% until recently (roughly about 2 weeks ago).

15

Well then, it doesn’t appear that powerprofilesctl is causing your issue. 'Twas worth a try - at least to rule things out.

Other good suggestions above may be relevant with respect to specific desktop environments.

16

Unfortunately going to this place in the options doesn’t produce any options to change the charging thresholds.

Screenshot_20250701_105205
Screenshot_20250701_1052051527×1080 93.3 KB

17

Was worth a try, here I have (even on an “ancient” seven year old):

Screenshot_20250701_222641
Screenshot_20250701_222641694×140 6.79 KB

But in the end that also only interfaces with the aforementioned /sys/class/power_supply/BAT#. Maybe it’s worth checking it out if there’s e.g. a /sys/class/power_supply/BAT#/charge_stop_threshold.

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