Starlite Mk V: Charging Status Toggles on And Off

[thebatdan]

While connected to the charger, the Starlite will intermittently stop and start charging. It usually toggles from charging, to not charging, back to charging, within a second or two. This toggling happens multiple times in succession, and happens on either USB-C port.

The charger and cable seem to be ok, as I do not get this behavior charging other devices.

OS: Fedora WorkStation 40 Firmware: 24.07.10

[radekholy24]

I think this happens on my StarBook Mk VI too. Haven't tried to diagnose it yet but several times per day I can hear the OS's sound assigned to plugging and unplugging the charger with the same frequency as the OP. Feel free to ignore my comment, I just wanted to let you know that it might affect StarBooks too.

[Sean-StarLabs]

Regression in 24.07.10, already fixed - will push build later.

No known issues on the StarBook

[Sean-StarLabs]

Fixed in 102457fb747954f0f4b4481a8ff2e16cd9251e1d

[dchang0]

Please re-open this ticket.

I am experiencing this exact same bug now in BIOS 24.08 and EC firmware 24.08. It was also happening in 24.07.

I am using the factory charger and factory USB C cable.

It seems to happen more frequently in the middle range between 20% battery and 80% battery. Once it gets to around 80% battery the frequent charging/not-charging flip-flops slow down and then disappear.

It does not appear to have anything to do with the OS. The red charging LED actually turns off when charging stops, then turns on when it starts.

[baarkerlounger]

This also happens on the StarFigher (firmware 0.18) when the battery level is below 20%.

[Sean-StarLabs]

This also happens on the StarFigher (firmware 0.18) when the battery level is below 20%.

That would be expected as there's no hybrid power when the battery is at that level.

[baarkerlounger]

Could you explain what you mean by hybrid power? I would have expected it to charge steadily regardless of power level.

[Sean-StarLabs]

Hybrid power is where the battery can support the charger, if the laptop needs more power. That's disabled under 20%.

So under 20%, if you use all the power from the charger, then it'll keep the laptop running and stop charging the battery until there's some power spare (rather than limiting performance).

[baarkerlounger]

I see, thank you. I expected that the charger would be able to provide the max power the laptop can draw + some to charge the battery, but I guess that's not the case then.

[dchang0]

It MIGHT be that the charging fluctuates in sync with spikes in WiFi traffic. I kept the System Monitor running to see if it might be synced with CPU use, but it actually seems to be synced with spikes in the Network graph (I only have WiFi, no Ethernet).

I'll need to watch it more carefully every day to be sure it really is correlated to Network graph spikes.

[Sean-StarLabs]

No, it's a way lower level - you won't be able to see it

[Sean-StarLabs]

Fixed with d6de2690dd547a014309086a9cc435e2b58f091e

[DevenBL]

It's still not fixed in 24.10. RIP

[dchang0]

It's still not fixed in 24.10. RIP

Same here.

I'm on 24.09 on the StarLite Mk. V and still see it happening too, but it is a lot less frequent than under 24.08. It tends to happen around the 80% +/-5% battery level while I'm doing stuff like accessing the network. Previously under 24.08, it happened all the way from 50% to 85% battery level.

Under 24.09, if I just let the tablet sit there, untouched, it seems to happen much less frequently than in 24.08, though it does still occasionally happen.

Until this is totally fixed, I really wish it were possible to turn off the sound effect it makes in Ubuntu when charging kicks in or out. I'll be watching a movie with the audio turned up through the Bluetooth speakers, and ba-doomp--pause--ba-doomp, the sound effect will blast through the speakers. But the sound is important too so that I know when it's charging, so it might be better to be able to disable or enable the sound on the fly, in the Settings panel.

[Sean-StarLabs]

What settings?

[dchang0]

What settings?

I'm assuming you are directing this question towards me. When I refer to Settings, I mean the Ubuntu System Settings app, under the Power panel. Adding a checkbox there: "[ ] notification sound when charging" would be great. It would be even better to also have a toggle under the quick-access menu (when you click the battery level icon) to the right of Airplane Mode.

If you are asking "what settings do you have in BIOS while the bug is still occurring?" I use all the factory default settings except for setting the charging speed to 0.5C (down from 1.0C) and turning off the keyboard lid switch.

[Sean-StarLabs]

Thanks, worth trying 24.10 when that's released. Will re-open if that doesn't do it.

[DevenBL]

It seems in addition to the above problems that reported charging wattage is still incorrect on 24.10 release at a 1C charging rate. the wattage measured externally on the the power cable oscillates between 0 and 60 watts while gradually discharging whereas the charging rate reported in the OS follows this general pattern.

external watts:  0, 60 , 60, 0, 0  , 0 , 0,
internal  watts: 0, 200, 15, 0, 200, 15, 0,

it then repeats on a synchronized cycle.

i am using the powersupply flatpack to report internal watts.

So yeah issue not fixed needs to get reopened.

[Sean-StarLabs]

still incorrect on 24.10 release

worth trying 24.10 when that's released

[dchang0]

Thanks. Last night I got hit by a flurry of rapid disconnect-reconnects while watching a video using VLC (but I use VLC all the time, and the disconnect-reconnects don't usually go nuts like this). It was around 75% to 80% and then stopped happening around 85%.

It feels like it's an oscillation/feedback problem similar to what happens with audio amplifier systems. Under specific circumstances, it happens and then somehow corrects itself. That's gotta be tough figuring out...

[Sean-StarLabs]

It's an i2c operation timing out.

[alexreid]

This is still happening for me on my Starlite Mk V running firmware 24.10 (using Linux kernel 6.11.8 in case that's relevant).