[Feature request] battery recalibration tool

Mikaela commented 12 months ago

Your system information

Steam client version: 1695334486
SteamOS version: 3.4.10
Opted into Steam client beta?: Yes
Opted into SteamOS beta?: Yes
Have you checked for updates in Settings > System?: Yes

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

The battery percentage is constantly wrong and the device shuts down based on wrong information.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

Buy a new or refurbished Steam Deck.
Use it for a while.
Experience issues.

I have emptied the battery once by booting to UEFI (Power and Volume+ on start) as adviced in many of the linked threads and hopefully fully charged based on keeping the device connected to charger for hours, which just results the battery percentage being stuck on 99 %.

I have been gaming for a few hours since then on two days, so I seriously doubt it being 99 %. Before opening this issue I also made the mistake of entering desktop mode, which appears to be using yet another power manager as it had battery percentage rapidly dropping from 99 % and powered off while also showing incorrect seeming advice about battery health being below 3 % and suggestion of returning the device.

I would like SteamOS to come with a proper tool for battery recalibration, like ThinkPads have tlp recalibrate (although I know that isn't an official tool by Lenovo).


       recalibrate [BAT0|BAT1] (ThinkPads only)
              Battery recalibration: completely discharge the battery and recharge to 100%.  The latter is done by temporarily applying vendor presets to the thresholds.  Configured thresholds will  be  restored
              at the next boot or by using tlp setcharge.

CrazyCritic89 commented 12 months ago

Pleeeeeeease, this is so annoying.

Mikaela commented 12 months ago

I have emptied the battery a second time by running PPSSPP in big picture mode with it just displaying their background animation and left the Steam Deck alone for hours and upon returning it reported battery 100 %. The battery is again discharging at rate 1 % per second and if I wait a minute it will likely get stuck at 3 % again while actually lasting for hours.

I have not been in the desktop mode in the middle.

I wonder if some other distribution would handle the battery better, but I would like to keep using SteamOS which the device is intended for although I have read that a lot has been upstreamed so recent kernels would probably work.

The only adjustment I have done since opening the issue is switching to the preview branch from beta in hopes of it changing anything or failing and giving me an excuse to try something else.

Edited in a day later: I seem to have managed to recalibrate the battery by installing GtkStressTesting (com.leinardi.gst) from flathub, adding it as a game and starting it from game mode by utilising keyboard and running 24 hours test while discharging. After the Deck powered off, I let it charge overnight and when booted today morning, it reported battery 100 % and the battery drain rate seems a lot more reasonable (although still a bit fast, but that may be related to being connected to dock, keyboard and HDMI).

I am also no longer wondering about replacing SteamOS as I am happy with the shipped tools (git, tmux, zsh, systemd-resolved, iwd) and my only remaining complaint is #1159.

However I would really appreciate not having to perform this calibration three times with different methods picked up from Reddit and if I did, shipping with a calibration tool would have been most helpful.

ValveSoftware / SteamOS