[olpc-help] Unexpected battery shutdown at 33%

[Richard A. Smith]

Robert Howard wrote:

> and then the power  light blinks orange once.  I can then unplug the  
> power supply, put the battery back in, and then plug in the power  
> supply and proceed to charge and the power light is orange until  
> charging completes. This is a reproducible problem.
> Is this a firmware problem that can be fixed with a patch or do I  
> need to ask for an RMA ?

Perhaps both.  The shut off at 33% could be just the small fraction of 
batteries that have some sort of defect.  I have one battery here at 1cc 
that stops a 23%.

However, if you plug up external power you should _always_ get a orange 
or green, or flashing red (error).  If you have a battery in that only 
sometimes gives you orange then thats perhaps a firmware bug.

The first step is to use olpc-logbat to record whats happening.  Search 
the archives for details on using olpc-logbat.

But the short version is: fire up a terminal and type olpc-logbat and 
then leave it running while you duplicate the problems. Charge/discharge 
light/no-light, etc  Then send the .csv files it creates to 
help at laptop.org with a description of the problem.  That will open a 
ticket for you with the volunteer support group.  You can cc: me.

There is a newer firmware available but I've not specifically fixed a 
bug like what you are describing (sometimes no charging light) so I'll 
need more info to know if an upgrade will help.

-- 
Richard Smith  <richard at laptop.org>
One Laptop Per Child