Erratic charging behavior

Framework Laptop 16
1

Hi there,

I have been using a FW16 (7840HS, iGPU) for about two weeks. While I like it very much in general, the battery charging is horrible. I tried multiple chargers, even bought a 140 W one at the request of Framework support. For all of them, charging is erratic. Despite the lack of any substantial CPU load the battery is discharging only to start tickle-charging at a later point in time taking ages to reach the configured charge limit.

I have exchanged an annoying amount of emails with Framework support without any clear outcome.

Has anybody seen such erratic charging behavior with your machine?

I am using Linux, but if I understand correctly charging is handled by the EC, so the operating system shouldn’t play much of a role here.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Thilo

2

Is one of the chargers you’ve tried an official Framework charger?

3

No. But if it only works with the Framework charger it shouldn’t be advertised as being compatible with USB-C PD.

4

Agreed. I’ve used my FW 16 with a number of non-framework chargers, including the dinky low-wattage ones that come with my Pixel phones. But, others have demonstrated that some devices do not cooperate with the EC very well, i.e. in the case of the Anker 737 external battery’s controller. This may have been addressed in the beta 3.04 BIOS. It sounds like you’ve either got a lot of chargers that have something in common with the 737’s controller, or a laptop that needs at least one part RMA’d. Either way, something’s clearly not working as designed if it behaves as you’ve described. Additionally, the OS does not matter. The device will (or in your case should) charge even without an SSD installed.

5

I tried the following chargers:

  • Lenovo Thunderbolt 4 Dock (92 W PD)
  • Anker 737 Charger (100 W PD)
  • UGREEN Nexode 140W USB C Charger (140 W PD)

Cables are coded for 100 W or 240 W respectively.

I also updated to 3.04 just now, but I doubt it will change charging behavior as the EC is unchanged and the PD firmware is unchanged.

1 Like
6

With any luck, someone else from the community will be able to confirm they’ve successfully used either the Lenovo or uGreen chargers.

7

I just found something interesting:

Using ectool console one can follow what the EC thinks of the charging progress:

[1542.135300 Battery 97% (Display 99.8 %) / 0h:32 to full]
[...]
[1601.188500 Battery 97% (Display 100.0 %) / 0h:32 to full]
[1618.954300 Battery 98% (Display 100.0 %) / 0h:32 to full]

What’s interesting is the discrepancy between the battery’s charge state and the state that is supposed to be reported. The operating system only gets to know the first number, not the display number.

1 Like
8

There are people reporting Nexode 160W being incompatible here, and Anker 737 here. It’s unclear to me though if one of them means a powerbank while another just a wall charger, or not. But definitely you can see both brands not being 100% compatible, and cables used also playing a role

9

Wait: the Nexode 160W works very well in standard use and in charging.
Problems appear when you heavy load the dGPU (the 7700S) using the Nexode. Charging wise works wonders. If you don’t have the dGPU works as expected.

2 Likes
10

OP doesn’t have the dGPU, so that adds to the intrigue.