Slow battery drain while plugged to AC and light use

Framework Laptop 16 Linux
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Which Linux distro are you using? Ubuntu

Which release version? 25.10
(if rolling release without a release version, skip this question)

(If rolling release, last date updated?)

Which kernel are you using? 6.17.0-14-generic

Which BIOS version are you using? Release Date: 11/06/2025 - BIOS Revision: 3.4

Which Framework Laptop 16 model are you using? AMD Ryzen AI HX 370

Is it normal that the battery slowly drains under light/normal usage while plugged in to A/C?

The battery usually goes from 85% (configured max in UEFI) down to ~80% and then “randomly” starts charging again. If I am doing some more heavy work, the battery gets lower before it starts charging again.

I have seen some settings in the UEFI regarding: “prevent charging battery when plugged in for a long time” but this battery drain looks odd and I am worry it will degrade the battery quicker.

Shouldn’t the laptop just use the A/C power?

PS: I am using the official 240W framework charger.

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This is very odd, did you get the 240W charger right?

Also is this with a gpu module or not?

Since i seen people with RTX 5070 or AMD gpu is seeing battery drain, while for me i’m on the non GPU version so mine doesn’t drain when it’s 100% it stays 100% and i also do light work atm and everything is fine for me.

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The battery is used to “top up” certain power draws using the battery and will not start recharging again until it drops a certain percentage. For me, this usually involved the dGPU. Over time, this naturally drains the battery. Under light load though, I would’ve anticipated this going from 100% → 95% at most though, do you have a battery limit set to 85%? The battery charging logic on the Framework is quite different, at least in how it presents itself to me, from other laptop’s I’ve had. If you were gaming, you’d also likely be running into an issue where your performance suddenly tanks when the battery hits a certain threshold.

There’s a Framework 13 thread that discusses battery flipping in more detail.

[TRACKING] Battery flipping between charging and discharging / Draws from battery even on AC - Framework Laptop 13 / Linux - Framework Community

It does seem odd if it’s happening under a truly light load though. I don’t recall that happening to me, but I also haven’t looked.

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