No USB whilst on battery??? [SOLVED]

[richiereyn]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop and after updating today I have a strange problem whereby I lose USB support when on battery power. As soon as I unplug the power cord any connected USB devices just stop working, be it external hard drives or mice. Reconnect the power and they all start working again. Any ideas folks? I am at a loss to know where to start looking

Thanks

[JALU]

richiereyn,
In Configure your Desktop> Hardware> Power Management
Do you have any strange Power Profile settings or Advanced Battery Settings?
Cages

[ThirdOfSix]

Do you have a way of checking the actual charge state of your battery?

Have you recently changed power supplies that you use to charge your laptop.

I ask these questions for a couple of reasons.

Many laptops will run the CPU at half speed or less when the system voltage is low.

I would not be surprised to find that they also shut down the USB sockets or at least the ability to power remote devices.

The significance of this is that Dell likes to force you to replace a bad power supply with one of theirs at a significantly higher cost than an after market one.

On some Dell laptops that I have worked with, they will allow the computer to run if you use an aftermarket supply but they have deliberately set it up to sense this and not charge the battery and if I remember right, also run at half speed.

Just by coincidence, this will make it appear that the customer now needs to buy a new battery along with the Dell approved power supply.

This does not occur on all models but I don't know for certain which ones are like that so that is the reason that I do not and will not own one of their laptops.

[richiereyn]

Darkages

I did a fresh install from the latest ISO and completely wiped the hard drive (backed up data first of course). Once installation was complete everything ran fine, USB worked either on battery or mains power until I did a system update via Synaptic. The power management options are set as the system defaults, I have made no changes.

ThirdOfSix

I have the original power adapter and a spare non-genuine adapter as a spare in case the original fails. I know what you mean about Dell and their exorbitant charges for replacement batteries and chargers. But this problem occurs not when the power adapter is connected, only when running on battery since the last system update. I have two batteries, both are good, one genuine and one copy. When I go into the BIOS settings there is an option to check the battery status and both batteries show they are operating normally. So if I use the laptop with the genuine charger and battery I have the same problem. It's weird, I have never known this happen before, it has to have something to do with the last update, that's the only logical conclusion I can come to.

[richiereyn]

Hi guys.

Something else I've just discovered. If I suspend to RAM whilst on battery the laptop hangs and the fan goes full speed forcing a hard reset, however suspend to RAM works fine when connected via mains adapter.

[richiereyn]

As an update to my last post, it appears that it is the package "laptop-mode-tools" that's causing the problem. Removing it using Synaptic and rebooting solves the problem. I now have USB support back on battery

[oldjim]

Hi richiereyn
Thank you for the fix, I hate using that touch pad thing'y.
Regards, and thanks again.
Jim

[oldjim]

Hi again richiereyn
Assuming that fix for ever one that posted, I would suggest the you mark this post solved.
Regards Jim 

[Just17]

Could it be considered a 'Broken Package' ?

[wayne1932]

@ThirdofSix
I have two Dell laptops.  d620 and D610.   One real Dell charger and one after market.  I have found that to get it to charge,  l With the computer off,  I unplug charger from AC, plug  the charger into the computer then plug the charger back in to AC.

[ThirdOfSix]

@ThirdofSix
I have two Dell laptops.  d620 and D610.   One real Dell charger and one after market.  I have found that to get it to charge,  l With the computer off,  I unplug charger from AC, plug  the charger into the computer then plug the charger back in to AC.

Thanks

If I ever run into one again, I hope to remember that.

[richiereyn]

Hi again richiereyn
Assuming that fix for ever one that posted, I would suggest the you mark this post solved.
Regards Jim 

I'm not sure it's a proper fix though. I'm thinking it's a problem with this package that maybe need to be looked at? What do you think? I'm inclined to agree with Just18 that it's a broken package.

[oldjim]

Could be, I honestly don't know about packaging to have an opinion.
All I know is the my mouse and all my other USB odds and ends work with out it.
Jim

[johnmart]

I have the same problem--or a variation.
I have an Acer Aspire, kde.
If I unplug the poower and plug in a usb device, the system sleeps.
It will awake, but when the wireless reconnects, it returns to sleep.
If I switch off the modem, the problem disappears.
Very weird.
I will try to uninstall laptop-tools
John

edit: well, hallelujah. That fixed it.
If it goes by vote I think it is broken.
Maybe should be reported in the packaging section.

[richiereyn]

I have the same problem--or a variation.
I have an Acer Aspire, kde.
If I unplug the poower and plug in a usb device, the system sleeps.
It will awake, but when the wireless reconnects, it returns to sleep.
If I switch off the modem, the problem disappears.
Very weird.
I will try to uninstall laptop-tools
John

edit: well, hallelujah. That fixed it.
If it goes by vote I think it is broken.
Maybe should be reported in the packaging section.

That would be a good idea. Not sure how to do this though. Just taken a look at the broken packages section, but that's for packages that won't install correctly, such as missing dependencies. This installs ok but just seems to be defective. Anyone here more experienced in where to take this?