Whenever I had the Dells I would tell my wife: “Remind me to get a ThinkPad next time.” I wish I listened to my own advice. They’re well thought out – ThinkPads just get a little more love when it comes to design and build. While they’re not without fault<\/a>, they are generally better than your average laptop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Dell laptops I’ve owned have felt cheap and both have gone in for repairs. The good news is, Dell support is pretty good about fixing things. But I wish I didn’t have to send them in for repairs. Sidenote: my old ThinkPads have made for excellent loaners<\/em> during repair periods. Dell really should be cheap and cheerful<\/em>, but the whole experience leaves me feeling a bit “meh.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n The latest issue on my 2019 XPS 13<\/a> is that the keyboard appeared to be getting out of whack. I noticed the control and function keys were sitting at different angles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then I realized: my battery is puffed. I confirmed it when the lid wouldn’t close fully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After reflecting on the situation, I realized my laptop has spent the better part of 1.5 years (since COVID started) operating on AC power. Normally on my ThinkPad I’d use TLP<\/a> to keep my normal battery charge at around 60-80%. But those features aren’t available on my XPS:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other TLP features (like disabling wifi when plugged into the wired network) do work on my XPS, so I leave it installed & enabled. For battery management, you must use Dell’s own Command Configure<\/a> tool: There’s a great write-up on the XPS 7390 over in the Arch Linux wiki<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I set up And I have a shell script that I can run to bring the charge up to 100%: Do yourself a favor – next time get a ThinkPad.<\/p>\n Dude… you’re getting a Dell(?)! The last 4 laptops I’ve owned went like this: 2004 – ThinkPad 2009 – Dell 2014 – ThinkPad 2019 – Dell Whenever I had the Dells I would tell my wife: “Remind me to get a ThinkPad next time.” I wish I listened to my own advice. They’re well thought… Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/files\/2021\/08\/img_0361-1024x768.jpg\")
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n$ sudo tlp-stat\n...\n+++ Battery Features: Charge Thresholds and Recalibrate\nnatacpi = inactive (laptop not supported)\ntpacpi-bat = inactive (laptop not supported)\ntp-smapi = inactive (laptop not supported)\n...<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\ncctk<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\ncctk<\/code> to keep my (new, now replaced) battery at 80%.sudo crontab -l<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n...\n@reboot \/opt\/dell\/dcc\/cctk --PrimaryBattChargeCfg=Custom:75-80<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nvi ~\/bin\/full_charge.sh<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n#!\/bin\/sh\nsudo \/opt\/dell\/dcc\/cctk --PrimaryBattChargeCfg=Standard<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/wp-content\/plugins\/send-to-kindle\/media\/white-15.png\")
Send to Kindle<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"