Krdytkyu

I've heard over the years that this computer had issues with the BIOS settings but that by 13.10 it had been cleared. It never used to happen on 13.10 but now that I'm on 14.04 it started showing these symptoms.

What happens exactly is that on battery power it will work normally until near 50% then it either shuts down spontaneously or it freezes and the fan goes crazy until crashing.

Plugged in, it doesn't experience any problems. It's not a heat problem because of this since I run it at full power plugged in and no issues arise.

I tried looking in the logs but don't know exactly what to look for. I think that may be a good place to start but other than that, has anyone else seen this behavior or know how to fix it?

What other specs would be useful?

BIOS according to dmidecode -s bios-version: UX31E.210

Thanks for all the hints and tips on here. Like other's, I've had issues on my Zenbook UX21E for years, while it was running Windows 7. I never upgraded the OS for years, other than the traditional MS updates. Under windows, the issue was confined to sudden shutdowns while pulling the AC power. (Honestly, I just thought it was a short in the power connector, so I would just shut the unit down before unplugging.)

However, last week I put Ubuntu 14.04 on this machine, and the behavior got worse. Not only would it shut down when the power was pulled, but also after about 20 minutes of use. I installed sensors and stuck it in a while-do loop, and forced the machine to work hard by running Fraqtive animations.

Sure enough, when the power was less than 75% AND the heat was 80C, the machine turned off.

After reading this thread, I updated the firmware - that helped with the sudden shutdown after pulling the AC, but not when the 75%/80C limit was hit while on battery. The machine would still unexpectedly power off.

So - I opened up the back, and disconnected the battery for 5 minutes. After reconnecting and powering back up - I ran the sensors and Fraqtive test...

....the machine stayed up until the battery ran dry, regardless of the CPU temperature.

So, best guess is that it was a combination of issues: the outdated firmware was responsible for the sudden shutdown when yanking out the AC (for all the reasons stated above), and the disconnect/reconnect of the battery clearly reset some sort of low battery reading that was inaccurate. (Whether it was the firmware in the battery or the firmware in the Zenbook that was issuing the false positive, I couldn't say.)

At any rate, I'm back, and the machine is quite healthy. So, thanks again to everyone.

Rob

I just want to share my experience with an ASUS battery:

Also my netbook suddenly turned off when it was under 30% battery. However I never had the fan and freezing problem. I went along with it for months until one day it never turned on unplugged. It seems they define a life cycle for the batteries. My battery suddenly stopped working while it could save energy for about two hours.

Anyway, if you want to monitor your battery status, you can click on Battery under the power indicator to see detailed information about your battery:

then, check the Capacity percent which is the ratio of Energy when full to Energy (design). It will get lower and lower every time you recharge, until your battery will stop working some day.

So consider replacing your battery.

Finally, a reliable solution for unexpected shutdowns and hangs was discovered!

This seems to be working with any Asus laptop suffering from unexpected shutdowns and / or hangs while running on battery:

1. Add the following boot arguments both to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT and GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX in /etc/default/grub.cfg:

intel_pstate=disable pcie_aspm=force acpi_osi=’Windows 2009′ acpi_os_name=’Windows 2009′

Don’t forget to execute sudo update-grub afterwards!

2. Install the package tlp from ppa:linrunner/tlp an set at least the following values in /etc/default/tlp
   

CPU_SCALING_GOVERNOR_ON_BAT=ondemand

CPU_BOOST_ON_BAT=0

PCIE_ASPM_ON_BAT=powersave

RUNTIME_PM_ON_BAT=on

3. Shut down the device, carefully remove the bottom cover and detach the big battery (not the tiny CMOS battery) from the motherboard for five minutes. There are plenty of youtube videos showing how to safely disassemble the various Asus laptops. With certain power management settings on the OS side, the EC (Embedded Controller) goes crazy and thus needs resetting. The only way to reset it is to detach the battery for a few minutes.




4. From now on, shutdowns should be gone. Take care, however, not to ever use any live USB stick or installation / recovery CDs based on Linux and using the intel_pstate driver and / or the default BIOS settings for ASPM. If you try to, you will merely reproduce the problem once again, and will subsequently have to disassemble your Zenbook once again. There are a few sad cases, like reinstalling Ubuntu itself, where you will have to boot from a live USB utilizing the problematic intel_pstate driver. Only do so when running on AC, and please repeat Stage 3 (no matter how boring) of this manual once you are done.

P.S. Intel_pstate and the default ASPM bios settings eventually make the mobo’s Embedded Controller go crazy and persist in this state until the battery is detached from the motherboard. That’s basically how this problem is born.

Your laptop is likely to be overheating. The state of the battery is not likely relevant to the problem.

Possible solutions:

1) Remove the dust from the laptop vents and insure that you are not covering the vents by placing the laptop on a soft surface like a blanket or cloth.

2) Move the laptop to a cooler environment

3) Obtain a laptop cooler to place the laptop on to increase airflow and reduce heat buildup.

I have decided to register only at this forum to report about my experiences. I had problems with Ubuntu 18.10 shutting down accidentally when the battery level was below 40%. In other forums the setting Intels Virtualization Technology or V-dT in the BIOS is pointed out. I have tested these and can guarantee that there is no connection. The shutdowns are still happening. Now I have added the kernel parameters and can report that the following setting under /etc/default/grub does not fix the problem completely: (But fixes the keyboard led brightness and display brightnes handling of ubuntu)

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi='!Windows 2012' pcie_aspm=force drm.vblankoffdelay=1 i915.semaphores=1"

The only solution, in fact, is to open the UX31A and remove the battery for at least 5 minutes. Now, regardless of kernel parameters, the regular shutdown works when the battery reaches a critical level.

Good luck,
E. Yagmahan

My System:
UX31A - Ubuntu 18.10 Cosmic - Kernel 4.18.0 - BIOS Version 219