I foolishly thought things wouldn’t get any worse than the entire system shutting down (not even locking up, but shutting down, and not through the OS, just, boom, dead) on any ACPI call, but I was wrong. It turns out that the battery doesn’t charge unless the power cable is plugged in AND the laptop is off. If the machine is on, the power cable won’t be used, and the battery will just drain.
Gee, that’s the best $700 motherboard I’ve ever been forced to purchase..
My laptop is useless right now. The work I planned for Galago and the notification stuff this weekend will not get done, and I won’t be available for contact much until after next week (assuming IBM can get it right this time.)
Update: Tacking on another wonderful issue. The laptop just stops recognizing the keyboard and trackpoint randomly, requiring a complete shut down. Unfortunately, the On/Off button, which you normally hold down to force a shut-off, doesn’t seem to always work, especially not when the keyboard isn’t working, so you have to pull out the battery.
long time reader first time commenter(gr?)
I am sorry but I have to ask, why didnt you just buy a new laptop?
granted its an IBM and would certainly cost a lot more, but for 700 USD (after rebates ofcourse) you can buy a pretty good laptop if you know when/where to look. Also you probably wont get an extremely portable one.
My best advice would be to bitch and scream at them, until finally they give you a new lappy.
poningru: The $700 was a complete surprise, and they called and told me they were billing me that while the laptop as in their posession. I have a over 2 years left on the warranty, so buying another laptop would be a waste right now. Also, that laptop was originally a $4000 laptop (although I had a nice discount from a friend of a friend who works at IBM). A $700 laptop would not suffice. This is not just some machine I take notes on. This is my main computer that I use for everything.
I’m going to call IBM and tell them how badly they messed up, how much they’re costing me in money and time by this screw-up, and request a brand new laptop. Considering they have to replace the plastic, the screen, the motherboard, the battery, and possibly the keyboard, they may as well just send me a new one.
Sorry about all the trouble, Christian…
Maybe offer them another hundred bucks and get a nicer laptop?
Well, it’s a thought…
Wait you compile stuff on this? thats crazy.
hmm guess I can think up stuff that costs 4000 USD for a laptop. It must be some crazy lappy. And if nothing works out, just take charge and do something, you do have a large voice (your blog).
(what would Steve Rubel do? http://www.steverubel.com/)
ACPI in Linux is a bit wonky. Have you tried booting with the kernel option acpi=off?
Mike: Everything worked fine with the same installation before. I’m not talking about it being a little wonky. I’m talking about ACPI calls causing the entire system to simply turn off.