Comment by kashyapc | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kashyapc | Hacker News Reader

USB-C for laptop power ports seems to be incredibly flaky. :-( Let me share my ongoing horror story (excuse the verbosity):

I've got a barely 3-months old Lenovo X1 Carbon (Gen-9) work laptop. A week ago I noticed the battery draining while the power cord is plugged in! Nothing worked: reset via the pinhole at the back, trying out different chargers, BIOS update, charging while the OS (Linux) is shut down, "to eliminate 'rogue' applications". The battery just doesn't charge.

We've got premium support, so a Lenovo technician came two days later and replaced the motherboard. Great! The root cause: USB-C power port got short-circuited somehow. "This is a common problem with USB-C for power ports; I go around replacing 2 motherboards a week," the technician said.

Now, the laptop's new motherboard worked fine for a week ... and I woke up this morning to notice the laptop's battery not charging at all (yes, again!), while the power cord is plugged in. I call up Lenovo, and the support guy confirms: "the power port seems to be short-circuited again, this time let's replace both the motherboard and also the power adapter". FFS, tomorrow morning I have long-distance travel, and I'm left with this bloody brick. Speak of timing.

I want to think this is just plain bad luck, but the Lenovo support forums are full of similar problems, and two other colleagues independently confirmed the same issue. The Lenovo technician blamed this on USB-C. I wish they retained the more robust rectangular power port; but they're phasing them out to comply with EU regulation.

It seems that USB-C for _Lenovo_ laptop power ports seems to be incredibly flaky. I have 2 year-old HP Spectre x360 and a new Framework and I've had no problems with charging either of them from a number of different USB-C cables, wall adapters, and even a power delivery monitor (Dell U2520D).

I thought so too, that this may be Lenovo-specific. But the Lenovo technician claimed: "this is not Lenovo-specific, it happens with other laptops too". I just naively took his word. Good to know that it works reliably with other vendors.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem with laptop USB-C chargers. It may happen with other laptops but it’s hard to estimate how big of a problem it is.

My wife's Lenovo ultrabook (although an AMD one) has USB-C charging and we haven't noticed any problem for about 4 years now. Her phone phone is also USB-C. No visible problems there, too.

This thread of full of non-sense

To me, the ideal solution is something that Apple had for ages, and now them and Microsoft both have. Magsafe. Use a nice, robust, safe laptop charger for most of your workdays, when things are routine and you have control over the environment. Then, if you're going to travel, and need to be ultralight, you carry your GaN compact, high-power travel power adapter with USB-C so you have one charger and one cable for all the things. I don't see why we have to give up magsafe for USB-C when we can have both.

> "this time let's replace both the motherboard and also the power adapter" [...]

> I want to think this is just plain bad luck, but the Lenovo support forums are full of similar problems, and two other colleagues independently confirmed the same issue

Oh no, I have to confirm this too. Had the same issue with my X1 Carbon Gen-9. They replaced the motherboard (and hopefully the power adapter). At least so far it's still working after a few months since repair.

> and I'm left with this bloody brick

Did you know you can charge (or at least power) the laptop via the other usb port, next to the power port? I was afraid to try that out by myself but their support asked me if I can do so and it worked.

> Did you know you can charge the laptop via the other usb port, next to the power port?

I knew, but would you believe: with the new motherboard, even that other USB-C port is bricked, it doesn't charge the battery either. :-( Speak of one-two punch.

Thanks for confirming the original issue. I've been a Lenovo user for 13 years, mostly trouble-free, but this nuisance is incredibly untimely. I've already put in a request for a new replacement laptop when I'm back in 3-ish weeks.

I would not blame entire global USB-C standard for issues of one manufacturer.

Ie I have company HP laptop with USB-C charging, something aluminium 'elite', tiny and quite powerful for my needs (not in same room as me now). It works like charm, and since its not mine I treat it relatively very badly (no concern for any kind of protection, travelling on vacations full of sand like right now, its laying on the floor so kids play with it, bang on it, I sometimes roll with chair over it etc).

since its a solid 65w charger it charges my laptop, my phone, wife's phone, our powerbank, our headlamps, my vaporizer, both our wireless buds, gopro, camera, and probably some other stuff. The only stuff it doesnt works on... micro-usb.

Its really magical, the simplifying life a bit when usual (annoying) trend is of growing complexity. For once, thank you EU.

I have the same problem after a year or so with my Xiaomi Redmi Note phones (7 and 10). In the end it is sometimes easier to charge with a USB-A to USB-C cable, because USB-PD signalling easily breaks if the connector is worn out. I do not understand why we need more than 2 lines to charge.

I also have a Lenovo X395 laptop this one has the problem that the USB-C socket is not deep enough to snap in. I am hoping it will die before the end of warranty. Because if not, it will die a week after.

At least we can keep the chargers as all our devices will die early because we cannot charge them anymore

Yep. If there's no port protection IC (and even then it might not catch it), if you unplug the USB-C connector you can potentially get 20V+ on the data lines. Goodbye data lines.

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