Usb is not recognized unless laptop charging

[coppperly]

I am running Kubuntu 17.10 with KDE plasma 5.12.4. my hardware is a Lenovo IdeaPad 320-15abr laptop with an AMD FX-9800P, a Radeon r7 graphics card and 12 gigs of ram. I am running a dual boot with windows 10 and my installation came preinstalled with Gnome and KDE and I installed cinnamon myself. The problem that I am having is that my ports simply do not detect anything while the laptop is not plugged into the wall, nothing will show up in lsusb. I have done this with many things including printers, external hard drives, flash drives and an mp3 player. If I unplug the device and plug in my charger then try again with the USB device it will immediately work. I do not have this same problem in windows. I am having this problem in KDE and will test it in cinnamon and gnome to see if they have the same problem.

here is the output of lsusb with a Sansa clip zip plus plugged in but the laptop is not charging

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04f2:b5d8 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0cf3:e500 Atheros Communications, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0438:7900 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

and now when it is charging

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04f2:b5d8 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0cf3:e500 Atheros Communications, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0438:7900 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0781:75a0 SanDisk Corp.
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Thanks for your support

[GreyGeek]

USB ports receive a +5v regulated. IF the voltage supplied is not at least 4.6v they may not activate. Without being plugged into your AC it appears that the battery isn't supplying the voltage regulator with enough voltage, so it is not turning on. How long does your laptop run, beginning with a fully charged battery? Or, do you have a voltmeter to test your USB sockets when on battery?

[coppperly]

my laptop gets about 2 and a half hours on battery, I don't think it's a hardware issue since the USB ports work fine on windows but I'll try to do a multimeter test on them

[coppperly]

my USB ports are two USB 3 and a USB c, apparently, those have a lot of wires that would be really hard to get at with a multimeter, so I don't think I could do that. (that's just based on a quick google search but If you think It could be done I am willing to try)

[claydoh]

Have you done anything like install powertop or tlp to attempt to increase battery life? These can be a bit too aggressive, disasbling usb and other things unless they are configured a bit.

my installation came preinstalled with Gnome and KDE

Can we assume you bought this used? TLP is used to attempt to help increase battery life, but in its default setup will often disable USB on systems. Perhaps the former user installed it.
If it is, try uninstalling it to see if it fixes this.

[coppperly]

I bought this new and what I meant by that is that when I installed Kubuntu 17.10 it came with KDE and gnome. It seems as though KDE was installed on top of stock Ubuntu. I did install tlp and uninstalling that did do the trick. Thank you very much for your support. I was very impressed by the speed of your replies.

[coppperly]

how do I mark this as solved? This is the first post I've ever made to the forum

[SpecialEd]

Just an FYI, 17.10 reaches EOL in ten days.

[claydoh]

I bought this new and what I meant by that is that when I installed Kubuntu 17.10 it came with KDE and gnome. It seems as though KDE was installed on top of stock Ubuntu.

Now, that is weird. It is not possible to do this using a normal, official install image. Kubuntu does not include gnome, and Ubuntu does not contain Plasma in their iso images. They use the same base, in terms of non-GUI bits, though.

[coppperly]

Just an FYI, 17.10 reaches EOL in ten days.

does that mean I have to upgrade to 18.04 lts? normaly I like to stick with the regular releases.

[TWPonKubuntu]

copperly, No, you are not required to upgrade. Your installation will continue to operate (unlike another OS I could name).

What you lose, after end-of-life, is regular fixes and updates to your software.

I stick with the LTS releases and don't use the intermediate, short term releases. They might have cutting edge changes, but I've not yet seen anything that I really, really needed .

I have 16.04 LTS running on this machine (laptop with EXT4) and 18.04 LTS on a desktop (using BTRFS). I'm not keeping anything important on the 18.04 LTS harddrive, yet. I'll wait until at least 18.04.1 LTS is released before I move my website development code.

I expect to upgrade my laptop to 18.04.1 LTS only after thorough testing on the desktop.

If you don't have two systems to do this kind of vetting and testing, then (IMO) you're better off keeping the previous LTS release. Of course, regular backups are the name of the game here.

[coppperly]

I have 16.04 LTS running on this machine (laptop with EXT4) and 18.04 LTS on a desktop (using BTRFS). I'm not keeping anything important on the 18.04 LTS harddrive, yet. I'll wait until at least 18.04.1 LTS is released before I move my website development code.

I expect to upgrade my laptop to 18.04.1 LTS only after thorough testing on the desktop.

If you don't have two systems to do this kind of vetting and testing, then (IMO) you're better off keeping the previous LTS release. Of course, regular backups are the name of the game here.

sounds complicated So I could upgrade to 18.10 LTS right now and then to cosmic cuttlefish when that comes out? I like to upgrade to the most recent release.

[GreyGeek]

Usb is not recognized unless laptop charging

Assuming that it is the latest releases of the Plasma5 desktop that you really want then perhaps you should consider installing KDE Neon User Edition when its 18.04 version is released. You’ll always be treated to the latest Plasma updates (the stable ones). If you want bleeding edge then use the developers version.

[coppperly]

Thanks, I might look into that.

[TWPonKubuntu]

sounds complicated So I could upgrade to 18.10 LTS right now and then to cosmic cuttlefish when that comes out? I like to upgrade to the most recent release.

I think the version numbering system is the problem here.

Version 18.10 is NOT a LTS (Long Term Support) release. It is a Short Term Release.

In addition, the release date for Ubuntu 18.10 is not until October 18, 2018. This cake is still in the oven...

https://itsfoss.com/ubuntu-18-10-release-features/

18.10 a short-term release and will be supported for nine months from its release i.e. July ’19.

If you want to install this short term release right now, be aware that it is still in the development cycle. You can expect changes and perhaps even some broken things (not many, but just to be safe). And then it will only be supported for Nine months.

My recommendation is to stick to the Long Term Support releases and even then, wait until those have a chance to be debugged by the larger user community.

Of course, if you enjoy being on the cutting edge, expect some blood and the need for more frequent fixes and re-installs.

YMMV and testing new releases is certainly a great learning tool.