Bluetooth controller hangs on Lenovo LOQ after headset battery hits 0% (Zorin OS 18)

Hi everyone,

I'm experiencing a persistent issue with the Bluetooth controller on my Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9 running Zorin OS 18 Core.

The Problem: Whenever my Bluetooth headset battery reaches 0% and shuts down unexpectedly, the laptop's Bluetooth controller enters an unrecoverable state.

  • Bluetooth services stop responding to any commands (bluetoothctl, systemctl, or modprobe).
  • The PC becomes invisible to other devices (e.g., my phone cannot see the PC).
  • A standard restart does not fix the issue.

Device Info:

  • Laptop: Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9
  • Bluetooth Chipset: Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0bda:4853 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Bluetooth Radio

The Only Workaround: The only way to restore Bluetooth is a "flea power" drain: Shutting down the laptop, unplugging the AC adapter, and holding the power button for 30-35 seconds. This suggests a hardware or firmware-level hang triggered by the driver when the connection drops.

Current Script (Workaround): I wrote a bash script to monitor the battery and kill the Bluetooth power before it hits 0%, but it is not 100% reliable:

#!/bin/bash
while true
do
    for device in $(upower -e | grep -E 'headset|mouse|keyboard|gaming_input')
    do
        battery_level=$(upower -i "$device" | grep percentage | awk '{print $2}' | tr -d '%')
        if [ ! -z "$battery_level" ] && [ "$battery_level" -le 10 ]; then
            notify-send -u critical "Bluetooth Protection" "Battery at 10%! Shutting down BT to prevent hang."
            sleep 2
            bluetoothctl power off
            break
        fi
    done
    
    if bluetoothctl show | grep -q "Powered: yes" && ! bluetoothctl info | grep -q "Connected: yes"; then
        sleep 600
        if ! bluetoothctl info | grep -q "Connected: yes"; then
            bluetoothctl power off
        fi
    fi
    sleep 30
done

Question: Has anyone else encountered this with Realtek (0bda:4853) chips on Lenovo laptops? Are there any specific btusb parameters or power management settings (like disabling USB autosuspend) I should try to prevent this crash?

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the Forum!

  • Could You post the Output of the Command sudo lshw -C network please?
  • Are secure Boot and Fast Boot in BIOS disabled?
  • If Windows is still installed: Is Fast Start-Up in Windows disabled?
  • Did You checked the BIOS for Bluetooth Settings?
  • Does Your System run in Wayland or X11? You can check that with the Command echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE
*-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0
       logical name: enp7s0
       version: 15
       serial: 40:c2:ba:cc:7f:30
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=6.14.0-37-generic firmware=rtl8168h-2_0.0.2 02/26/15 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
       resources: irq:18 ioport:4000(size=256) memory:82204000-82204fff memory:82200000-82203fff
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: RTL8852BE PCIe 802.11ax Wireless Network Controller
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:08:00.0
       logical name: wlp8s0
       version: 00
       serial: 24:b2:b9:8b:e5:e5
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rtw89_8852be driverversion=6.14.0-37-generic firmware=N/A ip=192.168.1.109 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
       resources: irq:153 ioport:3000(size=256) memory:82100000-821fffff

wayland

I will check the BIOS settings now and post an update as soon as I restartal conditions.

I checked the BIOS and Secure Boot was already disabled. However, I couldn't find the Fast Boot option in my Lenovo BIOS and I also couldn't find the Fast Start-up setting in Windows.

https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht513773-how-to-enable-or-disable-fast-startup-on-windows-11

This is available for Windows, but not for Linux.

Yes, you wrote that you search the setting in Windows to disable fast startup. If you have a Dualboot system with Windows you should disable fast startup in the energy settings of Windows.

"I encountered the error again. I ran the sudo systemctl status bluetooth command and got this output:"


Feb 02 15:38:05 faruk-LOQ-15IAX9 bluetoothd[744]: src/profile.c:record_cb() Unable to get Hands-Free Voice gateway SDP record: Host is down
Feb 02 15:38:11 faruk-LOQ-15IAX9 bluetoothd[744]: src/profile.c:record_cb() Unable to get Hands-Free Voice gateway SDP record: Host is down

Here a Video Guide:

I would suggest to try it with switching to Xorg and see if this helps. to do that, go to the Login Screen. Click there on Your Profile so that the Password Field appears. When it is appeared, You should see a Gear Icon in the bottom right Corner. Click on it and choose the Option ''Zorin Desktop on Xorg'' and then log in.

I couldn't find an option explicitly named 'Zorin Desktop on Xorg,' so I selected 'Zorin Desktop' instead. Running echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE returns x11. Also, the video you shared was for Windows, but my PC is Linux-only.

I've shared the output of sudo systemctl status bluetooth below. The error persists. Currently, the only way I can fix it is by doing a 'hard reset' (shutting down, unplugging, and holding the power button for 30-35 seconds). It's hard to tell if the fix is permanent because my headphone's battery drains very slowly."

I also suspect it might be related to Realtek. My old PC was running Zorin OS 18 as well, and I didn't have this issue on that machine

I'm going to try a different distro to see if it works there. Thanks anyway!

Sure, it is a Windows Option. I wrote above:

And You wrote:

And that meant for me that You have a Zorin-Windows Dual-Boot System.