This morning, after being plugged in all night, my Asus N550J, Xubuntu Saucy, showed 28% battery.
When it is plugged in, it shows the Charging icon, yet the percent charge never goes up.
When it is unplugged, the charge goes down -- now it is at 15%.
I tried restarting. I tried another AC adaptor. No difference.
What is the problem here? Is the battery in fact charging correctly, but the indicator is failing to ever go up when it is charging?
Or is there a real problem with battery charging? (But if so, why does the computer last indefinitely on AC power, and why does the indicator show "Charging"?)
(As a maybe-related issue: 3 days ago the fan got really loud, intermittently. The laptop was not noticeably hotter than usual when this occured. But that loudness stopped.)
EDIT: Answer below.