Dell Power Manager Custom Battery Settings Problem

Hi,

I've got a Dell Latitude e7450 running a fresh install of Windows 10. Dell Command Power Manager 2.1.0 is installed and the battery options are set to custom to allow battery recharge to commence at 50% and stop at 98%. This BIOS also reflects these values but for some reason they are ignored and the device automatically commences a charge when the power cable is plugged in.

The laptop was originally Win 7 and performed a migration to Win 10 where the Power Manager featured worked perfictly. Since I was having other issues I decided on a fresh install of Win 10 and now I've got this problem.

Any ideas ?

John

 

Check whether the power settings in the BIOS are the same as what you have selected in Power Manager. Also make sure that the BIOS is up-to-date (A13).

John

 

Yes, just checking both of those. BIOS is A13 and the custom battery threshold setting match.

 

I've just done a test on my E7450 with the upper limit at 87% and I drew the battery down to 89% and it is not recharging. Try setting a lower value for the upper limit. 98% is in the range where the battery will report that it is full even if it is not (by design, I think, to stop little top-up charges). I use BatteryInfoView when I want to monitor the battery charge.

John

 

Thanks, I'll make some changes and run the battery down to sit between the 2 values and will report back tomorrow.Current Values are 50% to 90%

 

Threshold values are 50 and 90% (BIOS confirms), battery at 84% so it shouldn't charge - but it does. :-((

 

Does BatteryInfoView (or other 3rd party program) show that there is a charging current? How does the fully charged capacity compare with the design capacity? If there is a big difference then that might cause confusion (does it use a 5 of design or % of actual?). Drop the threshold even lower to see if it makes a difference.

Which battery do you have? I've got the 54Whr (but the charging also behaves OK with the E7440 47Whr battery).

John

 

I think it's the 54Whr version. As I originally said, it was all working fine until I decided to reformat the drive and install a fresh version of Windows 10

Thresholds remain the same (Start charging below 50% Stop charging above 90%), current battery level says 94%

Screenshot attached

 

Your battery is reporting spurious data which might be the cause of the problem. Here is the same info for my battery.


Have you tried removing and replacing the battery so it can be re-detected by the BIOS? If not, do so (while the computer is on and plugged in to the mains so you can see the battery info change).

John

 

Performed the test as you suggested.

Looking at you battery stats and mine I fail to see the spurious data ?