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    AW 13 Power problrems

    Discussion in '2015+ Alienware 13 / 15 / 17' started by Dolbs, Mar 12, 2015.

  1. Dolbs

    Dolbs Notebook Guru

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    Hi Guys. So got my AW13 3 days ago, and this morning while playing Dawn of war 2 on battery the screen suddenly went down to minimum brightness and USB mouse stopped working like was unplugged then plugged in again. have checked all my power plans, and set to max performance on mains and battery but keeps happening on battery but is fine on mains. Any ideas would be appreciated.
     
    Dolbs, Mar 12, 2015
    #1
  2. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    The system won't be able to maintain max performance on battery alone. The draw makes the battery too hot.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Mar 13, 2015
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  3. Ramzay

    Ramzay Notebook Connoisseur

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    These machines aren't designed to game on battery. I believe they cut the performance by 50% when gaming on battery. So the screen will dim, FPS will be cut in half. Battery will get hot.

    Bottom line? Don't game on a battery. Plug it in.
     
    Ramzay, Mar 13, 2015
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  4. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

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    This is what is happening. We recommend to game only with the PC plugged in unless the only option you have is to game on battery.
     
    Alienware-L_Porras, Mar 13, 2015
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  5. Dolbs

    Dolbs Notebook Guru

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    Hi, I Have had 3 M11x laptops and never come across this problem while gaming on battery. If the AW13 is being marketed as an ultraportable then surely I should be able to game with out loosing screen brightness and usb even if only for the life of the battery?
     
    Dolbs, Mar 13, 2015
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  6. Game7a1

    Game7a1 ?

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    If I remember correctly, the m11xR1 uses a 60 watt charger. The battery, a 63 wHr battery, in the m11xR1 should be enough to power the laptop through gaming.
    However, the AW13 uses more than 60 watts (around 90 watts), and it has a smaller battery compared to the m11xR1 (52 wHr vs. 63 wHr). So it'll have to do some power saving methods to limit the power consumption.
    At least, this is what I think. I'm not an expert in these battery matters.
     
    Game7a1, Mar 13, 2015
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  7. Dolbs

    Dolbs Notebook Guru

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    Game7a1 makes a good point im going to try make a power plan for battery gaming see how I get on, I still do think though that a ultra portable gaming laptop should be able to provide stable gaming even on battery.
     
    Dolbs, Mar 13, 2015
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  8. Game7a1

    Game7a1 ?

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    Don't the recent and latest Nvidia mobile GPUs have some battery plan method through Geforce Experience (you may have to download it)? All it does is cap the FPS to 30 FPS or some desired number, but it should help, right?
    But that is weird. I remember playing Bioshock 2 on battery (at 60 FPS, no more), and didn't get the aforementioned effects you had.
     
    Game7a1, Mar 13, 2015
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    Dolbs likes this.
  9. Dolbs

    Dolbs Notebook Guru

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    So spent the evening playing with Alien Command centre, making a power plan.
    40% Screen brightness.
    50% CPU Max
    Moderate power saving on every thing else.
    And in Geforce Experience Battery boost set to 30FPS.
    Played all games tested with none of the issues I mentioned above.
    Thanks to Game7a1 for putting me on the right track. :>
     
    Dolbs, Mar 13, 2015
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  10. Craig9080

    Craig9080 Notebook Consultant

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    That's great to hear. I hadn't games on battery yet but I'm thankful I found this thread before I tried.
     
    Craig9080, Mar 22, 2015
    #10