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    Alienware 17 r4 - Battery drain under load

    Discussion in '2015+ Alienware 13 / 15 / 17' started by draxen, Jul 20, 2017.

  1. draxen

    draxen Notebook Consultant

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    Hi folks,

    I've just purchased a brand new Alienware 17 r4 and I'm experiencing a strange problem. The laptop seems perfectly stable but under heavy load (e.g. whilst gaming) my battery drains to around 95% even whilst plugged into the AC. Temps are good and don't go over 65 degrees C across the board. This doesn't seem like normal behavior. Do you think this warrants an RMA?

    Specs:
    Intel Core i7 7820HK @ 2.90GHz
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
    32 GB RAM
    240w PSU

    Thanks.
     
    draxen, Jul 20, 2017
    #1
  2. Vasudev

    Vasudev Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Did you enable Battery Boost on AC?
     
    Vasudev, Jul 21, 2017
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  3. draxen

    draxen Notebook Consultant

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    I'm not sure what this setting is/does. Do you know where I can find it?

    EDIT: Ah, I see - it's NVIDIA technology.
    I don't have NVIDIA experience installed (just the display driver) so I assume it's already disabled.
     
    Last edited: Jul 21, 2017
    draxen, Jul 21, 2017
    #3
  4. Vasudev

    Vasudev Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Nvidia geforce experience app. Tag @Papusan he knows how to solve this issue. The problem lies in your CPU/GPU being OC'ed far higher needs more juice than AC adapter's wattage. In that case, you might wanna look at 330W adapter.
     
    Vasudev, Jul 21, 2017
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  5. draxen

    draxen Notebook Consultant

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    draxen, Jul 21, 2017
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  6. openglcg

    openglcg Notebook Consultant

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    With the 6700hq and 1070 I get the battery drain only when using bios 1.0.9.
     
    openglcg, Jul 21, 2017
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  7. alexnvidia

    alexnvidia Notebook Deity

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    i have alienware 17R4 GTX 1080, both skylake and kabylake, both 330W with different revision of power supply. OC or not, the battery will drain under certain gaming loads. even at stock CPU and stock GPU. even undervolted CPU the battery will drain. makes no difference
     
    alexnvidia, Jul 21, 2017
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  8. MogRules

    MogRules Notebook Deity

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    7830hk / 1080 and I get the drain but it never goes much below 95% before it goes back up.
     
    MogRules, Jul 21, 2017
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  9. draxen

    draxen Notebook Consultant

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    I'm happy to hear that it sounds like a "feature" rather than a defect of some sort. However, I've tried everything I can do short of undervolting to try and disable it without success. If anyone has any ideas how to turn it off it would be much appreciated :)
     
    draxen, Jul 22, 2017
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  10. MogRules

    MogRules Notebook Deity

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    Mine is undervolted by 0.100 and it still does it so I don't think that will make any difference in that regard. I am also running stock clocks on the GPU/CPU so it isn't an OC drawing more power.
     
    MogRules, Jul 22, 2017
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  11. draxen

    draxen Notebook Consultant

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    If undervolting doesn't resolve the issue then I wonder if it's some kind of new battery saving/maintenance feature?
    I wonder if it occurs in every Alienware 17 r4 or just some of them.
     
    draxen, Jul 22, 2017
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  12. MogRules

    MogRules Notebook Deity

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    There are a lot of reports of this happening. I won't pretend to be an expert as I don't know but if i had to hazard a guess I would say it's completely intentional and designed to provide a minimal discharge/charge to keep the battery in good health. What I don't understand is why some people see a lot higher discharge rate, like some people reporting that their battery is getting down to 60%. I don't think I have ever seen mine drop below 95%.
     
    MogRules, Jul 22, 2017
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  13. openglcg

    openglcg Notebook Consultant

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    This is intentional support for the power system. It has been the same in older alienware models. the battery drains to support the part of each power cycle that pulls more power than the system can safely provide. I have never seen upgrading the power supply help. Undervolting and underclocking are the only options and sometimes it only reduces the chance of it happening. this is an intentional part of the system design. older systems have reports of the power cable frying. trying to use more power than these are designed for is not recommended. As for the alienware 17 r4 some bioses cause the battery drain more than others. If you are on bios 1.0.9 try switching if you dont want power drain.
     
    openglcg, Jul 22, 2017
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  14. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

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    ^ I would agree that it's pretty much this.

    If the power supply isn't large enough and the system doesn't get the extra juice that it requires from the battery (ie. power from both at the same time) then it would either shut off suddenly or become otherwise unstable.

    A way you could think about it is, say the laptop is under heavy load and is taking up 350W of power, the AC adaptor can put out 330W (possibly less than that, even if it is rated for it) and then it will take up the remaining 20W from the battery.
     
    namaiki, Jul 23, 2017
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  15. ZBIGPL

    ZBIGPL Notebook Enthusiast

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    I know its old but wanted to contribute to what helped me :) 1080 7820HK 330W Charger ;) and at first I could not find what is it...maybe it will help someone :)
    So its Windows performance meter to Best Battery life... and Geforce Experience ->Battery boost ;) AlienBattertDrain.png
     
    ZBIGPL, May 26, 2018
    #15
  16. MogRules

    MogRules Notebook Deity

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    I actually swapped to my spare adapter and mine does not seem to be draining anymore under load.....maybe the adapters are not all equal....
     
    MogRules, May 28, 2018
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  17. rinneh

    rinneh Notebook Prophet

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    In my case it stopped after i undervolted the gpu.
     
    Last edited: May 28, 2018
    rinneh, May 28, 2018
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