Inside Alienware 15 battery

if someone was wondering to know the model of the cells used like me, here can you see it:




that thing is almost imposible to open without damaging the case, BUT i found that you can replace the cells without opening it entirely:


there under those 2 stickers you can find that it have a little layer of plastic covering the cells.
I will try to find a ways to fix this crappy battery, i am not going to buy a third battery
if i cant fix it, i will think on change the entire set of cells and use another brand

 

Talk with @t456 He is probably the best qualified person for this.

 

@t456 could you help me please

 

https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/9369-hardware-mod-battery-cell-upgrade-success/

Not an easy task, Don't do it.

 

The cells are typical li-ion cells that are available from a lot of brands. But I do not know if the "Computer" inside the battery pack needs to be reprogrammed. So battery packs jsut accept new battery cells without any issues. Others refuse to work ever again.

Dell mostly uses Toshiba batter cells in Alienware laptops by the way.

 

@rinneh and @judal57: Do you guys know where to get original AW battery after warranty runs out and battery dies out? I can't find price of battery on Dell India website.

 

Call Dell-AW support for your area. + Places like Amazon-Ebay

 

It's an LG 18650 E1 3200mAh.

That is a serious cell; very few can match its measured capacity. However, the label states charge voltage max. 4.35V, whereas 4.2V is the norm for 3.7V Li-Ion. Now, every cell can be charged to higher voltages (increasing capacity), but that always comes at the expense of increased wear. So if that's what they've done to the 15's battery pack then that might explain your 'crappy battery' experience. If you meant that run time was low direct from the start then look elsewhere; some process may be drawing inordinate amounts of power or perhaps one half of this strange split-pack has failed. It's a 4-series, 2-parallel design (4S2P), so one x4 set failing wouldn't kill the pack, but it would slash the capacity in half.

If you want to replace them then compare cells at 4.2V only and rewrite the firmware accordingly. Made a guide here (firmware is covered later on). A spot welder might also be nice in case you don't want to be limited to pre-tabbed cells (soldering directly to batteries is next to impossible using a normal iron). Pretty expensive though, unless you diy that, too.

Well ... not easy, sure, but it's the challenge that make things interesting, no?

The reports on 'suddenly' dead packs after dyi'ing can't be telling the whole story. It is just technology, after all, not magic . One potential issue is using cells too far discharged below the safety threshold, so they cannot be charged back. Other than that there should be no issues. Even the firmware is 'plain'; no data scrambling or any other safety measures.

 

@t456 my problem is that i used this battery as much 50 cycles and it died entirely, giving me the error on boot that say " your battery have experienced permanent failure, you have to replace it" also i had the warning at 30% on my battery plan to charge it again. My laptop is permanent plug in to the wall, but i discharge the battery once a week. as you say Dell force the battery to work at 4,35. can i reduce the max voltage to charge the cells to a safer value, something like 4 or 3,8V ??? i can live with less battery life if it increase his lifespan. the battery last a lot when it worked, normally 5 hours, 5,5h while web browsing on Chrome. i use a m.2 drive (samsung 850 EVO) as main drive, so it helps a lot. i like the battery specs too, but from my experience the cells wear really quick and die soon

 

The max voltage is higher only in case if you have express charge enabled. if i am correct the default voltage when express charge is disabled is lower.

But it is strange the pack died that quickly, mine is more than a year old now and stil only at 1.8% wear. But my cycle count is lower, around 25. I never fully discharge it, only partial discharges.

My R1 didnt had any battery wear after 1 year as well.

Search the part number online and you will find a lot of shops at that moment that sell it. I dont have it on my mobile phone now. I can check it later for you.

 

Erase that 'weekly refresh' method from your memory; it does the exact opposite of what you want to accomplish (see this article). This notion is a leftover from regular NiMH batteries, but it has no place in Li-Ion.

Even so, 50 cycles is far too soon to be merely aggravated wear. It is more likely that a single cell and/or one of the sets has failed. Check the voltages using HWiNFO; 14.8V (4*3.7) is nominal, 16.8V (4*4.2) is full charge (or perhaps 17.4V due to the 4.35V cells in this particular pack).

Yes, you can set it to a lower voltage by adjusting the firmware accordingly. Just make sure to also lower the full charge capacity a little then. Not that this is strictly necessary, though; the system will auto-adjust the wear level accordingly. But this often takes a bit of learning before it arrives at a value that accurately indicates its actual capacity.

 

@t456
i made the weekly discharge to 30% because i read on battery university that lithium batteries suffer in max charge
for other side, i tested the cells and here is


seems like the last pair have less than accepted voltage, so my question is ... how i know which of the 2 is dead or maybe both are dead ?? i cant test them separately or i dont know how :S can you help me with your expertise please

and if i want to reduce the voltage to a max of 4V or 3,8V how i do that ?

 

@t456 also do you think this batteries can replace the deffect ones ? http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-x-Panason...353112?hash=item5b28bac698:g:FhsAAOSwIgNXpJ-g
because i cant find the LG cells on ebay with the same capacity and color ( if it matters )

 

mine is a panasonic ones, check on HWINFO.. wow ur doing lots of mods.. be safe.. my wear level 1.1% after 8 months..

 

@Mr. Fox could you help me ??

 

@VICKYGAMEBOY you would be surprised with the weigh of the laptop now hahahahah is super light without the battery pack i love to travel with him now XD hahaha is funny because is almost a portable desktop

 

Yes, one or both of that pair have failed, considering it's on or even below the safe-discharge level. Dead-dead then, or at minimum unable to re-charge. That would also take down the other pair right above it and slash total capacity in half. That is assuming they've set up the pack in a way that it can still work with one half failing, but it'd still say 'failed pack', even if it still has 50% capacity left.

That is possible, but you have to separate one from the other by detaching one of their tabs. They can be pulled free using pliers, but do not do this unless you have a spot welder. Better cut a tab midway, it can easily be soldered back together using a normal iron and, optionally, a copper wire draped over both ends.

By adjusting the charging voltage in the firmware:

Spoiler: battery firmware examples

Addresses 36 and 37 covers that (marked in green). Since the value is stored as the total value in the series (in millivolts), that means for 4V you'd set 4 cells * 4V *1,000 = 16,000 mV and so on. Convert decimal to hex and you have the value you want; '3E80' for 4V and '3B60' for 3.8V. Can drop the values in an excel to make things simple (DEC2HEX and HEX2DEC functions).

These will do fine, having a similar capacity at the discharge level. However, make sure to order pre-tabbed cells. Probably a lot of the failed battery-replacement projects are due to people soldering directly to the cells without a proper iron; one wiggle/shock and the connection will break.

 

Hey Bro, I see Brother @t456 has replied and he knows way more about this stuff than I do. I'm pretty ignorant on this topic. Whatever he tells you is going to be reliable and probably better than my advice regarding battery repairs. I've never done any notebook battery repairs before. I have only replaced them when they wear out or fail.

Is there something else other than the battery you are asking about that I can help with?

 

Do they start with PAxxx model no.? Can you post some screenies?

 

They all have the same part number unfortunately.