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    Question about Alienware 17 R2 2015 battery

    Discussion in '2015+ Alienware 13 / 15 / 17' started by ElectricTurtle, May 7, 2015.

  1. ElectricTurtle

    ElectricTurtle Notebook Consultant

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    So I've been playing around with my AW 17 for a few weeks now and there's nothing really to complain about. However, there's something that's been bugging me: I noticed the battery would sometimes go from 100% to 94% when plugged in. The AW 17R is shipped with an 980 GPU so I thought the cause was my 180W adapter. I emailed tech support and received this:
    Is this true? I'm living in Australia and the BIOS is A03 iirc. Not sure if they'll let me get the 240W adapter.
     
    ElectricTurtle, May 7, 2015
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  2. Mr. Fox

    Mr. Fox BGA Filth-Hating Elitist®

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    The explanation is off a bit, but the concept is true. The tech support guy is telling you the truth. "Desktop Mode" prevents to battery from being charged to 100% 24/7 in an effort to minimize battery wear and help it last longer. The "official" description of what it does can be seen in the screen shot attached. I found this example in a post at Dell Community Forums.

    All newer Dell/Alienware laptops have this... it is not listed as a driver download for your machine, but it still has it. Here is a link to it for an XPS laptop. It believe it may be integrated with Alienware Command Center or OSD on Alienware machines, (Dell QuickSet on Dell laptops,) rather than a stand-alone driver like the linked XPS example. http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=D26NM

    I don't care for it, even if it might make the battery last longer. You can disable it if you want to. If you find it in the the Add/Remove Programs utility in Control Panel you can uninstall it. If not, you can access it through the System Tray icon to turn it off.
     

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    Mr. Fox, May 7, 2015
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  3. ElectricTurtle

    ElectricTurtle Notebook Consultant

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    I see. Thank you for the info. I believed the guy at first, but got a little bit skeptical after reading all the lies Dell said in this forum XD.
     
    ElectricTurtle, May 7, 2015
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    Papusan and Mr. Fox like this.