Alienware M14x - Disable battery charging....

Is there any way to dsiable the battery from charging while it still being connected to the laptop?

I know the M11x R2 and the M15x had this option, but it seems that when you press FN+F2 it opens AlienFX just as if you were to press FN+AlienFX.

What would be the point in having both buttons do the same thing?

It seems as if they forgot to enable the battery options in OSD or they just didn't want it.

 

M11x r2 doesnt seem to have the function either. It just shows me a worthless battery meter when pressed fn+f2

By the way, I noticed despite disabled charging, it is still charging very very slowly (took a week to climb from 94% to 100%), is yours also like this Titan?

 

yea, i had a dell studio 1558 and the option to disable charging was excellent. I downloaded the software on the off change that it would work, but it didnt.

shame

 

Isn't this option in BIOS? I coulda swore I saw it in there somewhere yesterday...

 

Why would you want to disable charging? Does it increase performance or increase the overall life of the battery?

 

There is an option in Bios, I just saw it in there. I don't remember exactly where, but the bios isn't that big, you'll find it.

 

There are times when I have the laptop connected for long periods of time and I wouldn't want to kill the life of the battery. It's happen to me more than once and I don't want it to happen again.

I like to leave my battery at around 40% charge when I'm not using it.

There's a lot of theories about batteries and how it supposedly doesn't matter but i find it to be false. I have left my laptop as a desktop replacement with it connected 24/7 and twice the batteries have lost their charging capacities.

 

I think you can only disable it in Bios. I disabled mine from Bios :/

 

Mostly charging reduces the lifetime of the batteries.

But in the case of Dell/AW, even when your battery is 100% charged and connected to AC, then there's no need to worry, as the charging is blocked automatically by the BIOS. The system will only use AC power, and the battery would be idle.

This is just like a laptop running without a battery, but connected to AC power.

 

yea in theory that is true lakshya, but batteries do loose their charge overtime, so it will be being topped up every couple of days, granted this is not a lot , but it will over time have a determental effect on the batteries duration.

 

Having worked with lithium ion degradation tables as an EE, I can say that if you're going to be plugged in the vast majority of the time, but you know in advance about the few times you'll be using substantial battery power (e.g. it mostly sits on your desk except the monthly flight to hawaii) the best thing to do would be to disable charging in the bios when the battery is about 30-40% charged (not drained or full).

Then, the day before you go to hawaii, re-enable charging, and get it charged up. Use it on your flight. if you drained it below 30% charge it back to 30% while it sits on your desk, then disable charging. if you're above 60%, use it on battery till you're below 60%, then disable charging and plug it in on your desk. Rinse. Repeat

The above is only true if your battery will be spending most of the time not being used. (say less than once a week). If you're using it more frequently than that, just leave charging enabled.

hope that helps

Also, I don't know one way or the other, but there are design (marketing) decisions that could have been made by dell/alienware that make the above less true. Specifically, if they design a "fully charged" battey to actually be ~90% charged, it gives ~10% less run time in a battery test while extending battery storage and cycle life substantially. This change makes it less important to not be stored fully charged (the main thing being accomplished in my above advice).
The trade-offs from dell are reduced run time while new (review benchmarking, basically) for happier long-term service... It's basically a marketing decision for an engineering trade-off.

 

Awesome insight!

That's basically what I do, since I'm not in school currently for the summer I have the laptop sitting on my desk connected to the external. So I have it charged to around 45% with charging disabled. So it's just using the AC adapter to receive it's power.

 

now when i press fn + f2 the battery isn't disables, it brings up alienfx....any way around this?

 

I did not know you can disable battery charging with FN+F2.... I was wondering what that option was for...

*actually that FN+F2 didn't do anything for me... I thought it was cuz I disabled charging in the BIOS but I re-enabled and tried it again but nothing happens... is there a setting I have to configure? I don't see it in the Alien CC.

 

Alright first things first is i was wondering if it was ok to leave the battery in the laptop with the power cable plugged even if its at 100%? Or would that harm the battery and reduce its lifespan.

Second of all well i know theirs the stickied thread for this but i ordered my m14x on the 8th and i believe it went in production the same day , im in canada and the EDT is on the 26... Any luck id get it before? Im probally leavin on vacation on the 21-22nd so id like to be home when the truck comes by and possibly tag it along the trip!

 

I'm not 100% on what is best for batteries but the battery for the mx14x is INSIDE it. You would constantly need to remove the cover and unhook the battery.

 

Ooh so i guess they touggt about that when they made it

 

I would say there is a chance you might get it earlier ...
Ordered mine on the 1st and It arrived today, 13th, but I wasn't around to pick it ....
Probably pick it up from purolator office tomorrow ....
btw .. dell ships through purolator ....
the EDT was 19th when i ordered by phone ... was 16th on the web ...
one last thing ... i live in vancouver ...
add a few extra days for the rural areas ....

about the battery ... I was wondering the same thing when i saw a video on youtube .... I would assume it is ok ....
otherwise, they wouldn't be that stupid to stick it inside with all the screws and the desktop power looking plug ....

wait for experts on that ....

 

Aha that reassures me ! Theirs still hope. Anyways eother the experts are smart and made it so that it doesnt degrade or even smarter and made it so that it does. Thats even more money for dell for battery replacements!

Also at what time do they usually change the status from production to shipped?

 

i wouldnt leave the battery in there at 100% if it were my machine. I leave mine at ~50 percent with charging off.

batteries like this degrade faster if they are left with a charge like that

 

So today I received my brand new Alienware M14x and to say I'm pleased is an understatement. It's truly a thing of beauty!

Now, I am a bit new to the whole world of computing (especially at this level). I'm just looking for some basic advice with regards to how to manage the battery and set everything up initially. I understand there was a thread about this a week or two ago but some of the advice given is for experienced users.

If I'm leaving the laptop stationary for a while do I keep it constantly plugged in? Sporadically drain the battery from a full charge to "train" it? I'm just looking for general tips so that 6 months from now I don't just have a machine that's essentially a desktop due to lack of battery!

 

It is best to leave your computer batt around 50 percent of charge. then turn off battery charging in bios. (to get to bios press f2 as the alien head pops up when your computer starts up)

this will give you the best possible batt life. This way you can leave it plugged in all the time without worrying about the battery constantly charging.

 

This may sound like the dumbest question ever, but if I turn off battery charging in BIOS how will I maintain my battery at 50%?

 

You cant really. Itll eventually slowly drop. You would just have to re enable it after a while to charge it again

 

ive got my charging off in bios and for some reason the charge goes up very slowly. about 1 percent every 3 days. kinda weird

i figure that when the computer boots up the batt charges until the bios loads and then turns off when it realizes that i turned off the charging

 

I fail to understand why people are so concerned about disabling battery charge. Facts about smart battery ( ones you find in almost all new laptops including alienware) are that :
1) it is not affected by memory effect. you do not need to charge/discahrge battery often to recalibrate your battery.
2) at 100% charge, battery automatically sets charge bit to 0. This tells the onboard power supply to stop charging battery. in laymans term, when battery is at 100%, power supply to battery is cutoff. usually cutoff state remains till 95% or nearabout. so even is your battery is at 96% or 97%, it wont be charging. When battery drops below that level, then it starts charging.
3) Battery university is a website dedicated to all kind of batteries. if you read this article about extending li-ion battery life, just read about Depth of Discharge( DoD). It basically says that smaller the discharge, longer your battery lasts. for example, if you discharge your battery by 10%( 90% battery remaining), you will get 4700 charge cycles left. but if you discharge your battery by 25%(75% battery left, you will end up with only 2500 charge cycles. Slight discharge reduces any built up stress in the li-ion compound, but in my opinion, by discharging it to 40%, you are decreasing your battery life instead of increasing it.

4) rather you can completely discharge your battery once in 2-3 months for re calibrating your battery with windows power manager or any other battery monitor software you use. Its not required, but most of the dell technicians advice this.

Usually people just follow what others have posted in order to save time by doing their own research. But i guess if you care this much about your machine, 20-30 of less facebook time wont hurt you

 

Folks we've been having this type of threads all over the Alienware subforums.

Read nuaron's post as he is spot on. I can talk from experience giving you an example one of my systems: in the past two years i had the M17x the battery stayed in the system and plugged in most of the time, battery wear is only @ 8%.

 

lol looks like you didnt read the article correctly. re-read the whole thing and get back to us.

i know what i am talking about, and have done the research to prove it. my opinion is to leave it at 40-50 percent charge with charging disabled. This opinion is ALSO backed up by the article you just posted. (second table in the article.) But do what you want with your battery/computer.lol

Good day sir. maybe you are the one who needs less facebook.

 

Hi, I'd like to stop battery charging when it's plugged to AC, but Btmeter seems doesnt work. I installed program (about ~17mb) and I got Bt meter in Files x86, but when I click btmeter program does nothing ( I got process Btmeter) FN+2 = just open Alien control center. Can u help me, I need this option. Yes I know, that I can diable in BIOS but I dont want change every time when I start my AW

Btw. How long ur m14x can run in battery? 2hrs is it enough (WIFI on) or something is going on with my battery?

 

Not sure about the Btmeter program. But your battery run time seems low. I get 4 hours with it on balance with wifi n fx lights. Maybe you have some programs running the background.

 

Hi friends
I recieved my new alienware 17 now
but i can't find disable charging in BIOS :-(
please help
thanks

 

ok can any one give simple answer to this?

i enabled desktop battery charge mode but it says it will charge battery between 50 and 100%..that means i need to get battery below 50% not to charge it then?i dont want that my PSU charge battery every time it drops to 99%...any tip pls?or to disable it in bios...

 

dobble post im sorry xd

 

Hi guys, I believe I can help you on this because I experienced the same thing and I managed to disable it back. Just go to folder 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Alienware On-Screen Display' and you will see an icon named 'desktop'. Double click it and you got the option back! Hope this info will help. Cheers!

 

we have that near clock already.click on battery right click,and go at energie options,however that option is bugged,i saw it working only once in this almost 3 weeks of having aw laptop.so yeah i went and unplugged battery,sick of it charging every time when drops to 99