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    Need more juice! Any suggestions?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 14 and M14x' started by ZED07, Jul 19, 2011.

  1. ZED07

    ZED07 Newbie

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    Love my M14x but the battery does not last as long as I need it to. Any suggestions? I have heard about some good external batteries but not sure which to get.
     
    ZED07, Jul 19, 2011
    #1
  2. Mozin321

    Mozin321 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Not so sure about external batteries. The battery in the M14x is not easily removable unless you have some tech experience. You have to remove the back cover and maybe even unscrew the battery.

    To get better battery life.. Make sure the brightness is down as far as comfortably possible. If you're still not getting enough time, lower it some more. Trade in some comfort for time on your laptop :p
    Also, turn AlienFX off. You don't need it, it's really just for show. Turning it off will save some battery.
    Make sure you only the programs you need are open. If you are using Word, there's no reason to keep Chrome, iTunes, or whatever else open. Just X it out.
     
    Mozin321, Jul 20, 2011
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  3. everythingsablur

    everythingsablur Notebook Evangelist

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    Helps to know what you do on your laptop, what battery life you are getting, and what you are realistically expecting. Depending on your usage, the M14x really might not be the best laptop for your needs.

    The internal battery is under the bottom cover, and does require a screwdriver to remove. From watching some disassembly videos, it doesn't look difficult, but it's not something you would easily do in the field like a battery swap on virtually every other laptop with an externally accessible battery. Remove the cover, unscrew the battery, disconnect the power cable. There is no "higher capacity" battery for the M14x itself. Someone could theoretically make one, but they would need to also make a new case bottom.

    As for external batteries, there are some "battery slices" out there which plug into the power socket of various laptops, but I don't know if any of them have appropriate connectors and EEPROMs to work on these newer Dells (I've been told there is actually an authenticity check on the power adapter).
     
    everythingsablur, Jul 20, 2011
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  4. niko2021

    niko2021 Notebook Evangelist

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    Besides putting everything on power saver, dimmed screen, alienfx lights of, etc, you can get a top quality ssd. I will both boost your performance significantly and i heard about people getting 4 or more hours on it. That's what im going to do. I really want to see how dell rated the battery life at more than 6 hours.
     
    niko2021, Jul 20, 2011
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  5. Mozin321

    Mozin321 Notebook Enthusiast

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    6 hours on sleep mode! :p
     
    Mozin321, Jul 21, 2011
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  6. Gearsguy

    Gearsguy Notebook Deity

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    Yeah dont know where they got 6, but with alien fx off, power saver on, cpu underclocked to 1.5ghz, and brightness 2 above lowest, I get about 5-5.5 hours depending on use
     
    Gearsguy, Jul 22, 2011
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