Alienware 18 stops charging randomly

Hi all,
Recently my AW18 stops charging randomly every few minutes, then charges normally after a few second. There is no pattern to this. I tried resetting BIOS, uninstalling Microsoft ACPI Control Method Battery, enabling/disabling desktop mode charging... Nothing seems to work. The motherboard has been replaced a couple months ago due to some unrelated issues. Any ideas?

 

If your'e not having issues while gaming, problem is with the battery/battery charging system.. have AW replace the battery if you have warranty and if this doesn't fix your issue, then the problem is with motherboard...

 

I unplugged the charger until the battery drops til 50% and now it's charging up without issues. It seems that the issue occurs at the 99% level, as in it refuses to charge to 100%. I'll update this when it gets there.

 

According to BatteryInfoView, it's stuck at 99.5%, although I pressed the "charge battery to 100% one time" button. The status says 99% available, plugged in, not charging.
Update: I contacted Dell, a tech ran AlienAutopsy and some other tests and deemed the battery broken. He transferred me to the purchasing department but they didn't have any batteries for the 18 in stock. I'm going to try to drain the battery and give it a full charge to see what happens.

 

The battery should be fine. There is a built in auto charging on the system. Where it won't normally charge the battery at certain levels of high 90s %. This is to stop excessive charge cycles and damaging the battery due to wear. So normally around 95% or more or less I'm not 100% on the figure but it may or may not charge your battery. If you also leave your battery in while using it in desktop mode for a while the battery % level can drop slightly over a few days weeks and months.

So yeh nothing really to be concerned about if your battery is running fine. This is normal behaviour for battery charging. If your battery % is down to for example 98% or 99% and you plug it back in to charge - it will most likely not charge. I have seen times where it will charge but usually it won't due to the battery conservation system being in place. If you discharge the battery down to say 50% or even 80% then yes it should start charging fine when plugged in again.

 

I'd suggest run it all the way down till it shuts off. Then keep powering it on till nothing. Then hold the power button down for 15 sec or so. Let it sit overnight. Then plug it in but don't turn it on and Kermit charge siting closed and off for a few hours. Then open it and turn it on after its charged for several hours off. See what she does.

 

I don't know if the battery in the 17 acts differnt than the 18 but I've had my 17 for over a year and it always goes to a 100% . When plugged In constantly it stays at a 100%. Not saying this is how the average charging works just letting you know how mine behaves.

 

I had this problem aw said it was the battery first then the motherboard then actually sent me a new aw18 with upgraded graphics my aw18 was 5 months old when I got the new one I put my new battery in my old one to see and the new battery worked and my old machine charged it fine so I got a new aw18 for a dead battery so I am happy with aw

 

I tried everything you guys mentioned and nothing seemed to have fixed it. BUT setting it to express charge in BIOS made the problem go away! I doubt this can be marked as "fixed" but for the moment it seems to be fine.
Isn't that weird? Keep in mind that when it hits the "full" mark, it will switch to AC Power and stay there. In my case, it drops the charger connection - as in the battery icon doesn't have the plugged in icon, and all battery monitor programs report "discharging". This basically rules out a bad charger. So it's either a bad battery or a bad motherboard. Based on knowltg's reply above, the possibility of a bad battery is now a bit stronger.
Back to draining battery, should I try again and disable all "safe levels"? I believe it is 5% and 7%. Gosh I miss Thinkpad's awesome battery utility. That thing reports everything you'll ever want to know about your battery and it has a built-in procedure to recalibrate battery.

 

Damn this random charging stop happened to me just now & it is stopped, even in BIOS it doesn't recognize the AC adapter type..sad

Adding to this my observations so far : A slight pop type sound while the system POST's then the wierd AlienFX behavior (when I turn on there's a flash of light of FX turning on and off for a msec then it turns on) then this battery stops charging at 94% & RealtekHD stopped working this started previously and now again..:cry:

Will call up support for a replacement battery, seems like it's broken ?
And will do a test after removing the battery then boot and check for the same behavior with FX, sound manager...

 

Does your system perform normally? If the hardware ID pin has been shorted that can cause the system not recognise the charger and make it limit power draw.

 

Yes it's performing normally.
Just opened the machine and found that battery cable was loose on the right end of it, now the battery charges past 93%. Hope this charging blackout doesn't happen. Will post if any changes occur.

 

I checked my cable multiple times and it's properly plugged in. I'm draining my battery to 0 and charge back up to see if it helps.

 

Try it bro, if the issue persists better call the support asap as this is a really annoying thing to happen on these machines....
And It's very unfortunate for us and stupidity from dell about the newer machines without that old battery bay...really miss that.

 

Is there a good way to force battery drain to 0%? There seems to be a safe guard somewhere that prevented me from doing so. I changed the critical levels in power options but the lowest I could get it down to was 3%.

 

Make sure you don't have it set to Desktop Mode in AWCC. That mode will only charge the battery when it falls to 50%. I have my 18 set to that mode. It protects the battery and is a good setting if you leave your machine plugged in 24/7 like I do.

 

Yes it's in the power options for windows but truly taking the battery to 0% is not good for it usually and can permanently damage the unit.

 

So how does one go about recalibrating batteries on these machines?

 

Yeah I have no idea myself... My Samsung ultrabook has a calibration thing in BIOS but nothing is there for AW... My battery needs some calibration..

 

Hello! I have a similar issue on my Alienware 18. What no one else above specified is wether the system switches to battery consumption while stil being plugged in. I have different screen lightning levels for battery and plugged in operations, plus keyboard light off on battery. So i notice immediately when system goes in battery mode then back to plugged in mode.
Weird thing is that this happens while in BIOS setup also. I thought lighting schemes only apply in Windows.
i had my charger and my motherboard replaced by Dell. The problem persists.
Sometimes i get a few hours of normal operation. Sometimes it switches back and forth every 10-20 seconds.
My question is: can a faulty battery deny AC power and force battery mode? I imagine AC charging should supercede battery.
Support wants me to replace battery, but it is out of waranty, so i would like a second objective opinion, as I am not eager to spend 100$ in vain.
Btw, Alienware Windows utility and BIOS test finds that battery is 100% healthy.
Battery is 2 yrs old and i seldom ran on battery power. 99% of usage is while plugged in.
Bottom line, should i spend 100$ for a new battery or not?
Thank you kindly for your opinion.

 

Alienware Control Center programs the AlienFX hardware while you are running in Windows, but the settings are saved and stay in place until you manually change them. That would explain the behavior you see in the BIOS (without Windows loaded). If you have "Desktop Mode" enabled it will cause some behavioral weirdness with charging. It prevents the battery from being fully charged to extend its life span. If you have that enabled, try disabling it and see if the system behaves more to your liking. If disabling "Desktop Mode" has no effect, it could be the AC power jack is randomly disconnecting and causing the change in lighting scheme. I think you would be wasting money on a new battery since the diagnostics indicate it is fine.