is it a graphics, batter or ac adaptor issue?

hi all

ive managed to have my m18x r2 running with a 1070 & windows 10 + 3940xm for few weeks now.
all was going fine playing games but the other day my laptop began shutting down during games and upon restart i would get "this battery charging is temporarily disabled. press F2...." type messages on start up. even though it shows 100% charge when i unplug laptop shuts down.

i am using the unlocked a11 bios from rianair thread and the device drivers from this thread - its a modified 445.87

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...b-and-windows-10-but-card-not-showing.833192/

ive run diagnostics and havent done any over clocking. laptop is well cooled although recently i think the left side of keyboard is running hotter than usual but Gpu Z doesnt show any high temperatures - 56c for graphics and 45-50 for CPU.

i left the laptop shutdown over night and fully disconnected. in morning i took out the battery and pressed power button for 30+ seconds before reconnecting and restarting. i no longer got the battery charging message but it did now show that my laptop wasnt connected to AC even though the lights on it were on. further more when i shut the laptop down there is still a glow on the power button which disappears when i unplug laptop which to me indicates that power is going through....yet the battery is discharging at same time when its plugged in and operational? I disconnected everything again for a while then plugged everything back in and restarted and everything seems to work fine but when i loaded up a game the laptop didnt seem to recognise the AC anymore and was showing itself on battery again. I checked the bios and it said that AC Adapter type not recognized.

So it seems like intense activity makes my laptop not recognize my adaptor? should i get a new one? is it a graphics card problem? bios issue? driver issue? when i unplug and replug the charger cable, even though i dont see any diff in whether AC adaptor is connected icon, i do get a message regarding switching graphics card so its recognizing that there is some change....and also indicates that battery itself does seem to be working...but also at same time it drained to 0% just now and still seems to be working even though its not showing that its charging...but screen does shut down after a while as if its purely on battery..

any advice would be greatly appreciated. it seems i can get a new ac adaptor for 50£ so i dont mind doing that but if its a Mobo or graphics card issue causing this then i dont think ill bother as it seems to work after a while if im not gaming or anything...

 

my only other guess doing some googling is if there is an issue with the power jack / socket perhaps? is this a plug and play easy type of replacement or something that requires soldering etc?

 

just tried running the laptop on AC adapter only. it switched on (showing 255% - no battery) and laptop would run however would shut down when i tried loading into a game. GPu Z didnt show any abnormal spikes in temperature. Graphics <50 and CPU ~60. After shut down didnt really restart until i put battery back in and again once logged in showed in bios that ac adapter not detected and was showing battery drain.

 

It does sound like it could be the adapter. I'm guessing that you don't have a spare one to test with. What does the diagnostic screen show?

Also, the left side of the keyboard will be hotter as it's directly above the GPU. Your idle temps look pretty good though.

EDIT: The DC jack is soldered to the board. Most decent PC repair shops should be able to do basic soldering and I wouldn't suggest to try it yourself if you don't have the skills. I tried once and failed. It is possible that a power controller on the board has failed. I'm hoping for you that it's not the issue.

 

Thanks guess I'll order a spare one and see if it works. Def doesn't sound like something to do with bios then? I wonder why this has happened suddenly as I've had the laptop for ages....is it the intense gaming use the past few days? I don't move it around at all...

 

Don't know man. Anything can happen with electronics at any time without warning.

 

PSU can fail for a large list of reasons where the main one is heat. There is a very simple test for this try leaving your laptop on for a couple of hours idling on desktop only without any background apps and if it will remain on than its the PSU. Any other HW fault would normally have your laptop either BSOD, restart, shut off or freeze even if you simply left your laptop on without doing anything.

 

Thanks. Does sound like I bricked the PSU. I have 2 laptop and a printer a PSU all basically sitting on each other as it's a confined corner desk so could have just fried each other. After I didn't use m18x R2 for 1 day it was fine again but when I played a game it immediately began same issues (as in OP). Guess I should buy new PSU and make sure they're not stacked on top of each other! My bad (((

 

I too occasionally have the issue as you stated here: <the laptop didnt seem to recognise the AC anymore and was showing itself on battery again.> What I have done to solve this is very simple (so simple, you maybe won't believe it): What you do is just unplug the battery for 30 seconds while the laptop is still plugged in; now, before you get any predetermined thoughts here, just a few days ago, I had this very same issue ALONG WITH the AC power adapter wattage and type cannot be determined. The battery may not charge....Press the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the Setup Utility (this is the condensed version of this BIOS warning message) Sooo, in lieu of both these issues, the battery not charging indication AND the BIOS AC power adapter wattage and type cannot be determined. The battery may not charge..., I felt it wise not to unplug the battery; so, of course, I was a bit perplexed. So, as you stated here: <i no longer got the battery charging message but it did now show that my laptop wasnt connected to AC even though the lights on it were on. further more when i shut the laptop down there is still a glow on the power button which disappears when i unplug laptop which to me indicates that power is going through.... I checked the bios and it said that AC Adapter type not recognized.> Even tho being perplexed and discouraged a bit, this is how I DID solve it:
I decided to unplug the AC power plug from the laptop's power port (maybe I need to note that the power supply was not unplugged from the wall outlet at any time) and while the AC power plug still not plugged into the laptop's port, start up the laptop on it's battery power; after about 1-3 minutes of the AC power plug not plugged in, it may very well be even essential for Windows to fully load (it's extremely probable there is a correlation with these power issues and their drivers) then plug the AC power plug into the laptop. Battery charging returned, my display screen brightened, which indicates that AC power was powering the laptop (I had the Balanced Performance option enabled when the laptop is being powered via battery and with this option, the laptop screen dims to conserve power). Well, I crossed my fingers but was pretty confident upon testing to see if the BIOS AC power message would appear: I restarted it and message did not appear; I shut down then booted it and again, no message.
I very much hope this helps and/or solves your issue. Please follow up if you tried what fixed it for me or otherwise. We love our Alienwares, ya know.
I'm also attaching a very helpful youtube video link that helped me a great deal the very 1st time I had the battery not charging indication at the battery icon which was about 9 months ago; this youtuber also is using an Alienware laptop and he gives a few possible solutions in it:

 

thank you very much for your reply. i am very annoyed i dont seem to have enabled email notifications of responses because i went ahead and purchased a new adapter which only finally arrived today. i booted up a game with it and it loaded however i didnt test it vigorously as i was busy but it did seem to solve the issue as i left the laptop unusable on the old adapter. i might see if it works on the old one but tbh i might just keep this adapter as ill porbably have trouble returning it and it was only 47. might as well have a new one just in case if i decide to sell this beauty.

 

I felt the need to comment on this matter, as again this common issue occurred to me today; I edited from my previous comment as indicated:

.....and <with ( Edit) > the AC power plug still not plugged into the laptop's port, <after about 1-3 minutes of the AC power plug not plugged in ( Edit) >, start up the laptop on it's battery power; it may very well be even essential for Windows to fully load (it's extremely probable there is a correlation with these power issues and their drivers) <THEN ( Edit)> plug the AC power plug into the laptop. Battery charging returned, my display screen brightened, which indicates that AC power was powering the laptop; **VERY ESSENTIAL** < IMMEDIATELY perform a Windows shut down when the battery charging icon displays it's charging BUT BEFORE the white Switch Graphic Card pop-up message displays: The AC adapter currently connected is not supported. System will continue on battery. Press any key to continue. You only have a brief amount of time to do this as the pop up happens maybe 30 seconds, if even that, within the time from plugged in/charging to not charging of the battery icon's status in the task bar. Doing this, it appears, allows the BIOS to maintain detecting the AC power in subsequent start ups; allowing battery charging to continue. <Start up the AW18/M18xR ( Edit) > Everything should boot up as normal: No BIOS message about the AC adapter not recognized&the task bar battery icon displaying: plugged in, charging OR hours and minutes to full charge. (I initially thought maybe I left out the important step, indicated by the ** and is the reason for the edited previous comment and this additional comment.) Hope this definitely helps or provides anyone better understanding of this common problem. Cheers!

 

Moderator, please delete this comment; I thought there is a delete option but there is not. Thank you