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    Sudden Battery Fault

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by PeanutDaddy, Jul 1, 2011.

  1. PeanutDaddy

    PeanutDaddy Newbie

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    Hi Guys,

    I have one of the original R1 M11X's and the battery has suddenly developed a strange fault. When the battery gets to about 65% charge it suddenly drops to 5%. To me this would appear to be a battery fault.

    I'm happy to buy a new battery as the trusty thing is getting a "bit old" but I don't want to spend £103 and find that the problem is not fixed.

    Anyone had a similar fault? Anyone think of a reason why this would not be fixed by a new battery?

    Thanks in advance

    PeanutDaddy
     
    PeanutDaddy, Jul 1, 2011
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  2. dredd1893

    dredd1893 Notebook Consultant

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    How long have you had your m11x R1? Can you describe your daily use of the machine? And your charging behaviour? Have you tried to monitor battery properties using utility like HWInfo, HWMonitor, BatteryBar etc.?
     
    dredd1893, Jul 1, 2011
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  3. ejohnson

    ejohnson Is that lemon zest?

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    My battery did that one day, I tried to discharge it all the way then recharge it and that was the end, battery icon popped up and said to replace my battery.
     
    ejohnson, Jul 1, 2011
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  4. PeanutDaddy

    PeanutDaddy Newbie

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    For the 18 months or so I've had it I used to run in plugged into the mains to play games, or on the sofa on battery while surfing the web. About 6 months ago I bought an m15x so that became my gaming laptop - the m11x then became a purely travel/sofa web laptop and I pretty much used it on battery the whole time - only charging it when it ran out every couple of days or so.

    My battery life when using the Intel gfx was superb - I often got 8+ hours out of it. Over the time I've had it it only deteriorated slightly, until this problem a few weeks ago.

    BatteryBar is the only thing I've tried and that now reports that I have 1 hour total battery time :eek:)
     
    PeanutDaddy, Jul 1, 2011
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  5. dredd1893

    dredd1893 Notebook Consultant

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    Sounds like your battery's off calibration to me. I haven't had any problems with m11x battery, but from your usage description, your charge cycle is should be less than 300 (i.e. less than full dicharge-charge). Anyway, your case is similar to what I had with my vaio FE 880 battery. BatteryBar tells it only got 45 min left, and the discharge rate was off by twice the battery capacity, but in actual usage, it still can give juice for about 1.5 hours.. So, I did complete discharge (until it hibernates/shuts down), then charge it fully. After two cycle it started give reasonable reading, it does showed 15% wear though..
    I hope that helps.
     
    dredd1893, Jul 1, 2011
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