XPS 15 - 9550 - Battery Degrading? Fresh Install?

I've been using my Dell XPS 15 - 9550 (4K Display) for almost a year now and more recently I noticed that I'm barely getting 3 hours of life on the battery with mostly browsing, email and business productivity type apps (Excel etc). This is far worse than it used to be.

I haven't installed anything new other than the recent windows updates. Is there anything I can do to improve battery life or see what the culprit might be? I set my brightness to 40-50% when on battery. For example, I had a fully charged laptop at 9:30AM this morning, it's now 10:46AM and it's showing 62% remaining with 1 hour and 51 mins. That's under 3 hours total battery at this pace!

Other apps I have running in the background include Dropbox, One Drive, Salesforce For Outlook and that's about it really.

If I wanted to go with a fresh install, something I've previously done, are there any ISO files with all the latest Windows Updates already on the image file instead of having to start completely from the beginning before the anniversary update? In my previous fresh install, I removed all partitions and started a clean slate. Also curious which Dell apps I should run if any at all and whether we should be using the Dell Drivers or the more updated drivers available directly from the manufacturer's websites.

P.S - I'm still using BIOS v1.2.0 because the screen flicker on all the recent BIOS' drive me insane! Sucks they didn't fix it in the recently released v1.2.16 bios.

Thanks

 

I followed this guide using GoNz0 's custom install of Win 10 Anniversary update that includes updated drivers etc, I believe:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ean-install-guide-custom-iso-download.789769/

Have you tried info contained in this guide on how to improve your battery life:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...life-on-xps-9550-or-other-xps-laptops.798644/

 

What are the Designed Capacity the Full Charged Capacity according to BatteryInfoView?

Also, what is the discharge rate when you are using the battery?

John

 

Hi John,

Not sure what you mean by "Designed Capacity Fully Charged Capacity". Where is the BatteryInfoView you speak of? Is it the batter bar on the task/tray area? It simply tells me % left, brightness setting and time remaining.

How do I find out what the discharge rate is when using the battery?

Thanks

 

Download it from here and run it. All the battery info is shown in a window - see example on that web page.

However, I would note that the calculated "wear" isn't the way I would calculate it as 100% wear according to BatteryInfoView is actually 0%. Hence my request for the actual capacity data from which the wear is calculated - the bigger the difference between actual and design then the greater the wear.

John

 

If you don't want to download any third-party software you can just run the command "powercfg -batteryreport" and open the file "battery-report.html". The actual and designed capacity for the battery should be there, however it doesn't work for me for some reason. If it doesn't work for you either, you can run the command "powercfg -energy" and open the file "energy-report.html".

Edit: Didn't realise you also wanted discharge rate, these commands do not give you that.

 

Okay, battery wear level is showing 79.5%, Designed Capacity 83,995mWh and Full Charged Capacity 66,736 mWh, Discharge rate is fluctuating between -16,690 milliwatts and -24,316.

 

Thanks. That means your battery has lost about 20% of its capacity. That's worse than I would expect for less than one year and may be enough to get Dell to provide a replacement under warranty (assuming that the battery warranty is one year).

A discharge rate of 17 to 24 W is higher than I would expect when running on battery assuming some effort to reduce power drain. This notebookcheck review has some data which you can use for comparison. What power drain are you getting when the computer is idle after a restart? Also check the CPU usage as reported by Task Manager and which programs are using the CPU? Then open the various programs you use, one at time, wait a minute and check the CPU usage and power drain as this may reveal a power hog (such as web browser with too much unwanted content (eg adverts) draining the battery).

John

 

My 1 year warranty just came up... have to see if it's still within the first year. So frustrating. I'll have to check the power drain and get back to you on it after a fresh reboot.

If I do go the fresh install route and start from scratch, do you guys typically suggest AHCI or RAID? I'm using the included 1TB SSD drive that Dell provides, not the pro drive. I do recall needing RST drivers even to do the installation but I think that's only because it was in RAID? Does it matter? Are there any performance or battery usage differences between the two?

 

From what I've read mentioned, you'll need to set AHCI if your boot drive is a SSD and no there should be no difference in performance compared to RAID.

 

Why reinstall unless you have to do so, the battery has lost capacity so I would address that 1st. If still in warranty tell Dell the laptop has been shutting down when you know the battery is around 50% and when you start it again the battery is flat. That should get a new battery fitted.

 

I would first try to see if there is factual evidence to support that assertion. Fully charge the battery and then, on battery, play a movie with a fairly bright screen (ie a workload with a reasonably constant power drain). Before starting make a note of the clock time and current battery capacity, then record these two bits of info at intervals of about 10 minutes until the computer stops. Then produce a graph of elapsed time against battery charge level. The line should look reasonably straight. If it isn't then there's a problem with the battery. Sometimes the problem can be cleared / reduced by running a calibration. This involves booting into the BIOS setup and leaving the computer running until it stops because the battery is completely empty as opposed to the several percent remaining when windows will shut the computer down. The battery chip then knows where empty actually is and will adjust its internal voltage vs charge level data.

John

 

I've just performed a full clean install and currently calibrating my battery my battery. Will report back when I have more details.

In the meantime, there an ad blocker you guys would recommend that might help with battery's consumption when browsing the web.

Will also look into throttle stop but need to learn more how to adjust the settings.

Thanks

 

I use Firefox with AdBlock Plus and Flashblock (to stop an Flash content from unneccessarily using the CPU). I also use a custom hosts file.

Note that Bluetooth can use a bit of power as it checks for other devices while having anything plugged into the USB-C port will wake up the Thunderbolt controller which uses around 2.5 to 3W even on idle.

John

 

There are a few threads relating to XPS 9550 battery queries but this seems to be most recently active.

I've had my XPS for about 10 days now. Having installed BatteryBar on day one I noticed that battery wear was reporting 4.5% from the factory. I've performed about four full charges since and have noticed after each charge that the reported wear has increased roughly as follows 4.5%, 8.5%, 11% and now its at 17.6%. This is also confirmed in battery reports generated using powercfg /batteryreport command. These levels are alarming for a brand new battery.

I have seen the advice about running the battery down and booting into bios to run down the remaining percentage which I have done but it hasn't helped.

Is it that the battery needs running in for a bit and once settled my wear levels will calm down to something approaching 0% wear which I'd hope for consideing the laptop is brand new? Or do I have a faulty battery that needs reporting to Dell?

 

The battery should not need bedding in. Most of my recent Dell notebooks have a battery which shows a few percent wear from new or nearly new (since I usually shop at the Outlet) but the wear stays at about the same for months. You can also run BatteryInfoView to check that it reports the same wear.

Do you have any battery charge options in the BIOS? If so, try different settings to see if the wear reduces after the battery has been through a discharge recharge cycle. If no improvement then I would ask Dell for a replacement battery.

John

 

Phone Dell, tell them you want a new battery as this is an unacceptable wear level

Sent from my SM-G920F

 

Since I posted earlier I had need to do another full charge. Oddly the wear reading now reads 11% in BatteryBar app and 89% in BatteryInfoView (I know this app flips the readout) so they both tally. So for the first time since I've had the laptop the wear level has decreased. I think it's still unacceptable for a brand new laptop/battery though.

I'll keep an eye on this for next two days and then call Dell. I read somewhere on here that Dell only regard 20% wear levels as worthy of replacement so I assume they will try and fob me off.

 

I've also got the 20% wear threshold in the back of my mind, but that would be applicable up to the end of the warranty period. I would expect Dell could be persuaded that 10% or more wear within the first few weeks merited replacement.

John

 

It doesn't matter if it is new as you can return it if you are not happy, this carries a lot of weight in regards to getting niggles fixed.

 

After another full charge it went back up to 14% wear. Phoned Dell Pro Support who were extremely helpful and are sending an engineer with new battery this Friday. Infact having also reported one dead pixel they are sending a replacement screen too which I didn't expect. I'm very pleased with Dell's response on the phone.

Also have on record my concerns about some reported hatchet jobs by third party engineers. They were very understanding and have allayed my fears by giving me various assurances. Nontheless will be hovering like a hawk on Friday. Fingers crossed.

 

Good luck with the screen, they have a habit of sending out so called refurbished screens that are basically 2nd hand. New have the protective cover neatly covering front and back.

Sent from my SM-G920F

 

Thanks for the tip. I will reject it if any doubt re protective screen. I'm guessing you'd recommend having the laptop dismantled prior to the visit. Have set of wera screwdrivers coming on Wednesday.

 

I would, the only laptop engineer at my company with decent tools was me. But unless you are experienced you should let him but you can request he uses your tools if he has a crap set. Also the liability is on him then.
Feel free to download the manual and start asking questions from it.

 

Took a look at the manual earlier. Battery looks straightforward, screen looks tricky though. Tbh I lack confidence on such a new machine. Best left to the engineer. Paid for Pro support so may as well use it. Thanks for the advice.

 

Just watch him like a hawk, I didn't have the screen open to correct amount and managed to snap off an aligning lug for the screen, totally unimportant part and only used to align the panel prior to fitting the screws but if I had not spotted it before putting it back together it could have bounced onto the motherboard and blown something.
The joys of doing maintenance with a 2 year old terrorising me!

 

I've printed off the screen and hinge sections from the service manual for him and I'll enquire as to how many screens he's replaced on 9550s. All very friendly of course ... don't want the pressure to cause him to nause it up. At the end of the day he's the expert, right!

I'll shut up now as this is a battery thread