m17 R5, sudden shut down during gaming, then AC plug not recognized

Question

Okay I've gone through the steps and would appreciate some opinions. As the title states, when gaming, my Alienware m17 R5 Amd 6900 HX/6850M XT has begun to randomly turn completely off suddenly. At first, I thought it was power delivery, checking my garage, the old owner of my home and myself were guilty of some "daisy chaining" too many long extension cords, too many electrical dividers, I was able to find the laptop its own outlet, didn't help. I then learned this laptop uses hybrid power delivery using the plug and the battery to deliver power, I checked the battery and it about 75% health. I upped the batteries maximum charge level from 80% to 90% in the bios but didn't help. I reinstalled Alienware command center and turned up the fans up to no avail. Next I thought it was just because I was playing an older game, NBA2k20, I set a 60 FPS cap and set compatibilty and that seemed to fix the issue. Just tried to fire up msfs2020, and again once the fans started to work the thing shut off. I am out of ideas but am considering its the two year old battery that is maybe passed its useful life. A factory replacement is $150. I do think the next logical step is the battery. It is two years old and it would make sense the hybrid power can longer get what it needs from the battery. I've already cleaned the vents and check temps but they seem okay. I've had this laptop for almost two years and this is the first real issue I've been unable to resolve. I've read the other posts and one person saying dell told them that is normal behavior with another person saying the battery helped. Here is the battery replacement I'm looking at: https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-6-cell-97-wh-lithium-ion-replacement-battery-for-select-laptops/apd/cpx-53xp7/pc-accessories

I’m wondering if I had a more powerful charger I woukdng even need to worry about the battery…330w charger, will even be compatible: https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/notebook-ac-adapters/apd/492-bdmb/pc-accessories?tfcid=91049735&&gacd=9684992-1102-5761040-266906002-0&dgc=ST&SA360CID=71700000117208879&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADllXQfzwl-0Se2sewicwdfa_9EMx&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_I7oq-GtjAMVtxBECB2n4DnuEAQYASABEgLq6vD_BwE

DavefromCA · Accepted Answer

Okay I've gone through the steps and would appreciate some opinions. As the title states, when gaming, my Alienware M17 R5 Amd 6900 HX/6850M XT has begun to randomly turn completely off suddenly. At first, I thought it was power delivery, checking my garage, the old owner of my home and myself were guilty of some "daisy chaining" too many long extension cords, too many electrical dividers, I was able to find the laptop its own outlet, didn't help. I then learned this laptop uses hybrid power delivery using the plug and the battery to deliver power, I checked the battery and it about 75% health. I upped the batteries maximum charge level from 80% to 100% in the bios but didn't help. I reinstalled Alienware command center and turned up the fans to no avail. Next I thought it was just because I was playing an older game, NBA2k20, I set a 60 FPS cap and set compatibilty and that seemed to fix the issue. Just tried to fire up msfs2020, and again once the fans started to work the thing shut off. I am out of ideas but am considering its the two year old battery that is maybe passed its useful life. A factory replacement is $150. I do think the next logical step is the battery. It is two years old and it would make sense the hybrid power can no longer get what it needs from the battery. I've already cleaned the vents and check temps but they seem okay. I've had this laptop for almost two years and this is the first real issue I've been unable to resolve. I've read the other posts on here and one person saying dell told them that is normal behavior with another person saying the battery replacement helped. Here is the battery replacement I'm looking at: https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-6-cell-97-wh-lithium-ion-replacement-battery-for-select-laptops/apd/cpx-53xp7/pc-accessories

The other possibility is using a more powerful charger, 330w instead of 240w to cover the power needs, but I don’t see any guarantees it would work: https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/notebook-ac-adapters/apd/492-bdmb/pc-accessories?tfcid=91049735&&gacd=9684992-1102-5761040-266906002-0&dgc=ST&SA360CID=71700000117208879&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADllXQd5EBFeHbiByYBJBDjIjMH_F&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrtGe99WvjAMV2ydECB0hwAPOEAQYASABEgJDb_D_BwE

ejn63 · Answer

Even with a higher power adapter, the battery is still needed, so the answer is no, a higher power adapter won't solve the problem.

DavefromCA · Answer

I’m trying to post about a battery issue and my posts are being deleted?

Chino de Oro · Answer

Re: Why are my posts being deleted?

They were not being deleted. When the AI Mod detected some patterns of spammers, those posts would be held temporarily for some minutes before Moderators release them to the forums. Maybe yours have been detected as spam because after your original post, you posted 3 more posts within less than 30 minutes.

They have been merged now but here is a screengrab of your posts:

evolucion8 · Answer

I had the same issue, even worse when using a high power adapter. So the solution for that was to completely drain the battery, so it can calibrate again and then the issue was gone. Over a week without issues, but my battery only has 24 charge/discharge cycles over the span of three years, so seems that these simplo batteries aren't that great. Using a bigger power supply won't stop the hybrid power configuration of using the battery as a suplementary energy source along with the power brick for high performance, not happy after spending $2.5K on this laptop. Works ok now but its a prelude that a battery swap will be required at some point.

Alienware

m17 R5, sudden shut down during gaming, then AC plug not recognized

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