I wouldn't put too much faith in that battery test.
When laptops start complaining about batteries, you usually replace (in this order) ... battery, AC-Adapter, motherboard. Two years is not great, but can be expected depending on care during its life.
Most laptop batteries are intelligent these days ... mostly just trying to prevent explosions and fires.
I don't put much faith in these tests, merely stating what was done so as to check off the boxes.
the AC adapter is new... a 240W one that I got from dell when the original 180W craped out after 1 year. they paid for it and fixed the problem as it was in warranty at the time.
Motherboard is all soldered on components and to get a 4710 and 980 combo motherboard is around $800 and I'm better off getting a new laptop.
I just have a fear that upon replacing the battery that it will give me the same error I am getting now.
I have had a lot of dell laptops. I've rebuilt even more than I care to count. only one time ever have I come across a battery failure when it should not have in such a manner.
that was in my 2010 dell inspiron n5010. I replaced all internals to max spec, ie. max power draw. upon gaming on battery 20 mins in the battery would have catastrophic failure and then show that it still had battery life. this happened another time after I replaced the battery. third time I decided not to game on battery power. battery still holds charge to this day... these were all cheepo Chinese batteries.
You see, power draw overworked the battery wireing, delivery components in the battery pack and smoked the delivery system. it still worked on AC just like this alienware, but not on battery.
Whats different here is I have a GAMING laptop DESIGNED to game on battery with this high power draw! its not some hodge podge setup I made in my basement with random ebay parts and some custom thermal setup... this battery should NEVER have failed due to power draw! but all signs point to that as the problem!
I have bought many cheep "new" batteries and they work enough for the fact that they are almost 1/3 the price of a "Genuine" dell part but I don't want to think that even a "genuine" dell battery cant do what it claims they should be able to do! Am I right with my assumptions? will dell warranty a engineering failure when the laptop is out of its specific factory warranty?
I love dell but these battery issues really bring some doubts to my mind of their hardware engineers
its just a shame that a premium laptop like alienware dosent offer any quality benefits to longevity over other brands, mearly higher hardware and lights... priorities need to have a slight changing imo.
1. Motherboard is all soldered on components and to get a 4710 and 980 combo motherboard is around $800 and I'm better off getting a new laptop.
2. I just have a fear that upon replacing the battery that it will give me the same error I am getting now.
1. Sometimes even Ram and SSD also. I agree ... it's bad, but most are doing it now (Dell, HP, Lenovo, Apple) especially with UltraBooks. I personally think "un-leaded solder" is also eventually killing some machines (not just computers) ... since everything has a "motherboard" these days. I'm with you ... I was just forced to replace a motherboard in a 2.5 year-old Lenovo X1-Carbon Gen2 due to bad cpu/gpu/ram/solder ... who knows. We could write a whole thread just about this issue and the current state of things. All I can say is:
a. "keep machines under warranty" or save warranty money in an account to cover future repairs.
b. Trash machine and get a new (upgraded) model if and when it fails (sad, but true). Use above "account" money to help in cost. Everyone wants laptops as thin as phones, so "cost of ownership" is high.
2. All Batteries wear-out eventually. Some laptops have BIOS based battery diags that show individual cells and other info. Yes, it's a gamble ... just like if this was your phone or car.
Note: This post has been edited since original posting. Read carefully.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
•
17.3K Posts
0
December 1st, 2016 13:00
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
•
17.3K Posts
0
November 30th, 2016 20:00
I wouldn't put too much faith in that battery test.
When laptops start complaining about batteries, you usually replace (in this order) ... battery, AC-Adapter, motherboard. Two years is not great, but can be expected depending on care during its life.
Most laptop batteries are intelligent these days ... mostly just trying to prevent explosions and fires.
en.community.dell.com/.../19997763
I would buy a new fresh OEM genuine battery from Dell. Second choice would be
http://www.denaq.com/
Used batteries are a waste of time and money. Even some new (but poorly cloned) batteries are garbage.
vogner16
1 Rookie
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35 Posts
0
December 1st, 2016 12:00
I don't put much faith in these tests, merely stating what was done so as to check off the boxes.
the AC adapter is new... a 240W one that I got from dell when the original 180W craped out after 1 year. they paid for it and fixed the problem as it was in warranty at the time.
Motherboard is all soldered on components and to get a 4710 and 980 combo motherboard is around $800 and I'm better off getting a new laptop.
I just have a fear that upon replacing the battery that it will give me the same error I am getting now.
I have had a lot of dell laptops. I've rebuilt even more than I care to count. only one time ever have I come across a battery failure when it should not have in such a manner.
that was in my 2010 dell inspiron n5010. I replaced all internals to max spec, ie. max power draw. upon gaming on battery 20 mins in the battery would have catastrophic failure and then show that it still had battery life. this happened another time after I replaced the battery. third time I decided not to game on battery power. battery still holds charge to this day... these were all cheepo Chinese batteries.
You see, power draw overworked the battery wireing, delivery components in the battery pack and smoked the delivery system. it still worked on AC just like this alienware, but not on battery.
Whats different here is I have a GAMING laptop DESIGNED to game on battery with this high power draw! its not some hodge podge setup I made in my basement with random ebay parts and some custom thermal setup... this battery should NEVER have failed due to power draw! but all signs point to that as the problem!
I have bought many cheep "new" batteries and they work enough for the fact that they are almost 1/3 the price of a "Genuine" dell part but I don't want to think that even a "genuine" dell battery cant do what it claims they should be able to do! Am I right with my assumptions? will dell warranty a engineering failure when the laptop is out of its specific factory warranty?
I love dell but these battery issues really bring some doubts to my mind of their hardware engineers
vogner16
1 Rookie
•
35 Posts
0
December 1st, 2016 13:00
so you agree with my conclusion that the battery is just dead and I am going to gamble with if this fixes the problem or not.
vogner16
1 Rookie
•
35 Posts
0
December 1st, 2016 13:00
its just a shame that a premium laptop like alienware dosent offer any quality benefits to longevity over other brands, mearly higher hardware and lights... priorities need to have a slight changing imo.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
•
17.3K Posts
0
December 1st, 2016 13:00
1. Sometimes even Ram and SSD also. I agree ... it's bad, but most are doing it now (Dell, HP, Lenovo, Apple) especially with UltraBooks. I personally think "un-leaded solder" is also eventually killing some machines (not just computers) ... since everything has a "motherboard" these days. I'm with you ... I was just forced to replace a motherboard in a 2.5 year-old Lenovo X1-Carbon Gen2 due to bad cpu/gpu/ram/solder ... who knows. We could write a whole thread just about this issue and the current state of things. All I can say is:
a. "keep machines under warranty" or save warranty money in an account to cover future repairs.
b. Trash machine and get a new (upgraded) model if and when it fails (sad, but true). Use above "account" money to help in cost. Everyone wants laptops as thin as phones, so "cost of ownership" is high.
2. All Batteries wear-out eventually. Some laptops have BIOS based battery diags that show individual cells and other info. Yes, it's a gamble ... just like if this was your phone or car.
Note: This post has been edited since original posting. Read carefully.