Power plan discharging battery while laptop is plugged in

 I haven't seen that message before but you can try to do the following:

- Perform a system restore to the date before you clicked on the message

- Make a power drain.

- Flash the BIOS to the latest version.

Let us know if those steps help you. 

Might this be from the BIOS batteries? \

Maybe reset Alienware power settings to original settings.  

I did some research, and this accurately describes the problem I'm having. The infernal issue I'm dealing with is called Desktop Charge Mode.

When I opened my laptop last night, the battery had been charged to 75% and wasn't charging any more. One of the posters from the above link said that they let the battery drain past 50% to get the laptop to charge it again. It wasn't a true fix for him, but I thought I'd give it a try.

I found the desktop file at C:\Program Files (x86)\Alienware On-Screen Display\desktop.exe. I disabled the feature--or so I thought--and unplugged the AC adapter. I let the battery drain to 35%, then shut off my laptop.

But the battery is still at 35% and it isn't charging anymore. It didn't even charge when I turned it off (but I suspect that I need to let the laptop hibernate or sleep in order to get any charge now).

I'm afraid to do anything to the BIOS; I've never updated it on any of my laptops in the past. My biggest worry is that I screw something up and lose everything, including important project files. (I've heard horror stories of people turning their laptops into expensive paperweights because they installed the wrong version.)

I tried fiddling with the power options, but that yielded no results.

I honestly can't understand why Alienware/Dell would include such a feature with no easy way to reverse it. Or why they would hide the application to access this feature. It feels like I'm locked into this mode with no way to ever charge my battery again.

I worked up the courage to try a couple of things, a system restore among them. No luck so far. I'm going to try the BIOS suggestion and see if that works.

Regardless of whether these things fix the issue, I can say with confidence that this will be my LAST Dell computer. How incredibly shortsighted of these programmers to create a "charge mode" from which the user can't escape and renders the battery useless. I can't even unplug my laptop for when I actually want it to be portable.

And how come no one at Dell knows how desktop charge mode works or how to disable it? I mean, completely disable it so that the battery actually starts charging? I've clicked the disable button so many times, but nothing has happened. What a sorry, broken feature this is.

I have dealt with this before. It did confuse me until I did a few things. First off make sure you have the correct BIOS. There is a known issue with an old version not letting you charge the battery back up. Also keep it in desktop charge mode. I know this may seem frustrating but it is keeping you from using the battery in a constant state of small discharge small charge. When you pull up your battery icon right click it and choose (should be top option) Desktop mode battery change. There is a large button in the middle of the next popup that says Charge battery to 100% click that thing when it is no longer grey and it will start to charge. I think this happens around 50% or maybe 35%. Took me a bit to figure that one out myself a little bit back. Hope this helps even if it is late.

Forgot to add I am not sure if it matters what mode you are in though I guess it would not. However I always have it enabled.

right click the battery icon down on the lower right of your screen you will see dell power manager...reset it to what you want it to be.