Area-51m R1, battery drain while shutdown

Hi

I have had a similar issue for many months already. I can even say the same one. I have already got in touch with Dell Support in my country and I've been offered by them to exchange the whole motherboard. I haven't made up my mind yet. Besides I travel a lot and I'm abroad at present.I'm still afraid to accept their offer because (what I was told) it would be one of the refurbished motherboards. I thought that the problem would disappeared after issuing of a new BIOS but it didn't. My A51m works perfect.I never had any other unexpected complication I couldn't solve myself.There is only this malfunction but a little bit annoying.

I'd appreciate if you could keep me posted

Let force be with you.

And you wouldn't be alone. Several owners have experienced this. Everyone I've talked to, however, was able to finally solve it by simply doing a clean install of OS.

Here's the odd part. I had this same issue with my first Area 51m but it was fixed with a factory re-image. Mind you, that was after long and arduous troubleshooting, trying everything else, including replacing the battery with a new one. Then, that laptop was exchanged due to a bad screen bleed. Now, I have the replacement with the exact same problem.

Worst part is tech support won't acknowledge this as abnormal. They had me run a battery monitor app and determined everything is fine... after I told them the battery wasn't the problem. Since then, I've been trying to get tech support to help me, but they just keep ignoring me. I've had a service request open since March 18. 

I thought Dell tech support was supposed to be one of the best.

To be honest, I suspect the problem is not the battery since it happened with three separate batteries over two Area 51m's. Originally the drain was only 6% on only Tuesday and Saturday, but since my last OS re-install, the drain is now 10% almost every single day. Sometimes it's 100% the next day, sometimes it's drained 10%. But always exactly 10%. Just like before... always exactly 6%.

If I had to guess, I’d say it's likely a bad driver or BIOS or firmware, etc. I honestly don't think it's a bad motherboard, but I'm a physicist, not an electronics engineer. If I were you, I'd seriously consider holding off replacing with a refurbished motherboard. It sounds like they're just trying to kick the can down the road, so-to-speak. That's the impression I've gotten from them with my problem. Now, I'm trying to make peace with the issue and just accept it as is. It's difficult, though, considering how much I paid for it, plus 5 years of premium support. It should be better. If I'm being fair, except for the battery drain anomaly, it's an awesome laptop, to be sure.

Thanks for your input. I'll stay in touch.

Hi

Many thanks for your reply.

If there is any problem with "software" can be caused by BIOS.
A fresh version of Win10x64 doesn't solve  issue with battery draining at least in my case.
Even if any software conflict it's impossible while laptop is shutdown.

Best regards

So you did try a fresh OS install? It fixed my first laptop after a new battery didn't, but did not fix this second laptop. Also, I agree it doesn't make sense software would cause it, but something in the detection of battery level or something could. For example, if the BIOS is set to primarily AC, there is discussion on message boards that it's not supposed to charge past 94 or something, but the DELL BIOS is faulty and charges to 100. I don't recall the details, but you get the idea. A faulty driver for the Control Method Battery (see device manager) could also be causing bad detection or something.

Then, if you set BIOS to custom charge such that it charges when at 50 and stops charging at 90, for example, do you still see the drain? Mine drains 10% exactly regardless of BIOS setting. But before that, it was 6% exactly, regardless of setting on both laptops.

Also, did they try to replace your battery, at all? It never fixed my problem over two laptops. Just curious if they tried that at any point.

It's truly an anamoly. One day it's 100%, the next day it's 90%, then the next day it's at 100%, then 90% again.

Also, is your drain exactly 6%, but only a couple times a week? If so, I would suggest considering just living with it. I miss those days. At this point, I would love to have only 6% drain twice a week. Now mine appears to be draining every other day by 10%. I hope your drain issue doesn't evolve like mine did. It appears to coincide with my updating to BIOS 1.10, but I've done so many things at the same time, it's hard to say, but worth noting.

My problem has gotten worse. I've been monitoring every day and it drains exactly 10% every other day, now. One day it's 100%, the next day it's exactly 90%, then the next day it's 100%, then 90%, and so on.

Tech support has been completely blowing me off. I've had a service request open since March 18 (almost 3 months!!) and the only thing they've done is run BatteryMon to check the battery drain rate. That was when it was only draining 6% on Tuesday and Wednesday. Since then, they've been completely ignoring my every attempt to ask for help and leaving my service request open.

I just wanted everyone to be made aware that Dell Tech Support is not as great as everyone says. And if Tech Support is reading this, 6% drain in one evening is NOT normal, even if it's only twice a week. Now it's 10% every other day. Is that normal?!

Solution 1 – Disable Connected Standby feature
Many laptops use the Connected Standby feature, and this feature won’t completely turn off your laptop. Instead, it will keep it in a state similar to Sleep Mode and allow you to easily boot your PC and continue where you left off.

Although this feature can be useful, it will drain your battery even while your laptop is off. To fix this problem, you need to disable this feature by making a few adjustments in your registry. Since modifying the registry can be potentially dangerous, it’s advised to create a System Restore point just in case. To disable this feature, do the following:

Press Windows Key + R and enter regedit. Now press Enter or click OK.
regedit run dialog battery drain
When Registry Editor opens, in the left pane go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power In the right pane, double-click the CsEnabled DWORD.
regedit battery drains laptop
Set the Value Data to 0 and click OK to save changes.
value data battery drain
After doing that, restart your PC and the problem should be permanently resolved. Bear in mind that by disabling this feature you’ll disable Sleep feature completely, but at least the problem will be resolved.

Very much appreciate your input, but that was one of the first things I tried. I've spent many months trying to troubleshoot this.

Thanks,though.

In my continued efforts to resolve the issue, I ran ePSA diagnostics and got an error referring to the PCIe slot 01. Is it possible this could cause battery to drain?

Hi

Changing in registry didn't solve a problem.

I rather doubt there is software issue.

My first Area-51m R1 had this problem and we tried changing the battery to no avail. It finally stopped after a factory re-image. That implies a software/driver issue.

This current Area-51m R1 has the same problem. They changed the battery anyway, even though I told them that won't fix it. Factory re-image didn't work, clean OS install didn't work, nothing seems to fix the anomalous battery drain and Dell isn't up to the challenge to find the source. I suppose there isn't anyone in the back room somewhere that is interested in solving this so I'm stuck with it.

You tell me: is 6% drain overnight while shutdown normal behavior if everything is shutdown properly with USB powershare disabled, fast-boot disabled, sleep/hibernate disabled, etc.etc.?

You and I both know it's not normal. Everyone with any knowledge of laptops knows it's not normal. Dell technicians and engineers know it's not normal.

For 3 months I've been asking Dell for help on this issue and they never even contact me. Finally, I call them directly and all they do is change the battery even though I told them over and over that's not the problem. Now the drain is 6% every single day. I paid for 5 years premium support, but it all seems like a waste of money.

Where's the legendary Dell support everyone keeps talking about? When do I give up on Dell? Should I just live with it?

Simple Question:

Assuming completely shutdown with fast startup disabled and no USB devices connected. Is it within normal parameters for the battery to drain 6% overnight or 2% in 4 hours on the Area-51m R1 laptop? Hoping some experts reply. Thanks.

It's a software related issue. The thing is, have you ever done a power drain?

You let the laptop die completely and then when it doesent turn on anymore you charge it to 100%.

Hi

I'd appreciate if you could give your solution here. I cannot open a link with your post

Best regards

and send to me directly