m15 R6, will not power on

Well, that was all uninspiring. I did have an agent identifying himself as Naman contact me with a private message, who had me hold the power button down for an extended period. Nothing happened - the button stayed lit. Last thing he wrote was:

"Usually after 40 secs the system goes into an RTC reset mode, it should recover it from crash and reboot. Please try it once, like you did before, without any external devices connected including the charger. We could have tried to remove the battery however we do not recommend customers to do it for this particular model. Regards"

...and that was it. Naman stopped responding in private chat. I was not referred to Warranty Repair, or given any incident number. Looking elswhere on this forum it seems I now have a battle to engage in to arrange a return to them a laptop that is less than 2 weeks old.

An update - after PMing DELL-Cares with the link to this topic, the conversation restarted with an apology, citing traffic volumes of customer inquiries. After asking questions about the state of the laptop (it is in perfect physical condition being unboxed for less then 2 weeks) we engaged in a discussion about whether I 'felt OK about reseating user-servicable components'. I sought confirmation that my opening the laptop for this purpose would not invalidate my warranty, and this was given; however the representative seemed to talk himself out of that potential solution path as 'it is not recommended that the user disconnects the non-user servicable battery'. I now await arrangement of a technician to service my new laptop, potentially replacing the motherboard. The earliest that this coordination can occur is Tuesday 4 Jan 22. I shall update this thread on progress as it happens. Interestingly, I was advised that prior to the technician working on my laptop, I should backup my personal data - I did point out that this was not possible on a laptop that would not turn on...

I have this same issue.  I had my r6 since late August and as of yesterday, it is not turning on.  The alien logo glows steady blue still on the keyboard side.  No light on the alien logo on the back of the laptop lid though.

Currently, and per other posts on the topic, I'm trying to drain the power and then plug it back in.  I assume the blue steady light will eventually die out indicating it has no more juice.  From there, I will plug it back in and see if that does anything.  Was also going to try removing the battery as well (as recommended in other posts)...but seeing your post now, sounds like I shouldn't attempt that.  

In the end, looks like I may have to get a tech out here.  Ugh

Did you solve your problem? I had the same issue, and i sent it to the warranty. But it seems that is a common problem for that laptop, and im afraid that problem could appear again some time later, before or after the warranty expire.

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Hi @sov76 please plug ac adapter into mains power socket, does the power cord's diagnostic LED plug switch on? What is the colour of the LED light? Do not switch on Alienware m15 R6 laptop, and remove anything that is connected to laptop. Plug power cord into laptop's dc-in port, does diagnostic LED remain on? Please share results of this test process. Thank you. 

sov76, yes, unplugging the battery does work, but this is on a machine that is designed _NOT_ to be handled in this way.

The battery connector is very small for the delivery current it carries. The cable has a self-adhesive backing that needs to be carefully unstuck from the body of the battery itself so there is enough free play for the connector to be unplugged without bending at the connector union. There is the possibility of breaking the cable at the connector, damaging the connector, or puncturing the battery skin when doing this.

I did do this several times - it seemed that about every other time the laptop was left to enter 'Sleep' it would 'brick' and need a battery disconnection and BIOS clock reset to get working again.

Vini_Colen - along the solution path I was directecd by DELL_Cares to refresh the laptop Hibernation file - which was daft, as the problem was occurring during 'Sleep' entry, not 'Hibernation'. From my previous experience of computers, I told DELL_Cares that I believed it to be a BIOS problem and _eventually_ they gave me a link to a downloadable BIOS upgrade that was not at the time listed in their update tool or website. I applied this, and so far, I have not has bricking on 'Sleep' entry recurring. This is the only meaningful change made to the laptop configuration.

Currently I am being hassled by DELL_Cares to close the problem - I am going to let the laptop 'Sleep' several times before I declare that indeed a fix has been achieved.

This laptop still enters the 'power light on, unresponsive' state on automatic entry into 'Sleep' mode (that is, leaving the laptop on and walking away). Not every time, and not as frequently as every-other-time it appeared to be prior to applying the BIOS update provided a few days ago.

By entering 'Sleep' by commanding it from Windows I have not been able to make this laptop get into the 'power light on, unresponsive' state.

I believe it is a BIOS issue where incorrect timing is causing these failures.

This issue persists and is not resolved.

I do find it very surprising you are asking me to apply a BIOS update where you are both unaware of the content of and have only hope that it might resolve my now long-standing issue. In my experience, changes can bring in new behaviours and unforseen problems and a 'shot in the dark' like this is unprofessional.

Just to confirm, this is still an issue.  My M15 R6 will do exactly as Sprintrider described in the OP.  I have updated all the BIOS drivers, and have had help from Dell techs, but nothing as of yet produces any results.  My laptop will go "inert" seemingly at random when it sleeps (i have hibernate mode completely disabled), so it's not EVERY time it enters sleep mode, but its maybe 1 out of every 4 or 5 times.  I have tried to get in the habit of doing a full shutdown when I'm done using my computer for the day, or even for a few hours, just to avoid the sleep problem.  This is not ideal, as sometimes I just get pulled away and come back to find my computer has gone into wakeless sleep again.

The best solution I have found is that I can charge my phone or other high-powered electronics from the computer's usb ports.  I unplug the computer from power, and plug in my phone to charge.  I will leave it overnight.  This helps drain the battery faster.   Hopefully it only takes one night, but usually its 2.  Once the battery is drained, I hold the power button for about 30-45 seconds.   Then, I will reconnect the computer to power, and after a few minutes, it powers up.  I usually get a "your computer did not shut down properly" blue screen, and select "re-start."  It always starts up fine on re-start.  

It seems that this is a software issue of some kind, and the popular belief is that it has to do with BIOS.  Maybe also with Windows11 and how it handles sleep mode or interacts with BIOS?  On the other hand, someone above (Sprintrider?) mentioned that Dell might want to replace the motherboard, which also makes sense.  As I understand it, BIOS is largely controlled via a BIOS chip on the board, and if BIOS drivers aren't fixing the problem (which they seem not to be) then the next step might be to replace the chip. 

I will have continuing contact with Dell tech support, and will update this thread going forward if I get any progress. 

Same issue here... Did you guys ultimately return it for repair or what? This is very frustrating for a $3500 laptop

The Alienware m15 R6 laptop I purchased in Dec 21 was supplied with a BIOS problem that would repeatedly cause it to 'brick'. Online assistance from Dell was contradictory, often plainly wrong and condescending. Advice to open laptop and disconnect main battery was for the wrong laptop model, for example. Dell refused to either swap out SDD from delivered to new laptop, or provide a new replacement: they insisted that BIOS upgrades would 'cure' the fault - but in fact the nature of the fault changed to one of random restarting. Dell again refused to replace this faulty laptop, insisting a motherboard replacement would fix the fault and were deaf to my reasonable complaint that this would leave me with a reconditioned, not new, laptop. After protracted arrangement, a subcontractor came to my home, and under non-workshop conditions, stripped the laptop and replaced the motherboard, which itself was faulty, with the modem not working so no internet connection was possible. Following that, it took over a month for Dell to arrange the simple act of return of the broken laptop to them. I estimate conservatively that I spent more than 12 hours running diagnostics to 'help' Dell solve problems with this laptop. I have been offered no compensation by Dell for this carnival of errors and poor support performance.

Download the latest BIOS version:

Also try disconnecting the battery from the motherboard and then hold the power button for 30 seconds. then plug the battery back in and connect the AC adapter.

Then turn the laptop on and see if that works.