m15 R7, power adapter, battery shenanigans

Question

Hi, Firstly thanks in advance for any responses, all will be very much appreciated. I have an Alienware m15 R7 running Windows 11. It has been fine give or take since it was purchased March 2022. However in the last two days I have encountered a strange issue and I'm not sure where the problem lies and I don't want to throw money at the wrong issue. I was happily playing a game, laptop connected to mains and charging / powered. After an hour the laptop suddenly just loses all power. I turn it back on get to Windows and its not seeing the charger. The laptop is now just running on battery power. There is nothing in the event logs beyond the systems unexpected shutdown. Restarting did nothing Powering off, removing AC and keeping AC unplugged for 30 minutes did nothing Cleaned port and connector, nothing Checked Power Socket, Changed Power Connector (don't have a second adapter to try) During the above the battery was slowly draining until the power button flashed red and it shutdown. Now at this point I power it back on and it sees the charger no problem and continues to charge and then appears fine. I come to use it again the next day and the same thing happens. Any ideas? Thanks

crimsom · Answer

Hi&#xa0;@Blastiel&#xa0;welcome to this free user-to-user Alienware laptop discussion forum.&#xa0; Please remove all external connections to the Alienware m15 R7 laptop.&#xa0; Inspect the charger to determine that mains power cord's ac plug is not damaged and the mains power cord is correctly connected into the charger. The charger's dc cord has a diagnostic LED plug which should remain on before and after plugged into the laptop's dc port. Please check that the diagnostic LED plug's central wire is intact and not bent. If everything looks good, the charger's internal microprocessor is seemingly not being recognised by the laptop, and battery charging is prevented so that laptop is not damaged. The fix is to borrow a colleague's charger or purchase a new OEM charger. This could be an opportunity to get a new OEM 330W charger.&#xa0; &#xa0;&#xa0;

Blastiel · Answer

Hi Crimson,

I've checked the power cord (and replaced), checked the charger and the charger line / connector and they are all fine. No damage. The plug and the ports are clean. On boot diagnostic tools recognise the charger no problem and report everything is healthy UNLESS I have the issue as described in which case it will report it missing until a full battery drain has occurred.

The charger supplied is 180w, what benefit would a 330w provide please?

Alienware

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