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Dell Power Companion PW7015L Review - Won't Hold a Charge - Not Recommended
Hi,
Purchased a Dell Power Companion PW7015L in May 2016.
Used a handful of times in the last 12 months. Has now completely stopped working and will not a hold charge.
If I plug it into charge, the white light comes on to indicate charging, but you can leave it hours and it will have no juice. Indicator lights don't light up to show battery health and if you plug it in my XPS 15 or put a USB phone charger in zero power. Tried all troubleshooting tips posted on threads with people with similar problems.
Unfortunately out of warranty as over a year old. But I think this product is a bit of a flop to only last a year. It's a fairly simple product and has not been run into the ground. I could understand the battery flopping if I was charging and draining daily. But it is used once a month max. So I imagine there is an inherent fault with this unit that was present from the time of purchase. Other forum users posting their power companions are not charging properly too would also indicate this.
Supplier I bought it from via Amazon offers no help. Dell just pass the buck as they don't deal with customer service enquiries for orders from third parties. So overall a disappointing experience.
Does anyone have some good alternatives for powering a dell laptop on the go? XPS 15.
jphughan
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August 31st, 2017 08:00
There aren't great alternatives for powering an XPS 15 on the go, except the newer USB-C version of the Power Companion if you want broader device compatibility, but that's only offered in the "Medium" 12000 mAh size, not the L 18000 mAh size. Other than that, there are some battery packs that actually include a wall plug output, but they're some combination of bulky, expensive, limited to 60W (which isn't enough for the XPS 15 even throttled), and they can often run very hot. The Power Companion only provides 65W (although the L version can provide 90W when it's plugged into the wall at the same time), but even that's not enough. The only reason that works is because the XPS 15's firmware knows how to work with that specific device, so rather than drastically throttling its performance, it allows its battery to continue draining while connected to the Power Companion if it's under heavy load, and just do so more slowly, although obviously this means if you have a heavy workload you don't want to wait until your battery is about to die before plugging in, since it won't help in that case. However, that wouldn't be the case if you were to use a battery pack with an AC outlet that only provided 60W.
If it won't accept a charge at all, especially given how quickly it happened, I bet it's an issue with the charging circuitry rather than the battery cells themselves, although of course the result is the same.
krakenbit
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September 1st, 2017 05:00
Thanks for the info. Didn't know there was a USB Type C one now.
I certainly like the Power Companion but not sure I feel confident buying another when it's failed just outside warranty.