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Dell Power Manager, Primarily AC Use, misleading
Primarily AC Use
Recommended for users who primarily operate their system while plugged in on an external power source. This settings may extend your battery's lifespan by lowering the charge threshold.
When this profile is enabled, battery immediately starts charging (no min threshold it seems...) and tops it of to 100%.
After that it start charging again when the battery drops to 99%. I am not an expert on the topic, but this seems as the worst possible usage of the battery when you are indeed primarily on AC use.
U2CAMEB4ME
4 Operator
4 Operator
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6.2K Posts
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June 8th, 2020 03:00
Welcome to the Dell Community @draev
Dell Command | Power Manager User Guide:
https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/us/en/04/dcpm2.1/userguide_dell-v1/extending-battery-charge?guid=guid-50a61a49-d97e-4c03-a206-604d4a21a1d7&lang=en-us
Since you did not post your model number, I could not say for sure but your BIOS may also have the option to change the "Threshold" levels.
80% ~ 20% seams to be the recommended levels.
Best regards,
U2
draev
7 Posts
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June 8th, 2020 04:00
Hello, model is Latitude 5491.
I just checked the bios settings and they are the same,
just a checkbox for "Primarily AC Use".
I can see / change the specific values only for "Custom" profile, and it was set to 50%, 80%
And again Custom profile is working as expected, I switched to that today, after testing it in more details.
But I was running on "Primarily AC Use" for a month or so ... as it fits my usage, and the description sounded perfect too.
I wanted to know if there is something I am missing, or there is a problem with the software.
Rhyalus_RSA
60 Posts
0
June 8th, 2020 11:00
Hi - I have the Dell 7400. No matter which model we are talking about, you are correct. I never used that "primary AC use" setting for exactly this reason - I had not idea what it meant.
I have "custom" setting with min 75% and max 80% because I do move around the home office and don't want the battery to be "too" low. On my gaming laptop that is always plugged in, I have it set for 60%.
BTW, if you have Dell Power Manager, you can use this instead of going into BIOS when you want to make changes.
R
djdelarosa25
5 Posts
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July 16th, 2020 18:00
Otto Matic
4 Posts
0
March 6th, 2021 20:00
I had the same experience. A few weeks ago I noticed that the option stopped functioning. Like you, I now use the "Custom" option.
Otto Matic
4 Posts
0
March 6th, 2021 20:00
I bought my G5 a little over a year ago and the "Primary AC Use" option used to keep my battery charge at around 70%, and worked like advertised. However, a few weeks ago I noticed that my charge was at 100%. Apparently the option is not working for me anymore and I haven't been able to get it to work since. Now I just use the "Custom" option.
Stavan
1 Message
1
June 10th, 2021 06:00
Hey in my dell g3 laptop, the power manager is not working at all, it doesnt stop charging when using custom settings, also primarily ac use is not working too, any advice?!
logicito
23 Posts
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June 24th, 2021 18:00
I have the XPS 13 9310 configured at the BIOS level to Primarily AC Use, will that configuration remain in Ubuntu 20.04? I have no way to check that as I would do in Windows 10? Thanks