XPS 15 9560, Dell Command Power Manager 'Advanced Charge' not working?

Question

I have installed the Dell Command Power Manager on my 9560, and it does show the battery health & status etc. However, when I attempt to use the 'Advanced Charge' function, the battery level stays at 100%. I would have expected it to drop to around 50% during the 'off peak' times, to prolong the battery life. That's the purpose of Advanced Charge. If my understanding of Advanced Charge is correct, does it work on the 9560?

samos1111 · Accepted Answer

> However, when I attempt to use the 'Advanced Charge' function, the battery level stays at 100%. I would have expected it to drop to around 50% during the 'off peak' times, to prolong the battery life.  The level will (in most cases) stay at 100% if you're using the AC charger, will decrease only when using battery power. But it will not charge higher than 50% from a low-charge state when plugged back in.  The peak time thing is only to keep the laptop from charging the battery during the peak hours, if you're running near your electricity fuses or solar power system limit (a relatively rare thing these days).

Robert P (retired) · Answer

Hi skip198,

Thanks for posting. Apologies that your system is not performing as expected.

The Dell Power Manager is an application that allows end users to maximize their system’s battery life by configuring how the battery should be maintained based on their personal preferences. Here is some information from Dell's knowledge base you may find helpful: Dell Power Manager.

Here is information about the Advanced Charge feature.

skip198 · Answer

samos111: Thanks. I actually think it is working - I just didn't understand how the Advanced Charge feature behaved. I still don't understand exactly how it works, but I did notice once that it didn't charge the laptop overnight, when I had the feature enabled. The custom battery settings definitely works, too - if I set a certain "stop charging at" percentage, it does so.

I wish I had the same, simple, enable/disable charger hot-key that I have on my old M4500 and E6500 units. It's a nice, simple way to directly control the battery charger, rather than mucking around with an app.

Dell: please consider adding a simple on/off button in the app, to allow us to switch on & off the charger at will. Please also consider adding the charger hot-key to future XPS models.

bjfinn · Answer

Similarly I don't really understand it.

If I keep my laptop plugged in almost all the time, but use it on battery say once a week (or less), should I use Advanced Charge? Or should I instead just set the Battery Information>Settings to Primarily AC Use?

XPS

XPS 15 9560, Dell Command Power Manager "Advanced Charge" not working?

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