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XPS Bigger Power Supply
I just bought a Dell XPS 17 (9710)!! But I saw several posts and reviews about problems with the power draw (while on power it also uses the battery) when working on full load. Is there an option to have a bigger charger (than the 130w charger included). I would like to take care of the batteries, but the reviews have me worried.
Maybe another option could be having 2 chargers plugged in?
Can anybody help me? I really want to keep it, but my battery health is really important!
Thanks in advance!
ejn63
10 Elder
10 Elder
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24.8K Posts
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July 24th, 2021 12:00
A larger capacity (or two) power supplies won't disable Hybrid Power -- that function is enabled at the hardware level.
Given the recent developments in legal requirements for power efficiency (i.e., lower capacity adapters required by California and US states that follow California energy efficiency requirements), it is becoming clearer that Hybrid Power is a response to that (it's also future-proofing for the manufacturer, since unlike former times when one could run a system fully from AC power, that's no longer possible - you must have a partially charged battery for full performance).
Perhaps when Intel releases its next generation CPU, with a smaller die size, the power requirements will be reduced, obviating the need for hybrid power; that said, your current system uses it, and there's no way to disable it regardless of the capacity of the adapter(s).
aelaan
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September 3rd, 2021 19:00
I saw a video on this, but let's go over the numbers: 130W with a 70W GPU and ~45W on the CPU, keeping the peripherals alive (SSD, RAM and so on) will only happen under very specific loads. Putting the system under heavy loads will lead to increase in heat and eventually in throttling back to sustain the load until it is finished. It will therefore "spike" and equalize, bringing the system to a lower consumption of wattage. Depending on the amount of cores in the processor the overall performance might not suffer (as some reviewers conclude (mostly copycat behaviour)). Yes, it can probably turbo up to 4.8 or 5.1Ghz, but it only does this for a moment and if that pressure on the system is not lowered by finishing the process causing this pressure it will kick in the fans to try to manage a sustained load/pressure for as long as that process is needing it. Hence, if you run Cinebench for 24 hours, well, yes your system battery will slowly discharge because the power supply is not able to provide what the system is requesting, but even way before that the system will already throttle back. So, the conclusion is pure theoretical and confusing because of statements like: "hundreds of users have complained about the same"; My question would be: "well if they did who did they complain to?". Quality control is not just a sticker, but we are still talking about components that open and close an enormous amount of times per second. Everything has a lifespan so if something fails there is warranty offered by the manufacturer. Apart from the regulations that come out of California (as user ejn63 explains) it would amaze me if users are seeing the negative effects.
XPS_Man
5 Practitioner
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2.4K Posts
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September 4th, 2021 04:00
Wait
Dell had the same problem with XPS 9700, it took Dell a couple of weeks to admit that some units were drawing more power than adapter can supply and draining power from battery. They provided replacement Motherboard (V2) for affected users.
I hardly think having a Larger or multiple power adapter is a solution. One the firmware isn't designed to take more power, Two even is Dell modified the BIOS to take more power, the GPU/CPU will be working on higher clock speeds ,the cooling won't simply handle that so machine would throttle anyways.
jphughan
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September 5th, 2021 12:00
@XPS_Man The early issue with the XPS 17 9700 was that it wasn’t even drawing the full 130W from its power supply, so the battery drain while connected to AC was even more severe. That was fixed, but the system is still DESIGNED to drain the battery to a certain extent under heavy load while connected to AC.