17 R5, battery slowly draining while gaming after thermal paste replacement

Question

Hello community.

My Alienware 17 R5 ( i7 with a 1070, 1440p monitor 120hz, 32gb of ram ) has been my gaming companion for 4 years now. I never stopped taking care of my laptop, cleaning it as well as I can and keeping both the software and the hardware in check.

This year, I decided to take a look at thermals, since I started having huge GPU temperatures (up to 90°C / 194°F while playing some slightly highly demanding games).

After looking a good amount of videos in YouTube and reading about it, I figured it wasn't a bad idea and all I had to do is follow the instructions and precautions and everything will be alright.

So I opened my laptop, follows a step by step guild, making sure I do everything property and gently. I succeed in wiping the old thermal paste, on CPU, GPU and heat sink and I applied again a new thermal paste (mx4) following the best and safest ways.

After reassembling all my laptop components and putting everything into place, I turned on my laptop and I was really satisfied by the new temperature readings, I started getting 60°C / 140°F in the same games I used to play.

But, there was some ussies that started happening. First, I noticed a weird change in graphics for some games, when I move, particles start moving. For example, when I move and a grassy area, the grass start vibrating, also, straight line, like for example the contouring of a building, starts vibrating too. It's like a intense anti aliasing ( not a good comparison but I hope you got the picture )

This issue didn't really bother me much, since it's not a big deal and it's not really that annoying or noticeable.

However, the big problem started on my battery, since I changed the thermal paste, my battery started draining while I play games and plugged.

Particularly, there that one game ( black desert online) that I had no issues with, but now, after a 5 to 6 hour game time, the battery goes to 7%.

This never happened before. My battery used to drain sometimes on highly demanding games, but it never went bellow 90% even for extended hours of gaming (up to 8 hours or more)

Some people say that it's because of the 240W power brick, but the thing is I never suffered from this. In my case, if it really was the 240W power brick, I would have had the issue before, but this only started when I opened my laptop and changed the thermal paste.

What I noticed, is that once it goes to 7% it starts charging again even if I'm still playing, which drives me to think that it's not really a hardware issue, since my battery can still charge while I play. However, it never really charges back tp 100%. There was one time where it went up to 20% and started going down again. Not sure by how much though because I stopped playing to avoid damaging my battery further.

Once I stop playing and go back to watching YouTube or talking to friends in discord, the battery charges up again.

Can someone help me figure out what might have gone wrong and if there's a solution?

Kiraness · Accepted Answer

I had 2 options there: Express charge and auto.
I changed it to auto, but my battery still drains while playing. I have to close the game or at least send it to tray so that the battery changes up back again.
I'm starting to think it's the game that does that, but why did this problem started right after I repasted?
Also, my battery used to drop at very high load, but it never went bellow 92-95%
I think I'm at a point that I'll just have to accept this problem. Or maybe try to repaste again someday just to quadruple check if I did things correctly, even though I'm confident 100% I didn't miss anything while repasting and I did more than enough to make sure everything is on point

A51-06 · Answer

OS reinstall. Maybe you installed something wrong and it’s causing this issue. Also maybe graphics drivers?

Kiraness · Answer

I forgot to mention that I did a windows 10 clean install by formating my laptop just this morning, to make sure that it's not software related. Unfortunately the issue remains

crimsom · Answer

Hi @Kiraness welcome to this user to user discussion forum. This is not Dell Support.

The Alienware 17 R5 laptop employs Hybrid Power Design, and requires power from both main battery and ac adapter. Battery capacity will drop during heavy loading and when less than 20%, the system will throttle during heavy loading and may cause performance issues.

Your opening post says the 17 R5 system has been used for four years, but does not say that the main battery has been replaced, or that a Windows 10 Battery Report has been created.

For the typical user, noticeable reduction in battery run time generally will be observed after 18 to 24 months. For a power user, reduction in battery run time generally may be experienced within 18 months. Dell recommends installing a new OEM Dell laptop battery when the run time does not meet user needs. (Laptop Battery - Frequently Asked Questions)

Your opening post does not say if the BIOS/UEFI version has been updated so that CPU temperature management has been changed, and now runs hot at up to 100ºC (boiling point of water).

Your opening post says CPU/GPU repasting undertaken with Arctic MX-4 Thermal Compound Paste. Arctic MX-4 thermal conductivity is 8.5 W/mK and its operating temperature range is not declared. (Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut Extreme Thermal Paste's thermal conductivity is 14.2 W/mK with operating temperature range of -250ºC to +350ºC.)

Please click on Kudos to say thank you for response from user that is not employed by Dell. Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you.

A51-06 · Answer

Did you try the ePSA? Press F12 when restarting and then use the arrows to run it. If the battery has an issue still then it’s a physical issue.

Kiraness · Answer

What worries me is that this prblem started with the repaste, so I guess it was not a performance downgrade of the battery? And what do you mean by updating the bios for new temps?

Kiraness · Answer

Here are the results of a diagnostics I did using the bios diagnostics

Kiraness · Answer

I did the diagnostics, it seems to show that my battery is ok.

Here is a screenshot of the results, one containing battery diagnostics results and one containing a temperature that I didn't really understand.

A51-06 · Answer

Also as me and my dad found out, when our Alienware laptops battery health went to anything below 87% then performance issues started happening.

The way kinda around this is to turn off express charge in the bios and use regular charge. Then connect the adapter that’s made for your PC like 240 or 330watts.

A51-06 · Answer

You seem to be a little on the hot side but maybe it stressed the CPU? Otherwise I don’t think your temps after a repast should be like that since mine were 5c lower but thats different for how everything works like ambient temperature and fan configurations.

also that temp like this very informative Reddit post here:https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/39wmrw/throttlestop_prochot_and_you/ means that is processor Hot which means the thermal limit for the processor set by the manufacturer which forces the CPU to throttle as soon as that limit is reached.

A51-06 · Answer

What if the actual board has an issue with charging.

Alienware

17 R5, battery slowly draining while gaming after thermal paste replacement

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