17 R5, battery temporarily disabled issue, #2

Question

Hello, I've had my laptop for ~3 years now, and in the last 3 days my Alienware 17 R5 has powered off with no warning several times. After 10-20 minutes it reboots (unable to boot even while holding down power button) with a message "Your battery is disable. Please turn off your computer and try again when the unit is back to operational temperature." My AC adapter in BIOS was showing 180W, and the battery section in BIOS just had the message.

I did do the Diagnostics scan when this message popped up upon reboot, but it said there were no hardware issues even though the battery was being disabled.

Last week I added an SSD and a RAM stick to my machine, but have not made any hardware changes in months before. I think my battery is dying, and would like to know how to confirm that. If it is dying, is there anyway I can just run my laptop off the AC adapter so my machine doesn't randomly power off? Any advice or help would be appreciated.

Mary G · Accepted Answer

You are lucky you got almost 3 years out of the battery. The average batteries last nowadays is 18 months to 2 years! Not like batteries from years ago. Replacements must be from Dell or Dell parts and are hard to find. Even sitting on a shelf batteries still wear down. Beware of all the scams with online sellers.

Battery questions answered here-- Dell Laptop Battery - Frequently Asked Questions | Dell US

BTW, your model should be able to use the adapter alone with the battery removed. It will make it a desktop replacement.

gale · Answer

Alright, that's kind of what I figured. Unplugged the AC adapter just to check, and my laptop worked on battery for all of 2 seconds before powering off. With my laptop model, it's kind of a pain to remove the battery. I'm thinking of just disconnecting the battery but leaving it inside the machine, would that be just as good?

Thank you for the quick reply and help!

crimsom · Answer

Hi @gale thank you for sharing update.

Storing the unserviceable Lithium-ion battery inside your 17 R5 laptop is not recommended, as they are prone to swelling and causing internal permanent damage to the laptop housing. (If you want confirmation, search this forum for users having this battery swelling related damage.)

Having a laptop without a battery defeats why a laptop was purchased. Why not go to Parts People (or other OEM vendor) and get a Dell 17 R5 certified Replacement OEM Battery? If they are temporarily out of stock, you should remove the unserviceable Lithium-ion battery without further delay.

gale · Answer

The battery is likely dead. It was 'discharged' fully 2 seconds after unplugging the AC adapter the first time, and I have powered my machine while connected to AC adapter and pulled the cord several times and there is no delay in shutting off now. I've unplugged the battery power cord but left the battery inside because I don't have the money for a replacement and don't want to pull out the wifi chip, disk drives, RAM sticks, and the second cover to remove a dead part. There didn't appear to be any swelling when I disconnected the power cord. I can't imagine my machine will get hot enough to somehow set the battery on fire, and it doesn't appear as though it can swell unless it's getting powered. Unless I'm missing something then a discharged Lithium Ion battery isn't going to do anything except make my laptop heavier.

crimsom · Answer

Hi @gale thank you for your update.

The other user's post said "Even sitting on a shelf batteries still wear down". The Lithium-ion battery chemistry will continue to degrade sitting in your laptop, you may get lucky and your unserviceable Lithium-ion battery may not swell and permanently damage the 17 R5. You are at liberty to ignore any and all suggestions from other users.

U2CAMEB4ME · Answer

Welcome to the Dell Community @gale  ' BTW, your model should be able to use the adapter alone with the battery removed.' Yes you can just use the AC adapter but!!! I think you all need to read this!!! Hybrid Power Design: https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000143915/alienware-15-r3-15-r4-17-r4-17-r5-m15-m17-performance-issue-or-battery-drain-while-ac-adapter-is-connected Best regards, U2

crimsom · Answer

U2CAMEB4ME

17 R5 user has had almost 3 years use from their main battery, so does not have excessive power usage during heavy load gaming. The Hybrid Power Design has not been used. Using this laptop connected to ac adapter, with no main battery connected, is currently acceptable.

crimsom · Answer

U2CAMEB4ME The OP is getting message 'Your battery is disable. Please turn off your computer and try again when the unit is back to operational temperature.' Agree, the 17 R5 performance must have gradually reduced, but the User did not notice, until the 17 R5 only ran for about 10 minutes and then shut down.

U2CAMEB4ME · Answer

@crimsom

I guess I missed where the OP said that they " do not have excessive power usage during heavy load gaming " and that the " The Hybrid Power Design has not been used."

No one said that running on only the AC was not acceptable.

I just thought he OP should know that while running on just the AC, at anytime the system needs that little boost from the battery to maintain its current speed, that the system will begin to throttle without a working battery.

Best regards,

U2

Alienware

17 R5, battery temporarily disabled issue, #2

Hybrid Power Design:

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