m15 R3, question regarding power bricks/TB docks

Question

I recently purchased an Alienware M15 R3 laptop with the Radeon 5500M laptop. I also purchased a Dell WD19TB Thunderbolt 3 Dock for use at home.

I read on these forum that TB3 docks don't supply enough power to keep these laptops charged- considering the power brick is 240w and the TB dock at best supplies 130w. However, the other day I had the laptop unplugged from the AC adapter, and plugged into the dock. After several hours of use, I noticed the dock was able to keep the laptop at 100% battery, even while under heavy CPU use (music production).

My question is, is it safe to just use the dock like that to charge the laptop? It seems to be working alright, but I wouldn't want it to cause any damage to the laptop.

A follow up question if the previous is considered safe:

Would I be able to purchase a smaller Dell AC adapter for mobile use and not have any issues? My one problem with the laptop's mobility is the size and weight of the power supply- it weighs nearly as much as the laptop itself. I would love to be able to get a smaller one to keep the battery charged while doing simple tasks on the go (browsing the web, etc.).

I see that this 180w adapter boasts compatibility with my laptop- will this work?

What about this 130w USB-C one ? It says compatible with the M17 R3 but not the M15 R3

jphughan · Answer

@cbrngr I'm surprised those systems support drawing any power over USB-C at all. But if it works, you're not going to damage anything. But you will likely see performance throttling. Might not be so bad if it's just CPU load rather than GPU load, but you might find that the CPU will throttle performance rather than draining the battery even on AC power in order to make up the power shortfall to maintain max performance.

Same idea with those other power adapters. You're not going to damage anything (at least as long as you use official Dell adapters), but I'm not sure how well it will work at all, and even if it does work, the experience you have may or may not be good enough to count as "working" for you.

A51-06 · Answer

Could he also cause a brownout inside his computer @jphughan? I heard if you don’t give the laptop enough power even if the battery isn’t discharging.

jphughan · Answer

@Alienware Area-51 ALX 2006 I've never heard of a Dell laptop experiencing a brownout due to an undersized power adapter. The system can obviously function entirely on the battery, and it can tolerate sudden removals of the power adapter without any problems, so I don't see how having an undersized power adapter continuously attached would create a problem. I suppose if the battery was completely drained and the system couldn't reduce its power consumption to within the limits of the attached power adapter, you might have a problem, but that doesn't seem like a particularly frequent condition unless the system significantly drains its battery even under typical use while connected to the power adapter the OP is considering.

Your second sentence appears to be only halfway complete.

A51-06 · Answer

Thanks for the answer

Alienware

m15 R3, question regarding power bricks/TB docks

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