1 Rookie
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4 Posts
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19 Points
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187
June 22nd, 2026 19:42
m15 R7, will not boot with battery connected
Background:
I have been having issues with the laptop for a while now requiring me to press the power button multiple times before it actually turns on, this maybe started out of the blue a month ago (hard estimate). Anyway, it is not the boot on lid open option in the BIOS as that has been disabled for years and I verified again when researching the issue a week or two ago.
Two weeks ago the laptop just stopped turning on. I unplugged battery, power cycled the laptop, and woila! It booted again. Turned it off, put it all back together, attempted to turn it on, same issue: no lights, no beeps, no flashing, nothing. Took it apart, unplugged the battery, cycled the power, and sure enough it is back on again.
I had been having issues with Windows 11 eating far too much memory among other issues with the OS. I have a 32gb system and Windows was causing a degradation in my performance with VS Code and Firefox, especially running them at the same time. This obviously should not be a problem; so I OS swapped the machine to a fork of Arch Linux in hopes that it might fix the battery problem too. It did not.
The system runs great now and all the problems are gone; but: the battery has to remain disconnected, if it sleeps it will not turn back on without unplugging it for 5-10 seconds and then plugging it back in, and it will not turn on after being powered down without unplugging it for 5-10 seconds and then plugging it back in. However, rebooting for updates or just general restarting is of no issue, works fine.The machine turns back on as it should.
Questions:
If the sleep/power down issues are config/missing driver problems with Linux and unrelated then I would assume a bad battery. If so, how do I test for this? It is kind of difficult without another battery/laptop to try on and the thing not booting when the battery is plugged in.
Otherwise, if the issue is reminiscent of something else, I would be overzealous to be privy on that information. I cannot find anyone else having an even remotely similar issue so I am truly at a loss here. My assumption is a bad battery but I would like to verify before making any rash decisions.
ejn63
12 Elder
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31.3K Posts
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154.7K Points
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June 22nd, 2026 20:19
The only real test is a new, OEM battery. If that solves the problem, you're set. If it does not, the issue is with the mainboard - not the battery.
If it's the original battery, it is about four years old and due for replacement.
anne_droid
5 Journeyman
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2K Posts
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7.3K Points
1
June 22nd, 2026 22:29
Hi
The Alienware m15 R7 is designed without an RTC/CMOS coin-cell battery, and dis-connecting the main battery can have, IMHO, problems that can prevent a normal start until the system performs an RTC reset cycle or the battery/AC state is stabilised.
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Dell also notes that after the battery is disconnected, fully discharged, or the system is reassembled, an RTC reset cycle can occur, during which the machine powers on and off three times and may show an “Invalid Configuration” message until date and time are set.
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AND an internet search re-inforces the excellent answer given by @ejn63 about ....
If the laptop will boot on AC only but not when the internal battery is connected, the most likely causes are the battery pack itself, the battery-to-board connection, or a board-level power/charging fault rather than a CMOS coin-cell issue.