m17 R1, flashing red power button, battery doesnt work, Bios date 1/1/2009

Question

Hello community!

I am facing a problem with my m17 R1 laptop (build year 2019 with 2060 Nvidia GPU, 1 year warranty expired 4/4/2020). I will try to be as detailed as possible.

This is what happened; while playing a game suddenly my power button start flashing red. It is a repeating cycle of 8 quick flashes. Everything kept working normal, no overheat issues whatsoever. Of course I ended my game trying to see what is going on. I did a normal Windows shutdown.

When the laptop is powered off the power button keeps flashing red (each cycle 8 red flashes), but only when the battery is connected and the net adapter is in. It doesnt power on without the net adapter.

Although the battery is at 99% the laptop shuts down immediately, its behaving like a desktop PC without battery.

Diagnostics show no issues, even the battery is shown as healthy.

The date is BIOS always reset to 1/1/2009. It doesnt matter if my battery is connected or not, as soon as net-power is removed the BIOS resets to 1/1/2009. I did try a different CMOS battery cell but this problems keeps the same.

So the only way to start up my laptop is with my net-adapter connected. When I do the power button flashes 1 time bright white, then the keyboard goes rainbow and the laptop seems to power down (fans off, screen off). then after 1 second the keyboard lights up again (and the fans and screen), then it powers off again, then after 1 second it boots. But always with a date/time error to 1/1/2009. The power button as this point keeps cycling 8 red flashes. I can boot Windows normal and everything else functions completely normal.

Since the laptop functions completely normal I dared to upgrade the BIOS to the latest version (a new version happened to be released month ago) but the new version didn't fix.

Anyone of you had this issue? If it wasn't for the CMOS time constant set back to 2009, I would have assumed a faulty battery right away but its odd now.

Thank you all for reading!

crimsom · Accepted Answer

Hi @grimfrey comparison with Alienware m17 R4, POST fails to complete with error code, Diagnostic-light LED codes, repeating red 8 light code = 2,6 or 3,5

DIAGNOSTIC LIGHT CODES (RED, BLUE)	PROBLEM DESCRIPTION	RECOMMENDED SOLUTIONS
2,6	System-board or chipset error	Flash latest bios version. If problem persists, replace the system board.
3,5	Power-rail failure	EC ran into power sequencing failure. If problem persists, replace the system board.

Request more information on your net-adapter. Thank you.

crimsom · Answer

Hi @grimfrey

Alienware m17 laptops have Hybrid Power Design. When system is under a heavy loading, both ac adapter and battery power are used to maintain high performance. When the battery capacity is low, system throttling can be encountered.

Please run Reliability Monitor and wait for it to load timeline of Events. As this problem keeps happening, there will be many recent occurrences of the same Critical Event. Open and look for Microsoft error code and search the internet for similar problem, and its solution could be your fix.

Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you.

A51-06 · Answer

it seems like in the manual that I would check the CMOS battery incase it’s dead because that keeps the date of the bios.

System diagnostic lights
Power and battery-status light
Indicates the power and battery-charge status
Solid white — Power adapter is connected and the battery has more than 5 percent charge. Amber — Computer is running on battery and the battery has less than 5 percent charge. Off
• Power adapter is connected and the battery is fully charged.
• Computer is running on battery and the battery has more than 5 percent charge.
• Computer is in sleep state, hibernation, or turned off
The power and battery-status light blinks amber along with beep codes indicating failures.
For example, the power and battery-status light blinks amber two times followed by a pause, and then blinks white three times followed by a pause. This 2,3 pattern continues until the computer is turned off indicating no memory or RAM is detected.
The following table shows different light patterns and describes what they indicate.
Table 8. Diagnostics
Light pattern Problem description
2,1 CPU failure
2,2 System board: BIOS and ROM failure
2,3 No memory or RAM detected
2,4 Memory or RAM failure
2,5 Invalid memory installed
2,6 System board or chipset error
2,7 LCD failure
3,1 CMOS battery failure
3,2 PCI or video card or chip failure
3,3 Recovery image not found
3,4 Recovery image found but invalid
Camera status light: Indicates whether the camera is in use. • Solid white — Camera is in use

grimfrey · Answer

Thank you both! @Alienware Area-51 ALX 2006 My spidey senses yelled CMOS battery too but like @crimsom posted i fear its an system board failure. I contacted Dell and they will pick my laptop up this monday, i will keep you updated.

To exclude the net-adapter I still have an M17x R4 running with an 240w net-adapter (so heavier then the 180w of my m17), but same result.

regards

grimfrey · Answer

I got my laptop back fully repaired. Kudos for Dell!

They repair notes are minimal but they replaced the system board and even got me a new battery!

Also they replaced the bottom of my case since that lid for the ethernet port was broken (its really fragile and a serious design flaw in the case imo).

Dell thank you! All very smooth and perfect! Its not time yet to get myself a new Alienware but since my 2012 M17xR4 is still running like a tank my 3rd will an Alienware again.

crimsom · Answer

Hi @grimfrey thank you for sharing update. Very pleased for you. Dell has undertaken a number of remarkable repairs to get your Alienware m17 R1 laptop up and running.

A51-06 · Answer

So that is terrible how it’s a board failure. Though I hope the replacement came quick and speedy :). I hope you’re day goes well and you’re temps are low.

Alienware

m17 R1, flashing red power button, battery doesnt work, Bios date 1/1/2009

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