Alienware 15 R4 shutdown and keep rebooting with AC power

Question

Hi everyone,

I'm writing about this issue since I haven't found a solution so far.

I have had an Alienware 15 R4 since 2018. I did some maintenance recently (re-pasting and removing some dust to boost performance), so I had to remove the motherboard and disconnect everything. After the process, I tried to switch it on, but it kept restarting because probably Windows was doing an update before the maintenance I didn't know about, so it got corrupted.

I did a factory reset and now Windows works, I also reset the time and date because the BIOS gave the clock error since the button battery was removed during the maintenance.

So, now if the system starts and stays on the battery, it works nicely (even if I think the battery has very little charge due to aging). But if the AC power cord is inserted, the system shuts down. If I try to switch it on, as soon as the Alienware writing is displayed it shut down and reboots, continuously.

Windows show a critical error for the instant shutdown (kernel-power error 41). The BIOS is version 1.12. Now it has Windows 10 due to a factory reset, it had Windows 11 before (I updated when I had the opportunity, but I didn't know it wasn't supported yet).

Hope someone can help. Thanks, have a good one.

Tatolino · Accepted Answer

@Matt_in wrote:

Yeah, I should have checked the software before working on the hardware.

What do you mean? Installing Win11? You shouldn't blame yourself for that, I am quite positive this has nothing to do with Windows: it's my understanding that the system crashes right at the Dell/Aliewnare splash screen, so it means it fails POSTing, and if you press F12 you cannot access the preBOOT menu, can you?
You don't see any spinning cycle, any loading bar, anything vaguely suggesting that Windows is even trying to boot up, do you?
Furthermore, you have successfully reimaged your pc, as it runs just fine on the battery alone.

@Matt_in wrote:

I tried removing the battery and, after the hard reset, plugged in the AC adapter. Pressed the power-on button, the pc powers up but when the Alienware word displays it shuts down and starts again in a boot loop.

(...)and I am looking for a battery replacement (it should give me stability at least for troubleshooting).

I would keep the battery for now, if anything this test has cleared it of any blame. A genuine battery doesn't come for cheap, and you run the risk of damaging it if there is a problem with the charging circuit (as I suspect there is).

If a laptop can't boot on the AC adapter alone, there has to be a problem with the adapter itself or with some part of the charging circuit.

The easiest step now would be to buy a new compatible charger, test it, and if it didn't work you can always return it, nothing wrong with that: I thought my charger was bust, turns out it was the laptop... Good enough reason.

If that didn't solve your problem, then you have to consider a possible issue with the charging port or its wiring, which could be causing a short at some level. That is something you could easily check with a multimeter if you know how to use one. Or you could go ahead and replace it, MPN is 0WY4NR. The most fragile parts are the weld joints just behind it, even the stress of plugging/unplugging the adapter can be enough to damage them over the years. It's one of the weakest points of a laptop, it could have been damaged when you took apart the laptop..?

Other than this, I am afraid there is nothing else you can do... There are websites offering repairs for decent pre-agreed prices, they will check your motherboard for faulty components and replace them, either it is a bad contact or a failed capacitor. They won't replace your mainboard, just repair it, so it won't be as expensive.

Now, the elephant in the room: if this started happening right after you took apart and reassembled your laptop, you must consider you might have made a mistake somewhere... One thing I would definitely do before sending it for repair is take it apart one last time, checking that every little piece of wiring is connected, making sure no cable is loose, especially the charging port wiring: unplug and reseat it.

Then replace the coin-cell (CMOS) battery, or at least check the voltage. Just to be extra safe. Removing it will also clear every BIOS setting, which might help in case the AC adapter isn't correctly recognised. Reset BIOS to factory settings too.

One last question, as this part wasn't completely clear to me:

@Matt_in wrote:

However, the pc loads Windows successfully with the battery only and stays on the battery flawlessly, even though it has limited endurance now. In this case, when the AC charger is inserted, the pc detects the charger but starts powering off and on in a loop, as if it was going into and off hibernation in a loop, not with a complete boot.

Are you saying that Windows performs a clean shutdown? As it would when you close the lid, or press the power button, and Windows tidily closes every open program, running app and shuts down..?

Or it simply crashes and goes into an infinite boot loop?

Tatolino · Accepted Answer

Interesting!

Did you do this last bit too?

Go to Start, type in cmd to find the Command Prompt and run it as administrator (either right-click on it, or select the option on the right-hand menu);
copy and paste the following command, then hit enter:
POWERCFG /SETDCVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_BATTERY BATACTIONCRIT 0
and again:
POWERCFG /SETACVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_BATTERY BATACTIONCRIT 0
Hit enter, reboot the laptop, log in, and see what happens next time you connect the AC adapter

especially the second command, SETACVALUEINDEX.

If that works, then we can quite safely assume it is a software problem!

And yes, as you probably figured, that battery will need to be changed.

Tatolino · Answer

Hi there!

It's hard to tell, it could be a number of different things, but short of running some deep tests on the mainboard (especially on the charging ic) which requires some level of expertise, you are left with very few options.

The kernel - power error 41 code is very unspecific, it only tells us that a power interruption occurred before the system had any chance of logging a potential system error.

If the laptop is off, will the AC adapter charge the battery?
How are you managing to keep the battery charged now?

First thing I would do right away is remove the battery and run the laptop on the AC adapter alone. If nothing goes wrong and the OS manages to boot, then we can exclude a problem with the AC charger and possibly the mainboard (at least the AC adapter port and the charging circuit).

Don't forget to perform a hard reset before you try this, and every time you replace a component, and even when you do some extraordinary cleaning that requires removing hardware components (it's good practice): charger and battery both unplugged, press and hold I/O button for 30 seconds to discharge the mainboard.

Anyway, If it still doesn't boot after removing the battery, then I would try a different charger, even a third-party one: all it needs is the same interface (7.4mm barrel plug) and the same power or more, even a 330w would be fine and won't damage your laptop if the output voltage is the usual 19.5v (and every laptop charger output voltage is 19.5 volts).

If even this won't work, then it could be the adapter port (easily replaceable) or... the mainboard.

But if it runs on the AC power alone with no error at all, then it could very well be a problem caused by a failing battery. And for your wallet's sake I really hope this is the case!

Matt_in · Answer

Hi, thanks for your answer.

Yeah, I should have checked the software before working on the hardware.

Anyway, I've tried what you suggested.

The AC adapter charges the battery. To avoid useless restarts I just keep the display down. Indications are the light on the power-on button and the indication in case Windows has loaded.

I tried removing the battery and, after the hard reset, plugged in the AC adapter. Pressed the power-on button, the pc powers up but when the Alienware word displays it shuts down and starts again in a boot loop.

I am not able to try a different charger at the moment and I am looking for a battery replacement (it should give me stability at least for troubleshooting).

However, the pc loads Windows successfully with the battery only and stays on the battery flawlessly, even though it has limited endurance now. In this case, when the AC charger is inserted, the pc detects the charger but starts powering off and on in a loop, as if it was going into and off hibernation in a loop, not with a complete boot.

The same happens if you enter the BIOS powering on the battery alone. With the BIOS page displayed, as soon as the AC charger is inserted, it starts the boot loop. Once disconnected, if you press the power-on button, it shows directly the BIOS page again.

Hope it was clear, thanks again for your time.

Matt_in · Answer

The pc at the beginning had Win 10, but recently I updated to Win11, but with the factory reset it is back to Win 10. For checking the software I mean to check that the computer did a proper shutdown. It seemed it was doing an update when I took it apart because, when I started again after putting it back together, showed some screen with the percentage and then Windows got corrupted.

Anyway,

What do you mean? Installing Win11? You shouldn't blame yourself for that, I am quite positive this has nothing to do with Windows: it's my understanding that the system crashes right at the Dell/Aliewnare splash screen, so it means it fails POSTing, and if you press F12 you cannot access the preBOOT menu, can you? You don't see any spinning cycle, any loading bar, anything vaguely suggesting that Windows is even trying to boot up, do you?
Furthermore, you have successfully reimaged your pc, as it runs just fine on the battery alone.

yes, the system crashes at the Alienware screen and starts a new boot. No spinning cycle and no possibility to press either F2 or F12. Actually, when loading the system with the battery, it seems that it gives two equal Alienware screens, one right at the beginning, and then another one before loading Windows.

However, I am looking for a new charger to check if the previous is faulty. In the next days, I'll take it apart and check everything again.

One last question, as this part wasn't completely clear to me:

@Matt_in wrote:

However, the pc loads Windows successfully with the battery only and stays on the battery flawlessly, even though it has limited endurance now. In this case, when the AC charger is inserted, the pc detects the charger but starts powering off and on in a loop, as if it was going into and off hibernation in a loop, not with a complete boot.

Are you saying that Windows performs a clean shutdown? As it would when you close the lid, or press the power button, and Windows tidily closes every open program, running app and shuts down..?

Or it simply crashes and goes into an infinite boot loop?

No, in the case Windows loaded correctly, the pc seems to go into sleep mode and then wake up immediately, showing the Win login page, a few seconds and it goes back to sleep in a loop. If you enter Win when it wakes up it has all the windows where you left, as if it was in sleep mode. In this loop it keeps showing the Win login page. Then, disconnecting the AC charger, everything is back to normal on the battery. If you try to perform a clean shutdown, it shows the screen with "preparing Windows, don't shutdown". Hope it's clear.

Tatolino · Answer

@Matt_in wrote:No, in the case Windows loaded correctly, the pc seems to go into sleep mode and then wake up immediately, showing the Win login page, a few seconds and it goes back to sleep in a loop. If you enter Win when it wakes up it has all the windows where you left, as if it was in sleep mode. In this loop it keeps showing the Win login page. Then, disconnecting the AC charger, everything is back to normal on the battery. If you try to perform a clean shutdown, it shows the screen with 'preparing Windows, don't shutdown'. Hope it's clear. Okay, I think I misread your first post, I somehow thought the system was crashing and entering a boot loop, but this is not the case! THis is some peculiar behaviour, it is something that is supposed to happen only when the battery is critically low and the system is set to hibernate (Critical battery action), a way to spare you from losing any unsaved work. It should most definitely not happen when you plug in your charger. So now I have one or two tests for you to run. Go to Start, type in cmd to find the Command Prompt and run it as administrator (either right-click on it, or select the option on the right-hand menu); copy and paste the following command, then hit enter:POWERCFG /SETDCVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_BATTERY BATACTIONCRIT 0​ and again:POWERCFG /SETACVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_BATTERY BATACTIONCRIT 0​​ Hit enter, reboot the laptop, log in, and see what happens next time you connect the AC adapter Then let's have a look at your battery, to see in what kind of shape it is: Run Command Prompt just like before; copy&paste:powercfg /batteryreport open the html report with any browser and post the results. One last thing I would ask you to try: go to Start and type in Control Panel, open it and then select System and security  Power option and on the left-hand menu click on Choose what the power button does; select Do nothing on each of the four options you see. Just to see if there is some kind of conflict between the AC adapter port and the lid sensor / power button.

Tatolino · Answer

I forgot to say: after doing this please reboot, log in, and try again plugging in the power cord.

Tatolino · Answer

Hi there! Did you eventually manage to find a solution? If you did, please let us know, it could be helpful to other users.

Matt_in · Answer

Hi there, I just finished running the test you proposed me since I hadn't had much time. Here are the results.

New charger arrived, same behavior, so I suppose the charger works correctly.
Managed to charge the battery with the screen down to run the tests. After setting the values as you said, nothing changed and it showed the same behavior.
Setting Do nothing in the control panel actually worked. In particular, with Win loaded, inserting the AC charger didn't put the pc to sleep anymore. I played with them. For the "When I press the power button" option, I found out that:
- If only the On battery setting is set to Sleep, when the AC charger is inserted, it put the pc to sleep and wakes it up only once;
- If only the Plugged in setting is set to Sleep, when the AC charger is inserted, it starts the loop sleep/wake up.

Anyway, if the pc is off, inserting the AC power starts the boot loop, restarting at the Alienware screen without giving the option to enter the bios. As said before, this behavior doesn't happen booting with the battery.

Thanks for your time. Last thing, I'm opening the pc to check everything as suggested.

The report of the battery follows.

Matt_in · Answer

After opening the pc I focused on the power button cable and, guess what, found out that one tiny pin of the ribbon cable was bent and touching the one closest to it. Luckily it wasn't broken, so I made it straight and everything was back to normal.

This is why the behavior was so particular and the setting on the control panel worked well, at least to circle the issue. Battery was changed too and I made the BIOS reset as well.

Thanks again for your time! Have a good one!

Tatolino · Answer

Oh well this is very good news, just a minor hiccup after all. Thank you very much for sharing all the details, it was a rather quirky case.

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Alienware 15 R4 shutdown and keep rebooting with AC power

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