Battery life "Unknown Remaining"?

Well I've had this laptop for quite a while, and I'm happy with it. However, the power cord recently went out, so I ordered a new one from Dell.. the exact same one that came with my laptop when I got it. But when I plugged it in, my laptop displayed a notification stating that my power cord was not supported and it's below the recommendations, and I also got a message saying "battery not detected". I searched the forums, appearently it's a common problem when getting any new cord for a Alienware m17x. I tried some suggestions I found, which were downloading the latest BIOS and removing my battery, then the cord, turning off my laptop, then holding down the power button for 15 seconds.

Now my battery life says Unknown Remaining and it's not charging. I can't find anything on this. if anyone knows how to resolve this, it'd be appreciated :/

 

Two things:

First, do a power drain: Unplug the laptop, remove the battery, then open it up and hold down the power button for about 30 seconds. Once this is done, put the battery back in, then plug in the charger, then turn the computer back on. This may solve the problem...sort of. The "battery not charging" thing happens to me every once in a while on my m17x...but I dont have the "unknown remaining" thing or the "battery not dectected" thing.

Secondly, call up Dell and see if they sent you the right power brick LOL!! Yeah, I also heard this is pretty common when ordering new Power supplies from Dell so I would definately make sure you got the right thing if the above doesnt work.

Also...are you sure your battery wasnt the problem in the first place...and not the PSU?

 

I've already done that, but thanks. I think my battery is okay, my last cords inner.. cords, I guess, were broken. The light on it wasn't even turning on. I think I'll just have to call Dell, though last time I called them about my laptop not charging they immediately asked for 700$ for a new motherboard and something else ( can't remember ) without even asking me any questions. :/

Well, I just called Dell. He said " I really don't know, I'd just suggest getting a new battery". I don't think my battery is the issue, but I could be wrong. I'd just like to solve this if possible before spending 150$ on a new battery.

 

Were you able to verify with dell that the PSU they sent you is actually the one you need?? I mean...what are you spec's? If you have an r2 configured like mine then you need a 230watt PSU and sometimes they send you a lower wattage PSU and you get all kinds of problems...although not the specific problem you mentioned but who knows??

 

Guys for the power drain you are missing the main point wich is to also unplug the coin battery, wich preserve the data stored in bios. Once the coin battery is unplugged the power button has to be keept depressed for 10 - 15 seconds (this will allow eventual power stored on condensator to be discharged). If you just remove the main battery without detaching the coin battery, the whole process is completely useless...

 

The cord is fine, I checked 4 times. and I haven't ordered a new battery. But I'm not aware of this coin battery thing, where is it at on the laptop? Sorry I'm not exactly a expert

Erm.. I found this Documentation but I'm a little scared to do it. Is it relatively easy? I haven't really taken apart an electronic before, besides the casing of a psp.

 

Only thing to do is to open the bottom cover (remove battery + 2 screws) near the CPU fan connector there is another connector. That is the one that attach the coin battery (little black, coin like, battery) to the motherboard. It is really easy to do.

 

Okay thank you. I'll post back with results later on, as I don't have any screw drivers that fit right now.

 

Okay, I have seriously tried about 15 different screwdivers and I cannot get those screws out for the life of me. Is there a certain size you can give me?

Okay nevermind I finally got it open, but it's wrapped up and mounted.. I'm really not sure what to do

 

If you remove coin battery do you lose any information etc? Also would it be sensible to totally drain battery and then recharge?

 

Removing the CMOS battery will just set all bios settings back to default including date/time. Nothing to do with windows is affected.

 

Ok thanks for the help