M17x (R1) Power Issues

Hello everybody,

It's going to be 5 years I own this laptop, still happy with it, it can run most games at decent frame rates, but, since the past two weeks I'm facing a huge issue.

symtoms:

* For some reason, in random moments the laptops jumps itself from AC power to battery (for one second or two), I even get the OSD Alienware notification. Sometimes when I get the issue I'm able to check the blue ring light from de AC adapter cord and the light fades out and then the light comes back.
* When gaming the I get awul frame rates drops when the laptop go in to battery mode due to the issue. Other times the laptot shuts off itself when gaming.

It's not a heat issue, I'm sure because I cleaned not too long ago all the 3 fans. Plus used HWinfo64 to log the temps and they are fine, even when gaming. Also there is no problem with the AC power adapter jack.

Any ideas about this issue? I've been reading in here and some members had issues with their motherbords, or graphic cards or even the PSU. I'm clueless about what could it really be.

Thanks!

 

Id look at the PSU first. 5 years is a fairly long time.

The capacitors age and the psu cant run as efficiently, meaning it cant output the same wattage as it used to. It might be switching between AC and battery.

 

Any ideas on how to test the PSU? I've measured the voltage with a tester, and it gives 19,53 V... I think I need to emulate a load though, and check if the voltage drops..

Well I switched through BIOS settings to the 9400M G, and the problem persist. Is it safe to say that the GTX 280M is not the cause of the issue?

 

This is Stealth Mode, a triple-damned feature of the R1/R2, coming into play. When the power brick doesn't get the necessary "handshake" through the chip saying that it is a certified 240W power supply that the motherboard recognizes, it kicks into battery-saving mode. Try another power supply of the same model that you currently have; can't remember the part number off the top of my head, but they are still available out there if you Google it right. Run the system with the new power supply, and if there are no issues after a decent amount of time (but still within in the return time frame) than it is probably your motherboard going bad for recognizing the handshake. If it runs fine, keep the power supply. If it starts screwing up again, it's your motherboard and get ready for a different set of repairs.

 

What you say is if the power supply fails sending the right signal to the motherboard, then the motherboards rejects the DC external input? If that's true, how would that explain the blue light ring fading in the AC adapter cord?

I've been testing the AC adapter alone, to do that I elaborate a wirewound resistor and tested the current that the PSU is capable of supply. In this picture I made a 2.5 Ohms wirewound resistor:



Given that resistor y got a more or less expected current, I=V/R => 19.53/2.5=7.81 A:



I reduced my wirewound resistor to incread the load:



The problem is the wirewound resistor gets warm so it increases his resistivity hence reducing the current so I can´t force the PSU for a very long time, a few seconds only.

Once while testing the PSU turned off for one second. I wasn't able to reproduce that issue though. Plus I found out that when the resistor is too small, lets said, 1 Ohm, the PSU shut down itself and you have to unplug the cord from the outlet to get the PSU to work again.

Tomorrow I'll try to reduce the resistor a bit more to get the PSU to supply more current and see if it works fine.

 

The blue ring on the tip of the power supply cutting out probably means that the power supply itself is going bad. Five years is a pretty long time to have that much juice flowing through the power supply (hooray for MORE POWER), so it's probably now sputtering intermittently. If that handshake goes away, even for a moment, as long as it's not connected it'll drop you straight into Stealth Mode. Once the handshake is reestablished you're good to go again, but in the meantime your frame rates will chug because the 9400 is now trying to do all the heavy lifting. This might be a very simple fix with a new power supply, and kudos for keeping your R1 in the fight for so long! As a former early adopter, it's not easy. Loved my R1.

 

So it seems the power supply is not capable of provide current over 10.6 A, I'll order a new one, the part numer is DP/N 0J211H. Still have to fix a video issue I have, replacing the motherboard, then I'll buy a new laptop, I like this one, but I've replaced several faulty parts!, slot-load, palmrest, processor (upgrade), RAM (upgrade), screen (I thought the screen was faulty of a video issue I have)..

I'll let you guys know if the new PSU solves my issue...

 

Got a new PSU, gladly that solved the issue!!! .....

Bad news for me is, I was trying to play The Evil Within, and I couln't... after an extensive research y found out the DX10 video cards can't even start the game! it seems developers locked te game to ruu in DX11 video cards only...

 

Time to upgrade.. The R1 has been obsolete for quite long..

 

Maybe you're right, but this is the very first time I have this feeling to upgrade the R1. It's a shame though, that developers lock the games to run in DX11+ cards only, I'm pretty sure the R1 can run most of the games out there at decent graphic settings...

 

I got a decent frame rate out of RAGE on the R1, enough so that I played 250+ hours of it. It was very playable... however, the difference between the performance on my R1 and the beast I have now is really startling. If you can get an AW 17 R1, think about it, because you can still upgrade those machines.