Poor battery life with M17x R3

I have recently bought a alienware m17x r3 with the following specs
2670 i7 intel core proccessor
8gb ram (4x 2gb)
Nvidia geforce 580m
FHD 1920x1080 screen
latest bios and drivers from nvidia....
reinstalled windows 7 (didnt solve battery problem)

Now i have done some research and i have people on the web who get this laptop above 4 hours of battery life.
i get an average of about 2 hours and 30 min....
I have also noticed that i get a bios screen that says my integrated gpu is not detected... could my computer be running off the nvidia 580 all the time?
also when i press fn+f7 i am followed by the following message (your graphics solution is automatically configured for optimal battery life)
any way to fix the above^^^^

Please help....
also if someone out there has the same specs as my laptop could they post what average they get on battery with theirs?

 

First things first, please tell me you bought this a while ago... Cuz why would you get an R3 when the R4s have been out for ages :S

As for your battery life, 2 hours and 30 mins isn't abnormal... Especially if you're running on the 580m, did you put your power options on Power Saver btw?

As for the iGPU, I don't know what do about that if it's not being detected.. maybe missing Intel drivers? :S try downloading the drivers from Dell's site but I'm pretty clueless. Personally I love having my iGPU disabled, saves me so much hassle and I hear bad things about Optimus.. And I get over 3 hours of battery life

 

Do you have the 3D screen? If so, that would disable the intel 4000.

 

bought an r3 because i got a sick deal on it (1075) and also because it happened to be one of the only laptops i could find on the market with a 580m now the only gpu nowadays worth getting above this one is a 675, 680 or even a 670 but they are way overpriced right now

i have the power saving all configured to power savings and the processor maximum rate to 50 percent.. i thought it would be missing drivers but i installed many of the intel drivers on dell.com with no luck...

I agree with that! but when it comes to portability i would prefer the laptop automatically switches to integrated


and i dont think i have one. at least i think.. how do i know if i have a 3d screen?

 

I'm not exactly sure as I haven't ever had the privilege of playing with one, but did you happen to buy your system used? It could also be battery wear by the previous owner. Just a thought. Here is what my device manager says under the display adapter. (No integrated GPU listed for me since I have it disabled in the bios atm) yours should say Intel 3000 if you have the integrated card.

 

under display adapters all i see is nvidia geforce 580m and no trace of an intel 3000 :/

also about battery wear i did buy the laptop used but when i ran a diagnostics test on the battery it said it had 95% of its total capacity

 

Sounds like you either have a 3D model, or the previous owner disabled the Intel 3000 Graphics for you.

AH so I doubt that is the problem then.

 

i have looked on my display properties and it says it is currently running 60hz, i believe a 3d card needs a 3d screen running 120hz right... and if thats the case of a disabled intel graphics.. how do i enable it? can the 580 alone supplu me 2 hours and 30 min of battery life?

 

Are you not able to change your resolution in the Nvidia control panel?

And about the battery diagnostic, those are very unreliable. Some people with brand new batteries will see 40% left, some people with age old ones saying 90%.. There are too many variables that go into those "diagnostics" so they don't mean much.

But running on 580m alone, 2 and a half hours sounds about right. Ivy Bridge and newer GPUs have gotten better power efficiency so if my computer runs for 3 hours on 680M... I think yours is just fine.

Don't know anything about enabling the iGPU in the BIOS tho.

 

Yeah, that battery life is what I see.

If you can't see a 120hz option for the display then maybe the previous owner installed an unlocked BIOS and disabled it? You'll need someone that uses one of these to tell you if you have the 'extra' options

 

i went into the nvidia control panel and i did not see a 120hz option so i know i do not have a 3d video card... but like i said before running the computer only on the 580m can accomplish 2 and a half hours alone? (no integrated running) if thats the case, i should be getting a better battery life when switching to integrated right?

 

Yes, around 4 to 5 hours (light use) is what I have read.

 

4 to 5 hours? that is what im aiming for :/ so my laptop is indeed always running on the 580m due to it not reaching those target times i imagine...how do i force it to run on integrated graphics :/

 

Sure sounds like it, you don't see any intel video card in device manager, only the Nvidia?

 

no just the nvidia 580

 

Right. Then there are a few possibilities.

1. It is a 120hz display but there is some reason you can't select 120hz. In which case you can never use the on-board gpu as it's not wired in.

2. The previous owner loaded an unlocked BIOS and disabled iGPU because they didn't want it.

3. There was some problem with it so it was disabled.

If 1 is the case then you will brick it forcing the iGPU - been there done that

Now, the only way to check it out (for 2 and 3) is to go into the BIOS (F2 on the alienhead screen at boot), see what it is set to. Warning: Changing settings here can mess your machine up and if you try to force the iGPU when it is not working, you can 'brick' (machine will not even start up) it!


I suggest you just go into the bios and get the version number then ask for help from someone who has the same config. I won't advise on BIOS settings unless I have exactly the same machine as the requestor - bricking a machine is as bad as it gets.

Investigate 'blind flashing' to see what you have to do to recover a bricked R3 if you try anything, and prepare the USB first

 

most of the time you can just pull the CMOS to reset the bios if you brick it by forcing the igpu. Always good to have a USB setup for blindflashing incase that doesn't work either as brother micky described though.

 

Yeah I tried that but on my R3 only a blind flash got it back after I had screwed it up forcing a gpu that was not there.

It might be worth the OP just removing the CMOS battery to reset it, but if it is an unlocked version, or there is a problem with the iGPU, it could get very messy

Unless that extra couple of hours on battery (and you can't game) is important I wouldn't mess with it.

 

I dont think it is a 3d display... from the very start i started using it the bios screen states integrated graphics not detected... it only detects the geforce gtx my bios version is also a A12 i have tried an A8 from the dell drivers as well with no luck :/

 

I'm a loss now Did you try to 'default' the BIOS? It's all I can think of but with it not showing up, we need some help from someone that knows about this setup?

 

If you installed the unmodded bios and set the bios to default, You should have switchable graphics if you have them. Something seems really fishy here.

 

Ive done it! the solution is revert back to an old bios (in my case A03) and on bootup press f2 it found my integrated graphics! then install the latest bios again and it should remember the integraded graphics! thanks for everyone who helped out I appreciate it =D

 

Good news, kinda weird but hey-ho it works!

 

Not sure why it wasn't working, but glad you got it fixed.