m17X R3 - Won't Power on When not Plugged In

Hey all,

Wondering if anyone else has had a similar issue with their R3, or has any advice.

Everything works fine with it, except that I noticed during the most recent (and very rare) occasion when I tried to power the laptop on while it wasn't plugged in, that nothing happened. Nothing at all. However, if I plug it into the wall it powers on just fine, and if I later unplug it the laptop runs off the battery just fine. It's very strange.

I've had it since 2011 and the only issue or repair done to it during that time was last summer when the AC adaptor died and Alienware replaced both it and the battery under warranty. Unfortunately I'm no longer under warranty or I'd let them deal with it.

It seems like a hardware issue to me (probably on the motherboard), but I haven't yet done a full OS reinstall to verify that assumption. I may try that if nobody has any other ideas.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

Sounds like it could be a bad CMOS battery to me. I would swap it out and see if that fixes the issue.

 

Still no idea what the root cause was, but the wipe and clean OS reinstall seems to have fixed it. Must've been some strange driver issue.

 

...and it's back again. Still don't think it is a hardware issue because it worked fine soon after my reinstall. Something I did between then and now must've triggered it. This is gonna be a fun one.

 

If you can power the laptop on from the PSU, but it does not power on at all from battery only, it has nothing to do with the software. And by power on I mean if you see the lights come on and hear the fan starting. The simple reason it has nothing to do with the software (Windows) is because every laptop powers on first, then posts and only then the software kicks in. If it physically impossible that anything in Windows could prevent the laptop to power on or post. Only a hardware issue could cause this.

You can perform some checks to find out what is causing the problem:
1. Try removing the battery, plug the PSU in and power the laptop on. Then try wiggling the PSU inside the DC port gently. This will test if your PSU and DC are fine. Then enter the BIOS and check if the wattage of the PSU is displayed on the first page or it says unknown adapter. If the wattage of PSU is displayed, it means PSU and DC are both fine and can charge the battery. If unknown adapter is displayed, your battery will not be able to charge. Swap testing the PSU with any DELL/AW PSU will show if PSU or DC is at fault.
2. Try to power the laptop on multiple times with PSU plugged in and then on batter power only. It will determine if the laptop powers on every single time with the PSU attached, while sometimes/all the time fails to power on with the battery power only.
3. Test the battery with AlienAutopsy. If it shows the battery passed - click on 'View detailed report' and report here 3 numbers: Current charge, Full charged capacity and Designed capacity.
4. If you have any contact cleaner, carefully clean the visible battery contacts on the mainboard and then the battery itself and repeat step 2 and 3.
5. If you are not on the latest BIOS (unless you need unlocked BIOS), update your BIOS to the latest version for your laptop. This is more common on HP laptops though, where they report a battery failure and after updating the BIOS the battery passes onboard test.

I am pretty sure your battery is failing considering the age of the laptop.

 

Battery is new as is the power adapter. Both were replaced under warranty late last year when the laptop stopped getting any power. There are no apparent issues with either of them.

To be clear, the laptop gets power fine while it's running, and will run off of the battery just fine as well. The only issue is that it has to be plugged in when initially powered on. If I unplug it after that it keeps running just fine.

Of the things you listed, I think the BIOS is the only likely possibility. I'm running an unlocked BIOS which I added after both my recent reinstall and the tests I did post-reinstall in which it powered on just fine while unplugged multiple times. I'll have to try swapping BIOS versions around and see if that has any effect.

 

I have discover the dell has faulty soilder joints on the power outlet. When the joints come loose it cuases the A/C power to loose connection. This will cuase hard to your laptop and might fry the motherboard causing you to get the board replaced. You Tube will show you how to fix those soilder joints and make you A/C connection to fully charge the battery and power your laptop at the same time without it cutting out.