Help - M17x shuts down if AC power plug is pulled

So I feel kind of silly having to ask this....surely there must be a way that my M17x will not instantly power off when the AC plug is pulled? And yes, I do have the battery installed and charged

Did not see any options for this in Power Options or in Windows Mobility Center.

Any help I could get would be appreciated. The last few days have been quite frustrating as I have unplugged by accident just picking up the laptop and consequently shutting it down.

I have Command Center installed however I have most of it disabled and I have 0 access to the Fusion module of it.

Thanks in advance!

And for what it is worth, when I press Fn +F2 it says battery enabled but I still have the problem.

 

Is it going to sleep or going straight to shutdown?

 

power down, no shut down sequence or anything, same as holding down power for 5 seconds

 

The Alienware command center (Alien Fusion) is just a GUI front end to the "Power Options" built into Windows. None of the options in power options allow the computer to do anything but "sleep" or "shut down". If your computer is simply turning off without shutting down, I would deduce that you either have a bad battery, or a bad connection between the battery and the laptop like maybe a pin got bent or they're dirty somehow or something.

 

can you turn it back on after it shuts down with just the battery?

 

Power drain time!

 

Ooooh good thinking Mandrake. Unplug it, take the battery out, hold down the power button for about 15 seconds, pop battery back in and try to boot on battery.

 

I will give that a try. As far as I know the battery is fine though

 

Windows sees the battery and the power indicator on the battery says it is fully charged but I cannot boot on battery alone.....

Looks like Dell is getting a call on Monday! (I will try to get a battery and motherboard out of them - maybe this helps explain my failing OC that used to be rock solid - a bad motherboard)

 

or an over-volted gpu....one or the other.

 

Yup sounds like its the motherboard not being able to switch over.

 

the GPU's have been stock for some time now haha

It was odd, on battery alone I tried booting it again, got to POST screen then shut down and would not start again. I will definitely be requesting another motherboard and battery if I can get that too (maybe then I will be able to get back my 3180 MHz OC or better hehe)

Booted with battery out then added it and windows picked it up right away

So it sees it but is not using it.

 

you tried the power drain

 

Yes I tried the power drain - made no difference unfortunately. Should I do it after pulling cmos battery or something?

As a test, I unplugged with battery installed and it ran like 5 seconds then shut down instantly again. When I powered up I have the scroll and num lock lights on with the cap lock light flashing. What does that mean?

So the way I see it, it is either the battery or the motherboard or both. I will call monday (or tomorrow if I can) to get the parts sent to me - any trick I need to have them send it to me and not some technician? I will also be upgrading to completecare tomorrow while on the phone (on Monday) haha

 

I believe Moo has the lights flashing issue and he updated the bios and it went away.

 

Nope showed up then I rebooted and it flashed again but this tome it booted up but the lights stayed flashing


Rebooted again and it went away .... Hasn't came back


I have a spare battery if u wanna see if it is crap ... I trust u to send it back

 

I am pretty sure it is not the battery but maybe it is. Either way I can have dell send me both a motherboard and battery I hope. They should be able to get it to me just as fast as you could and then I get to keep it (a backup if battery wasn't the problem)

Thanks though.

And re-flashing the bios did not fix it (but the flashing lights are gone)

 

On the phone with dell now, we shall see what they come up with.....

 

New battery will come in next couple days, if that is not it than I am getting a new motherboard....

 

So now I am on battery and have been for about 10 minutes.......this machine is acting quite inconsistently.....

So I have had battery works not at all, battery works for about 4 seconds, and battery seems to work fine (at least so far). Would this sort of inconsistent behavior be more likely to be caused by the battery or motherboard to you guys?

 

Did Dell tell you to run the diagnostics program?

 

No they did not. But the guy seemed pretty clueless. Where can I run this from

 

Boot off your resource DVD.

 

I will try that out tonight. Thanks

 

Hi scook9
There's a couple of things i would suggest. The pattern of lights you described indicate that there is a memory issue or a problem with the motherboard. The fact that you are having inconsistent problems with battery charging would lead me to think that you have a motherboard issue. I would boot to your resource cd and run a custom test on all components. Let me know what you find.

Thanks,
Gabe

 

Just ran ALL the custom tests but they all passed

Only thing I found odd was that the battery health test said NA

 

Moo - I thought you may have had one of these installed :

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/ae83/

Trelawney

 

Trelawney - That is awesome. I may have to get one of those. I can just imagine some of the people I work with going crazy because of that thing.

 

yah, I would say mobo skook. I had the same thing happen on an old HP my dad had. Instant power off, no shut down or a darn thing. Took it back to the store, technician said mobo, replaced it and the thing is still going 2 years later without issue.

 

That is what I figured. The fact that my CPU OC has declined considerably also tipped me off to it being a Motherboard issue. I will tell them the battery did not solve it and have a new motherboard sent to me.

 

Highly doubtful they'll just send you a motherboard and say "hey have fun putting that in yourself". You're more likely to be told to send it in for repair, unless the on-site technicians can replace it.

 

The dude I was on the phone with yesterday said he could have it sent to me to install myself. It is all about how you talk to them

And I have taken the machine apart more than they have....I don't want them messing with it frankly - I got completecare for if I screw something up

 

lol well i just wait for them to get there and already have it apart

 

I have a crappy schedule since I am a student, why waste the guys time?

 

Hi scook9,
I'm sure you most likely know all the saftey precautions to take while installing a motherboard. However, just in case, have these tools on hand.

1. ESD Bracelet or mat (preferrable a mat to lay it all out on)
2. #2 Phillips (not magnatized)
3. Small flat head (use with caution as it is very easy to mar the plastic)

Also, keep in mind that there's a chance that your motherboard may not have the most recent version of the bios, and it will most likely require you to flash it. Be sure to boot the computer once before flashing! There is a factory mode that has to be executed.

Good luck,
Gabe

 

thanks for the tips GabeZ!

 

Free battery ain't bad at the very least, as long as they don't want it back that is You win!

 

They do want it back, unless I am going to pay for it, this is normal fare for them - I am fine with sending back the old battery and having a few months of free use on this one I am especially fine with this proving that the motherboard is the problem as I thought all along so that I can get IT replaced

 

Not happy with your motherboard or just looking forward to "a new computer" within the same warranty period...

 

little of column A, little of column B Either way, new fresh heart and soul for your machine ain't a bad deal, specially if you have done some super heavy benching and testing with the old one.

 

Both. The lack of ability to reliably use the battery is a problem for me, as well as my now lower OCs - which I assume is the motherboard and not my processor giving in - Processors are dang near invincible...

I only got my vantage score settled, but now I need to do my 06 and for that I cannot have a lesser OC haha

 

Got my new battery and surprise surprise....it didn't fix my problems. Will be requesting the new motherboard tomorrow

 

Gave the battery a few days, the problem is deifnitely still there, emailed them requesting the new motherboard as the next phase in this issue.