Prolonging Alienware Laptop Battery Life

I've never really removed my battery unless i'm taking my machine apart and I've only got 10% wear after about 1.5 years. Not bad if you ask me.

 

Well i've owned my first R1 since June 2009, in which i had it plugged in 95% of its exsistence and the original battery finally stopped holding a strong charge (even tho the indicator on the battery shows it as fully charged) back in December 2011. The minute i disconnected the A/C power the laptop would immediately shut off.

 

When I get my aw I am definitely getting an extra battery. My old Dell lattitude used to have decent battery life, two years later the PoS instantly shuts down if I unplug it from the wall. (The screen also went to hell for some reason).

 

i agree that would be preally helpful on the m18x as well.

 

So i had an m15x for 3 years and the Battery died... I now have my m18x and much like my m15x it stays plugged in most the time (99% of the time)

I have recently started un plugging it for 20-30 min when im not using it to let the battery run down some so i can charge it back up... ive heard this can keep them from going bad... Any input?

 

The batteries today do not accept charge beyond 100%, so the laptop is running off of the adapter itself at this point. You don't have to worry about the battery. Letting it wear down every now and then is good for it. When you're not gaming, just use the battery for an hour.

 

Here's the thread you were looking for. I merged your post with it. There is discussion here that is directly related to your question.

 

I've always wondered what that does. So, you're sure that Fn+F2 will make the system "disconnect" the battery?

From the horse's mouth: Understanding Battery Life in Portable Computers | Dell

Attached here as well for preservation: View attachment wp-2005_batterylife.pdf

 

Hi there,

As you can tell I'm not a regular poster here but I've been hovering and reading all the amazing information provided and shared amongst the great community on NBR forums.

Forgive me if I'm just a fail as I would not be surprised at all if this has already been posted elsewhere... but I promise, I did just spend the past 30 minutes using the forum search tools but didn't find what I needed before deciding to create this (possibly redundant) post.

I'm looking for Alienware users (Mr. Fox?), but really welcome just anyone with decent notebook usage experience, to chime in, or at least direct me to another relevant post, on how to properly care for CURRENT GEN notebook batteries. Specifically desktop replacements like Alienware 17 (m17x) or 18 (m18x) without removable batteries?

A simple Google search on notebook battery care lists many pros and cons to both such as leaving battery plugged in will deteriorate battery especially if notebook gets hot, but benefit being able to prevent notebook from shutting off if power goes out etc (duh)

This is of particular concern to me as I'm currently almost dead set on purchasing either a Alienware 17 or 18. Just waiting for other users to get their units and review before pulling the trigger. But without the ability to pull out the batteries while using it on a regular basis as a desktop replacement I'm afraid the battery will deteriorate rapidly. Especially given said notebooks would likely be prone to the dreaded battery killer "HEAT" since I will use it for gaming.

I especially worried since a long-gone premium Samsung laptop ($2000+) notebook I got about 8 years ago started out with a battery life of 2hrs, then after 1 yr of leaving it plugged in constantly, ended up with a battery life of 15mins on a full charge (not even kidding).

And then I thought "That was old tech, current tech must be better." But I recently got a HP DV7-7373CA for work. I initially refused to even unwrap the battery as I had no use for it at work and just left it plugged in. 2 weeks ago I decided to put in the battery... and today I already noticed the status saying "95% available (plugged in, not charging).

I'll be darned if I spend $2500 - $3000 on an Alienware and get the same problem...

Thanks in advance for your input!

 

We have listed some of the best tips to take care of the battery on these machines. Here you go!

 

I cant open the link, seems to be down

Edit: it opens now but says:

Code:

Article Not Found 
The chosen document is not currently available. Please try again later.

 

Hey bud. I am not an expert on all things related to batteries or anything like that. But, I can tell you that I haven't seen the troublesome "plugged in, not charging" problem on an Alienware since the old M17x R2. I have experienced it in the past with HP laptops as well. I can tell you that there are lots of opinions on battery care. My M18x has a battery that is about a year old and it still works perfectly. I get over 5 hours with it running on integrated graphics. I leave the system plugged in 99% of the time and do not allow it to go through multiple charge/discharge cycles. It is that constant charging and discharging cycle that seems to ruin them. Thankfully, laptop no longer have "memory" problems any more, but the cycles wears them out.

We have an old thread on this topic and I merged it for you. Feel free to browse the posts and see if you can find something useful.

Link seems to be dead, Brother Luis.

 

Yep link no worky!

 

It's working now seems just was a temporaly down of the article...

 

Do the new aw17 laptops automatically change to using ac power only? The article referred to fn f2 which is wireless on the new ones

 

The new machines automatically switch to AC power !

 

Quick question here guys, since I am at my desk most of the time when I am using the laptop, would it be better for me to remove the battery from the laptop so that it may preserve better for the times I actually do need it?

I heard from somewhere that Lithion Ion batteries like to be around 40% of capacity for long term storage without any adverse affects, otherwise they slowly lose their capacity over time. Not sure where I heard this from or whether its true, but would like to hear some of your experiences and whether any of you do anything special to keep your batteries in check.

 

i am pretty sure that today laptop battery become no good after 3 years pretty much...

you can exercise them so they hold more charge for a longer time... i mean , once a week you unplug the AC have a full discharge , and full charge .... that way they keep more power longer ... but when you hit 3 years they start holding much less power whatever you do until they die.

 

Yeah, it'd be nice if there's anything you can do to extend the life, but I agree that after a certain amount of time, the battery will just die anyways. My battery on my current laptop (old Inspiron) lasts a cool 3-4 minutes tops.

 

For desk-only laptops, I usually run the battery to 50-40%, then toss it in the freezer, as long as it's an NiMH, Li-Ion or NiCad battery. Just make sure that any condensation is removed before using.

This is long considered a myth, but it is true regarding certain batteries, especially the Li-Ion in the M18x R1/R2 and AW18.

Source: How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries - Battery University

 

My M18x battery is about 2 years old with no signs of degradation yet. I still get about 5:15 running on IGFX and it shows like 5-6% wear. I never remove it except when I need to disassemble the system. It stays plugged in 99.9% of the time. It's only unplugged when I go on a business trip or move it from room to room. Most modern laptop batteries (LI-ION) are adversely affected by discharging and recharging cycles. The more frequently they are discharged and recharged, the shorter their lifespan will be. They effectively "wear out" from these cycles.