I mainly use my laptop for gaming.
This one is continuously plugged in.
When I start it up, I press F2 and enter the BIOS.
I have it to Primarily AC Use.
Though, when I reboot the computer, my battery indicator is still at 100%, and stating fully smartly charged.
Same thing when I custom set it to start charge at 50% and stop at 80%.
Still showing 100% all the time.
Normal?
This seems normal. Should it be? Not a chance. I have access to 3 alienware laptops, and I’ve replaced the battery in all 3 of them. The oldest ones are just 4 years old, and the batteries had been toast for about 2 years
Does the battery affect its performance or anything besides shorter battery life? I have my M17 and its battery life is at 50%.
No, there isn’t a performance hit. It just stinks when the system immediately shuts down if you happen to unplug it. My wife’s battery was a nice spicy burrito when I finally replaced it. The screws were hardly holding it in…
I have the same laptop as you and I can confirm this isn't what it is meant to be doing.
I have a custom limit to. START: 50%. END: 80%.
My battery will charge when it hits 50% and then stop at 80%. After that it will very slowly trickle down over the next few days, sometimes even faster depending on usage (e.g. like playing games). Then once it hits 50%, it charges all the way back up to 80% again before trickling down and repeating.
I would set your laptop back to the custom limits (50%, 80%). Unplug your laptop and let it run on the battery until it reaches below 80%. Then plug it back in and see what happens. It should then start to slowly trickle down to 50% before charging back up to 80% and repeating.
I believe this same thing happened to me when I first set the custom limits. I was already at 100% so nothing happened and it just stayed at 100% with the Windows smart charging showing as enabled. However, once I unplugged to let the battery drop below 80%, I could see the BIOS changes taking effect straight away.
Be sure to update results here for anyone experiencing the same issue as you so they know the outcome.
Thank you for posting this, I just did this on my M15R2 and it works :D You’re awesome!!
Nice! Glad I was able to help someone :D
Where in the laptop do I make these battery settings? So I leave laptop plugged in and it will not charge at 80 and allow it to use battery down to 50? Interesting. I just assumed if you set it at charge to 80, it will just keep it there, no more no less.
BIOS settings. Reboot your machine and as soon as you see the Alienware logo, spam the f2 button multiple times until it takes you to the BIOS menu. From there you can configure a battery cap.
Yeah it will stop at 80% and trickle down. It won't use your battery like it does if it was unplugged. It will very slowly trickle. So it may be at 80% now, but after the whole day of using your laptop it may end up on 76%, so it's very slow. I believe it's to prevent the battery staying at a certain charge, which can also be damaging in ways. So it's charge, then trickle down slowly to the lower limit, charge back up, repeat.
What are the benefits of doing this process? Why not have the laptop always at 100%? Genuine question
Happy to answer!
So your battery will have a certain expected total life cycle. Each cycle is the number of times battery was drained and recharged. I believe the average life cycle for laptop batteries is somewhere between 300-500 cycles. That means your battery is designed to last for 300-500 total charge and discharges from 0%-100% before it dies.
If you're a heavy user, who drains their battery and recharges to 100% every day, this could last you up to a year (365 days). 2-3 years if you're a light to moderate user. Of course some days you may have the laptop plugged in so the battery hasn't done a cycle. So of course these are just averages but helps to understand.
So it would seem to make sense given that information to leave the battery at 100% plugged in 24/7. Because you're making sure the battery doesn't go through any cycles. But leaving it at 100% puts a lot of chemical strain on the battery. So just like cycles will weaken the battery overtime, the same will happen if you leave it at 100%.
Now the reason why custom start and stop limits, in this case 50%-80% is beneficial for the battery is because the max charge limit ensures the battery is never sitting at 100%. 80% seems to be the limit where there isn't a lot of chemical strain. The further you move above 80%, the more chemical strain this creates.
The reason for the custom start limit (50%) is so the battery can trickle down. Even though 80% is good, and is far better for your battery to idle at 80% than it is 100%, it still adds wear and tear to your battery to leave it idling in one place constantly (chemical strain). You really need the battery to be running through cycles to avoid chemical strain. But your battery only has a certain number of cycles it can do in its lifetime.
So the idea is, let it charge to the max (80%), then rather than sit at 80, the battery very slowly discharges and trickles its way down. Once it hits your custom start limit (50%) it then full charges back up until it hits your upper limit (80%) and repeats the cycle.
This way you're avoid any idling, but you're also not doing any full battery cycles. As the range from 50-80 is 30%, you're essentially doing 1/3 of a cycle each time. So let's assume you hit 80% charge, the battery stops charging and now slowly discharges and trickles its way down to 50%. Let's say it reaches 50% in 4 days of normal usage. You've now only done 1/3 of a battery cycle in 4 days. At that rate it would take you 12 days to complete one full battery cycle. That's 30 full cycles a year, which means theoretically the battery could last you up to 10+ years.
So custom start and stop limits, 50-80, is a great way to preserve your battery health before needing a replacement. Hope that helps to understand.
Try draining the battery down to 50% and see if that will fix your issue. I have mine at 50/80 and my battery was kept at 100% for my 18 A51 laptop. I had to drain it below 50% to get it to work