Question Alienware 15 R3 battery and throttling issues

[InSovietRussiaComputerBuildsYOU]

Hello, I am trying to fix up Dell Alienware 15 R3 for a friend. He complained about his battery being completely dead so that his laptop needs to be constantly plugged in and that his fans were broken and won’t turn on, leading to the laptop overheating sometimes and switching off. I bought a (non-original) replacement battery (though from a reputable spare battery website) and replaced his battery. Upon switching the laptop on, I noticed the fans ramp up and stop, as how some devices test their fans on bootup, so I confirmed my suspicion that the fans are actually OK and it must be some power management thing.

After changing the battery an Alienware Support Assistant message started coming up every time the laptop is switched on saying “The battery cannot be identified. The system will be unable to charge this battery”. I do not believe this was appearing with the original battery, even when dead, but I might be wrong on this. It would also sometimes show “255% battery available” in Windows, which I can only assume is an integer overflow. Thinking it’s surely error on my part, I took it apart again and reseated the battery connector and made sure it’s connected well, but that didn’t make a change. The seller said that the battery “might not be calibrated”, so I should update the BIOS and leave it on charge for a few hours, but it could also mean that the laptop does not accept third party batteries.

As for the overheating issue, I immediately noticed upon switching it on, that the laptop is running very slowly. For some reason it is stuck in a low battery/overheating profile and the CPU is permanently throttling at 0.71 Ghz. I tried to mess with the power profiles, delete some old utilities he had installed that might mess with it, but nothing changed. Despite the CPU running at around 50-60C (even on 710 Mhz… had not yet repasted it at this point), after a few minutes of usage it would shut itself off due to overheating, so I turned on Fan Turbo Mode in the BIOS, so at least I can fix this without the laptop constantly shutting down. After reading online about this, it seems a lot of users have similar issues on laptops with 6th-8th gen Intel CPUs and it’s caused by a Windows 10 update. They recommend updating the BIOS as that apparently contains microcode that alters the CPU behaviour, so that the bug within Windows is fixed. Seeing that it was now two places that recommended a BIOS update, I went on Dell’s website and downloaded the latest version to replace the installed version 1.6. However, as I ran the installed, I got the message that "your battery needs to be at least 10% charged in order to install this update"… I tried running it in Safe Mode, it didn’t work… So now I am out of ideas. I don’t know how to go around that battery check and update the BIOS – don’t know if it’s even possible… And I have the fear that either the battery cable or the motherboard circuitry for the battery have gone and no battery will work, no matter what battery I buy and how many times I change it. I guess the message saying “the battery cannot be identified” probably means that it is at least picking it up. It’s a shame, because other than those things the machine works really well, he is used to him and it still does the job very well!
Has someone faced any of these issues before? Help!

 

[Lutfij]

“The battery cannot be identified. The system will be unable to charge this battery”
This is due to the battery not being genuine part. Though I would advise on charging to 100%, then discharging the battery to 10% or less then recharging it again and perform this cycle for a number of times to train the battery.

it could also mean that the laptop does not accept third party batteries.
Yes, this is the case with anything regarding Dell's laptops, their battery specifically.

To that noe, you will not be able to update the BIOS since the system has a failsafe, your battery should be charged to 100% and also be hooked to the wall when yo run the update process. Lack of either will prevent the BIOS update from moving forward.

Has someone faced any of these issues before?
Yeap, multiple times. I just learned to invest in genuine parts when it comes to prebuilts. They cost a pretty penny but they also save you all that trouble and time.

 

[InSovietRussiaComputerBuildsYOU]

“The battery cannot be identified. The system will be unable to charge this battery”
This is due to the battery not being genuine part. Though I would advise on charging to 100%, then discharging the battery to 10% or less then recharging it again and perform this cycle for a number of times to train the battery.

it could also mean that the laptop does not accept third party batteries.
Yes, this is the case with anything regarding Dell's laptops, their battery specifically.

To that noe, you will not be able to update the BIOS since the system has a failsafe, your battery should be charged to 100% and also be hooked to the wall when yo run the update process. Lack of either will prevent the BIOS update from moving forward.

Has someone faced any of these issues before?
Yeap, multiple times. I just learned to invest in genuine parts when it comes to prebuilts. They cost a pretty penny but they also save you all that trouble and time.

I take it there's no way to circumvent this? I've been told unsintalling Alienware Support Assistant will remove that annoying message at bootup, but I assume it won't fix the battery not being identified problem...? Just need to buy a genuine battery? Seems a bit silly that such an expensive laptop that is well-built is on the mercy if whether or not you can find a second hand genuine battery.... I believe they still sell these batteries, despite only being the case in the USA perhaps

 

[USAFRet]

I take it there's no way to circumvent this? I've been told unsintalling Alienware Support Assistant will remove that annoying message at bootup, but I assume it won't fix the battery not being identified problem...? Just need to buy a genuine battery? Seems a bit silly that such an expensive laptop that is well-built is on the mercy if whether or not you can find a second hand genuine battery....

They don't want your experience with the expensive laptop to suffer, due to a crappy battery.

This is not unusual for laptops.
They absolutely cannot guarantee the performance of crappy batteries, and do NOT want the blowback of "My Alienware laptop sux!!!"

 

[hotaru.hino]

I take it there's no way to circumvent this? I've been told unsintalling Alienware Support Assistant will remove that annoying message at bootup, but I assume it won't fix the battery not being identified problem...? Just need to buy a genuine battery? Seems a bit silly that such an expensive laptop that is well-built is on the mercy if whether or not you can find a second hand genuine battery....

The worst thing that could happen is that if the laptop draws more power than the battery can safely discharge, you increase the chances of a catastrophic failure. Cheaply made batteries often don't have much in the way of protection to ensure they can safely discharge enough power to the device. And a lithium fire isn't something you want to deal with.

So it's not just a "omg Dell is vendor locking me" (although that's part of it), it's a safety issue.

 

[InSovietRussiaComputerBuildsYOU]

The worst thing that could happen is that if the laptop draws more power than the battery can safely discharge, you increase the chances of a catastrophic failure. Cheaply made batteries often don't have much in the way of protection to ensure they can safely discharge enough power to the device. And a lithium fire isn't something you want to deal with.

So it's not just a "omg Dell is vendor locking me" (although that's part of it), it's a safety issue.

I've ran my HP Probook workhorse with cheap batteries since the original kicked the can around 2016. Yeah I've had one that would shut the system down when playing a game, and they're not stellar in terms of capacity and longevity... but they're like $10-20. I have went through 3 so far since 2016, if I bought 2 from HP in the same duration at $70 a pop (I beilieve if memory server right), you tell me how many TIMES more expensive that would've been...

Drawing too much much current from a laptop battery is the same as drawing too much from a lightweight PSU.. you're system just shuts down, there's nothing catastrophic about it.

In terms of causing a fire... no comment....

 

[USAFRet]

Drawing too much much current from a laptop battery is the same as drawing too much from a lightweight PSU.. you're system just shuts down, there's nothing catastrophic about it.

You're depending on a no-name battery to act protectively and correctly?
PSUs and batteries can and do act VERY differently.

Trying to draw more than it can support may cause it to heat up WAY past what it should.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Drawing too much much current from a laptop battery is the same as drawing too much from a lightweight PSU.. you're system just shuts down, there's nothing catastrophic about it.

The only reason why the PC shuts down is because the PSU has protections in place to shut it down if one of the parameters goes too high (and sometimes too low). If you've been diligent about purchasing decent PSUs, then you'd never have to worry about this. The same applies for batteries. The only problem is the stakes are much higher because PSUs don't contain components that store large amounts of energy.

You can draw too much current from a battery, which produces a lot of heat, which can do things to the chemicals in the battery to make it dangerous.

In terms of causing a fire... no comment....

So you're telling me you've never heard of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 battery "exploding" issues? Or the Gigabyte exploding PSUs?