- Oct 4, 2021
- 1
- 0
- 10
Hey Guys. Thanks for looking!
I've spent months off and on searching for answers for this. Here's the basic breakdown and what's been done.
AlienWare 17R3 - Out of extended warranty ~ 6 months ago. BIOS shows version 1.13.1 6/10/21 - However may not have been completed -- see below.
Windows 10 Home 19043.1237
Battery went from low capacity to permanent failure message on OS launch. I called Dell for some other issues as my warrantee was running out. They said that they wouldn't give me a new one, but since the service tech was coming out anyway, if I bought one, they would put it in.
Battery was replaced, but if I unplugged the computer to use it, or booted it on battery, WHEA Uncorrectable error would occur.
Replaced battery again. Same issue. Figured out that if I closed the lid on the computer, then unplugged, then pressed the power to bring it out of ?sleep/hibernation? that would work fine. Was thinking some sort of driver or power controller issue, so I started down the troubleshooting rabbit hole again. Somewhere -- ID10T I know, I didn't write down where I found it, figured I could locate in history later, turns out I can't, and also didn't export the key seemed to be a small logical change at the time -- I found a list of things to test like changing power/sleep settings, and this registry key change. This did not work. I thought that it 'just' didn't work. As it turns out, after these changes closing the lid or tapping my power button didn't do the same thing anymore. Instead of turning off the screen, and the backlit keys so I could tap the power and bring it back up, it would basically turn off the screen, the power button would go red and backlit keys stay backlit. Another issue with that is, it seems to only want to turn the screen back on from this state about 40% of the time. The rest of the time I have to hard boot, and even if the screen does come back up -- WHEA Urecoverable if on battery. So I've made it worse.
I thought at this point, okay, must be some difference now between settings on sleep/hibernation/ whatever, but I can only find 'sleep' and 'turn off' options in power. It didn't totally power down when I could get that method to work before, so I start looking around for info to enable hibernation on 10 -- I was on Linux for a few years, I'm behind on some stuff post 7 admittedly -- doesn't look like that's an option on mine.
So I have been dealing with that for about a month now trying to find what I did to undo it at least, or figure out how to fix, then today my friggin battery goes 'Permanent Failure' again. Yay. I look at the health report, and it doesn't show much activity past about a week ago, which is about the time it started just dying immediately when unplugged (forgot to mention) although the permanent failure didn't show until today that I saw. I tried resetting BIOS -- because this battery is only 3 months old, and it's the second to do this. Battery report shows still had 70+ish percent capacity as of a week ago. Tried to update BIOS -- I ran the utility, it did the reboot thing, I ran it again because it said to, and it said it can't flash without 10% battery, so try again when your battery is charged - ha. It does show the 2021 and not the 2020 battery version now though.
Please help. I know this computer is a few years old now, but for the most part it still runs like a beast for everything I need it for, and I am really banging my head up against this one. Been out of the Windows game a while, I do mostly web work from Linux now but I don't want to have to retire my baby just yet and I need to get this damned thing back on battery. Thank you~!!
I've spent months off and on searching for answers for this. Here's the basic breakdown and what's been done.
AlienWare 17R3 - Out of extended warranty ~ 6 months ago. BIOS shows version 1.13.1 6/10/21 - However may not have been completed -- see below.
Windows 10 Home 19043.1237
Battery went from low capacity to permanent failure message on OS launch. I called Dell for some other issues as my warrantee was running out. They said that they wouldn't give me a new one, but since the service tech was coming out anyway, if I bought one, they would put it in.
Battery was replaced, but if I unplugged the computer to use it, or booted it on battery, WHEA Uncorrectable error would occur.
Replaced battery again. Same issue. Figured out that if I closed the lid on the computer, then unplugged, then pressed the power to bring it out of ?sleep/hibernation? that would work fine. Was thinking some sort of driver or power controller issue, so I started down the troubleshooting rabbit hole again. Somewhere -- ID10T I know, I didn't write down where I found it, figured I could locate in history later, turns out I can't, and also didn't export the key seemed to be a small logical change at the time -- I found a list of things to test like changing power/sleep settings, and this registry key change. This did not work. I thought that it 'just' didn't work. As it turns out, after these changes closing the lid or tapping my power button didn't do the same thing anymore. Instead of turning off the screen, and the backlit keys so I could tap the power and bring it back up, it would basically turn off the screen, the power button would go red and backlit keys stay backlit. Another issue with that is, it seems to only want to turn the screen back on from this state about 40% of the time. The rest of the time I have to hard boot, and even if the screen does come back up -- WHEA Urecoverable if on battery. So I've made it worse.
I thought at this point, okay, must be some difference now between settings on sleep/hibernation/ whatever, but I can only find 'sleep' and 'turn off' options in power. It didn't totally power down when I could get that method to work before, so I start looking around for info to enable hibernation on 10 -- I was on Linux for a few years, I'm behind on some stuff post 7 admittedly -- doesn't look like that's an option on mine.
So I have been dealing with that for about a month now trying to find what I did to undo it at least, or figure out how to fix, then today my friggin battery goes 'Permanent Failure' again. Yay. I look at the health report, and it doesn't show much activity past about a week ago, which is about the time it started just dying immediately when unplugged (forgot to mention) although the permanent failure didn't show until today that I saw. I tried resetting BIOS -- because this battery is only 3 months old, and it's the second to do this. Battery report shows still had 70+ish percent capacity as of a week ago. Tried to update BIOS -- I ran the utility, it did the reboot thing, I ran it again because it said to, and it said it can't flash without 10% battery, so try again when your battery is charged - ha. It does show the 2021 and not the 2020 battery version now though.
Please help. I know this computer is a few years old now, but for the most part it still runs like a beast for everything I need it for, and I am really banging my head up against this one. Been out of the Windows game a while, I do mostly web work from Linux now but I don't want to have to retire my baby just yet and I need to get this damned thing back on battery. Thank you~!!
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