Dell "Charger too small" workarounds?

[ALyons]

Hi all,

sometime around Jan 15-20 this year a message started popping up on my Dell Precision M4800 stating that the 130w power supply I had plugged in was under the recommended 180w and in short it was going to throttle system performans/not charge etc. (I think I might have done a BIOS update around the time but can't remember if it was before or after the issue and a rollback to the previous version doesn't fix the issue). I have been running said 130w charger for the 2ish years i have had the system, (and it is a 130w charger not an error). The performance has been throttled (cpu running at constant 300MHz out of 2.7GHz+ cpu) which I have gotten around using throttlestop. However the charging circuit also seems to be somehow being affected, battery now taking 2-3 hours to charge 5% if in use- 1-1.5 for a full charge if not turned on.
If anyone could help me get around this without shelling out $100 and lugging around a bigger charger for what seems to be some form of Dell forced upgrade stunt it would be most appreciated.
I don't see how a laptop with

 

[TMTOWTSAC]

The charger could be going bad. It does happen, they can lose efficiency over time same as PSU's. That can cause a lower output, but more likely power fluctuations. Once it deviates too far from spec the laptop circuitry would kick in like you're seeing.

That's not to say it's definitely the charger. It could also be something in the laptop's circuitry too. Ideally you'd be able to test a replacement charger before committing to buying one to rule out other possibilities. Or use your charging cable on another Precision.

 

[ALyons]

Turns out my BIOS was in fact really out of date and got updated alongside a whole heap of drivers and threshold has increased to 180w. I did try another 130w charger which had the same issue, then borrowed a 180w one which returned everything to normal.

Thanks for the reply through