Battery charging anomaly on an Alienware laptop

Try3 · Aug 17, 2026

QuicktellPro said:
appears to be working at full capacity

QuicktellPro said:
HWinfo says it is showing 8.2% wear

QuicktellPro said:
I am attaching a fresh battery report

Not full capacity. That latest battery report says 92%, which matches what HWInfo told you.
I think you can be pleased by 92% after 9 years just as I am pleased by my 86% after 8 years.

All the best,
Denis

Mooly · Aug 17, 2026

Helmut said:
e.g. my laptop is set to 80% charge, in which case it goes down to 75% and then charges up to 80% again. Currently it indicates 77% same as yesterday.

That is a an interesting scenario and something similar to one I adopted on my Dell. Charge points for me can be set in BIOS and I had full charge points of 85% and not to charge until it was at 60% or below in the belief that was better for the battery. Lithium cells actually do not like to sit at full charge as that is when most chemical degradation occurs, however......

What I found was the battery suffered. As it discharged in normal use the percentage and time remaining was as expected until perhaps 45% and then it fell rapidly, as much as 5 % in two or three minutes and very quickly reached critical levels. Nothing I tried recovered that situation and I ended up getting a new genuine battery.

I now have the charge point set to 100% but having reached full charge I then deliberately run a while on battery to bring it back down to say 80% and then resume my normal mains usage.

I suspect that what happens is that the cells making up the pack fail to 'balance' unless they fully charge every now and then and this leads to the problem. Cell balancing is nothing new but I hadn't quite appreciated how it occurs only in the last few percentage points of charging. It is managed by the inbuilt circuitry in the battery pack. If you don't fully charge then the cells fail to balance and eventually drift with one or more appearing to accept less charge than the others and that for one thing then sets the overall charge capacity of the pack.

Jorgen E · Aug 17, 2026

QuicktellPro said:
My current BIOS is v1.3.6

If that is the fact it is ancient

Most resent is 4 days old Version : 1.37.0

Support for Alienware Area-51m R2 | Drivers & Downloads | Dell Canada

QuicktellPro · Aug 17, 2026

Try3 said:
Not full capacity. That latest battery report says 92%, which matches what HWInfo told you.
I think you can be pleased by 92% after 9 years just as I am pleased by my 86% after 8 years.

Sorry, you got the laptops mixed up there, Denis. The Alienware is 6 years old. It's the MSI that is 9 years old. I have not run HWinfo nor done a battery report on the MSI.

QuicktellPro · Aug 17, 2026

Jorgen E said:
Alienware Area-51m R2 System BIOS | Driver Details | Dell Canada

The link you provided previously offers BIOS v1.3.5. Thanks for the new link to v1.3.7. Something that is curious though: I ran SupportAssist this morning and it said no software updates were available which is clearly wrong. I have downloaded v1.3.7 and will update it in a few minutes. Thanks once again, Jorgen.

Try3 · Aug 17, 2026

QuicktellPro said:
I ran SupportAssist this morning and it said no software updates were available

I suggest you:
- Go to Dell Drivers n downloads [multi-region link] - Dell
- Put in your Dell Service tag or tell it to analyse your connected-computer to discover the Service tag for itself.
- Bookmark the webpage it now shows you.
- You can choose to let it tell you automatically which updates are available or you can tell it you want to check for driver updates manually. I always check manually.
- It will now show you only those updates that apply to your specific computer [on the assumption that you have not changed any hardware since they sent it out]. If a driver is not shown in the list then don't install it.
- You can, for example, click on the Category input box to select to show just Bios updates.

Denis

HeavyHemi · Aug 17, 2026

Mooly said:
That is a an interesting scenario and something similar to one I adopted on my Dell. Charge points for me can be set in BIOS and I had full charge points of 85% and not to charge until it was at 60% or below in the belief that was better for the battery. Lithium cells actually do not like to sit at full charge as that is when most chemical degradation occurs, however......

What I found was the battery suffered. As it discharged in normal use the percentage and time remaining was as expected until perhaps 45% and then it fell rapidly, as much as 5 % in two or three minutes and very quickly reached critical levels. Nothing I tried recovered that situation and I ended up getting a new genuine battery.

I now have the charge point set to 100% but having reached full charge I then deliberately run a while on battery to bring it back down to say 80% and then resume my normal mains usage.

I suspect that what happens is that the cells making up the pack fail to 'balance' unless they fully charge every now and then and this leads to the problem. Cell balancing is nothing new but I hadn't quite appreciated how it occurs only in the last few percentage points of charging. It is managed by the inbuilt circuitry in the battery pack. If you don't fully charge then the cells fail to balance and eventually drift with one or more appearing to accept less charge than the others and that for one thing then sets the overall charge capacity of the pack.

You probably had a defective battery. Lithium ion batteries have the greatest longevity when operated in the range of 20-80% capacity. There's really is no such thing as balancing or conditioning cells in modern lithium batteries. The two key factors for longevity are total charge applied and temperature.
Numerous studies have shown that if you limit your charge to a maximum of 80% you can increase the lifetime of the cell up to 100%.

Try3 · Aug 17, 2026

HeavyHemi said:
Numerous studies have shown that if you limit your charge to a maximum of 80% you can increase the lifetime of the cell up to 100%.

Please would you post links to those studies.

Denis

QuicktellPro · Aug 17, 2026

Helmut said:
It is not in a permanent state of charging. It drops 5%, and then charges back up to 100%, a small charging cycle as it were. That small bit of charging is probably spaced by several days.

e.g. my laptop is set to 80% charge, in which case it goes down to 75% and then charges up to 80% again. Currently it indicates 77% same as yesterday.

It was stuck at 94% for 4 days and the Alien head power button showed the machine in a state of permanent charging. After using the battery down to 24% and then recharging, it went back to 100% and the Alien head stopped glowing red to yellow.

Laptop power button LEDs are rather a complex beast these days, you will need the manufacturers manual to see what the colours, flashing, dimming/brightening means.

All power button colour settings are user configured in the Alien FX section of Alienware Command Centre. Hence, it was I that set it to glow red to yellow when charging. There are, however, warnings that get displayed via the power button, and as you correctly pointed out, understanding what they mean requires referring to the troubleshooting section of the service manual.

I do appreciate your input Helmut and have taken on board several things you have told me about, so thanks for that.

QuicktellPro · Aug 17, 2026

Try3 said:
- It will now show you only those updates that apply to your specific computer [on the assumption that you have not changed any hardware since they sent it out]. If a driver is not shown in the list then don't install it.

I use this option occasionally although, in general, I find their SupportAssist tool does a good job. The page won't scan my machine because it says it is now out of warranty, but I can still access updates manually as you do. Everything shown in the list of updates for my machine is already installed.

Try3 · Aug 17, 2026

QuicktellPro said:
Everything shown in the list of updates for my machine is already installed.

Including the Bios?
If that 1.37 Bios is not listed then I do not think it is right for your computer.

Denis

Helmut · Aug 17, 2026

QuicktellPro said:
It was stuck at 94% for 4 days and the Alien head power button showed the machine in a state of permanent charging. After using the battery down to 24% and then recharging, it went back to 100% and the Alien head stopped glowing red to yellow.

That is of no consequence.
The battery is not permanently charging. If it was, it would result in high battery temperatures. Batteries have built in protection for overcharging, not dependent on the Windows percent indicator.

What has been established is the Battery has not been calibrated in a long time.

QuicktellPro · Aug 18, 2026

Try3 said:
Including the Bios?
If that 1.37 Bios is not listed then I do not think it is right for your computer.

Yes. After Jorgen pointed it out, I installed it straight away. It is listed for my service tag and the link Jorgen provided was for the Alienware Area-51m R2.

Mooly · Aug 18, 2026

HeavyHemi said:
You probably had a defective battery.

You could well be right on that. It was only 2.5 years old and had seen little normal battery use but had seen deliberate usage every few weeks to exercise the battery. Windows generated power reports showed it was 100% and had its full rated capacity but it really did drop off a cliff in run time once it got to that 40% or so figure.

Someone whose day job is working with and designing battery packs and charging circuitry for floor care products for a major manufacturer suggests cell balancing is normally started around the 50% level when on charge and that figure is fairly consistent in the industry. I thought it was occurring at the higher percentages nearer full charge but I'm wrong on that.

This thread prompted me to run on battery today:

HeavyHemi · Aug 18, 2026

Try3 said:
Please would you post links to those studies.

Denis

Tesla / Jeff Dahn (Dalhousie University, 2019–2020)

Jeff Dahn’s group at Dalhousie, in collaboration with Tesla, published multiple papers on single-crystal NMC cathodes and their degradation behavior. A key finding: cells held at 4.2V (100%) degraded measurably faster than cells held at 4.05V (roughly 70–80%). The difference in cycle life was not marginal — it was 2× or greater. The mechanism was electrolyte oxidation and transition-metal dissolution, both voltage-driven.

Reference: Dahn et al., Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 2020.

BU-808: How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries

Manufacturers take a conservative approach and specify the life of Li-ion in most consumer products as being between 300 and 500 discharge/charge cycles.…

www.batteryuniversity.com

Try3 · Aug 18, 2026

HeavyHemi said:
Tesla / Jeff Dahn (Dalhousie University, 2019–2020)

Jeff Dahn’s group at Dalhousie, in collaboration with Tesla, published multiple papers on single-crystal NMC cathodes and their degradation behavior. A key finding: cells held at 4.2V (100%) degraded measurably faster than cells held at 4.05V (roughly 70–80%). The difference in cycle life was not marginal — it was 2× or greater. The mechanism was electrolyte oxidation and transition-metal dissolution, both voltage-driven.

What is the title of that 'key finding' report?
I have not been able to trace it.

Denis

HeavyHemi · Aug 18, 2026

Try3 said:
What is the title of that 'key finding' report?
I have not been able to trace it.

Denis

Which one? Are you doubting the numerous studies over the last decade?

Try3 · Aug 18, 2026

HeavyHemi said:
Are you doubting the numerous studies over the last decade?

I have not been able to identify a single one since I started looking a decade ago.

HeavyHemi said:
Which one?

The one that contains, "A key finding: cells held at 4.2V (100%) degraded measurably faster than cells held at 4.05V (roughly 70–80%). The difference in cycle life was not marginal — it was 2× or greater.".
I assume that you have seen it since you seem to have quoted that sentence.
Or perhaps you were just quoting from that Cadex site?

Denis

HeavyHemi · Aug 18, 2026

Try3 said:
I have not been able to identify a single one since I started looking a decade ago.

I find it hard to believe in a decade you have not been able to locate a single study on the longevity of lithium ion batteries.

https://www.mdpi.com/2313-0105/11/4/127

Try3 · Aug 18, 2026

HeavyHemi said:
I find it hard to believe in a decade you have not been able to locate a single study on the longevity of lithium ion batteries

OK, I should have been more specific.
I have been searching for published experimental results indicating the relationship between charging level, depth of discharge & longevity [cycles].
What I keep finding is somebody else's advice on the subject without any cross-reference to the experimental results that validate that advice.
The same applies to the contrary advice I also found e.g. Dell support published an article saying that there was no benefit in limiting charging levels but did not identify the data that justified their opinion.

My own main computer's battery is normally connected to AC power. Its battery is seldom used for more than a few minutes. I charge it fully when I am back at my desk. It is 8 years old and has a 'health' [Current capacity / Design capacity] of 86%. I am satisfied with that.
When I bought this computer a decade ago, I was worried about how best to care for the battery since it was an internal one so I couldn't just buy several and swap them over whenever I felt like it. That's when I started looking for the data to substantiate any particular charging-usage policy.

I will study the report you linked me to [A Comprehensive Review on Lithium-Ion Battery Lifetime Prediction and Aging Mechanism Analysis].
I have found an apparently-complete list of Jeff Dahn's studies but have not yet found the particular report you mentioned.

Denis

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