Battery charging anomaly on an Alienware laptop


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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.
 

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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.
 

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Windows 11Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10900K CPU @ 3.70GHz32,0 GBNvidia GeForce RTX2080 Super
OS
Windows 11
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Alienware A51M R2
CPU
Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10900K CPU @ 3.70GHz
Memory
32,0 GB
Graphics Card(s)
Nvidia GeForce RTX2080 Super
Sound Card
Realtek
Screen Resolution
4K
Hard Drives
2TB (2x 1TB PCle M.2 SSD) RAID 0 [Boot] + 2TB (2x 1TB
PCle M.2 SSD) Non-Raid [Storage]
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.
 

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Windows 11Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10900K CPU @ 3.70GHz32,0 GBNvidia GeForce RTX2080 Super
OS
Windows 11
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Alienware A51M R2
CPU
Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10900K CPU @ 3.70GHz
Memory
32,0 GB
Graphics Card(s)
Nvidia GeForce RTX2080 Super
Sound Card
Realtek
Screen Resolution
4K
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2TB (2x 1TB PCle M.2 SSD) RAID 0 [Boot] + 2TB (2x 1TB
PCle M.2 SSD) Non-Raid [Storage]
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
 

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Windows 11 Home x64 Version 25H2 Build 26200....
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Windows 11 Home x64 Version 25H2 Build 26200.8037
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%.
 

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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
 

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Windows 11 Home x64 Version 25H2 Build 26200....
OS
Windows 11 Home x64 Version 25H2 Build 26200.8037
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. 😉
 

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Windows 11Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10900K CPU @ 3.70GHz32,0 GBNvidia GeForce RTX2080 Super
OS
Windows 11
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Alienware A51M R2
CPU
Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10900K CPU @ 3.70GHz
Memory
32,0 GB
Graphics Card(s)
Nvidia GeForce RTX2080 Super
Sound Card
Realtek
Screen Resolution
4K
Hard Drives
2TB (2x 1TB PCle M.2 SSD) RAID 0 [Boot] + 2TB (2x 1TB
PCle M.2 SSD) Non-Raid [Storage]
- 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.
 

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Windows 11Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10900K CPU @ 3.70GHz32,0 GBNvidia GeForce RTX2080 Super
OS
Windows 11
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Alienware A51M R2
CPU
Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10900K CPU @ 3.70GHz
Memory
32,0 GB
Graphics Card(s)
Nvidia GeForce RTX2080 Super
Sound Card
Realtek
Screen Resolution
4K
Hard Drives
2TB (2x 1TB PCle M.2 SSD) RAID 0 [Boot] + 2TB (2x 1TB
PCle M.2 SSD) Non-Raid [Storage]
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
 

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Windows 11 Home x64 Version 25H2 Build 26200....
OS
Windows 11 Home x64 Version 25H2 Build 26200.8037
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.
 

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Windows 11
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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.
 

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Windows 11Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10900K CPU @ 3.70GHz32,0 GBNvidia GeForce RTX2080 Super
OS
Windows 11
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Alienware A51M R2
CPU
Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10900K CPU @ 3.70GHz
Memory
32,0 GB
Graphics Card(s)
Nvidia GeForce RTX2080 Super
Sound Card
Realtek
Screen Resolution
4K
Hard Drives
2TB (2x 1TB PCle M.2 SSD) RAID 0 [Boot] + 2TB (2x 1TB
PCle M.2 SSD) Non-Raid [Storage]
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:

Screenshot 2026-08-18 094604.webp
 

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W11 Pro x64 ongoing Canary 29500 latest buildsIntel i58GbIntel HD Graphics
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W11 Pro x64 ongoing Canary 29500 latest builds
Computer type
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Manufacturer/Model
Dell 7760 Mobile Precision 17"
CPU
Intel i5
Motherboard
Unknown
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8Gb
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Intel HD Graphics
Sound Card
Realtek
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