Dell XPS 17 9700 facing worrying charging issues, drops from 100 percent to 65 percent battery while “recharging”

[Mike R]

A user on Reddit supposedly has a unit that does not have this issue. Apparently I can't post links, but you can start with the Dell subreddit and then add this string to the end of the URL:

/comments/hsi2yd/dell_xps_17_battery_drain_must_read_now/

However, Dell's own support page on this issue, updated today, makes no mention of the wattage discrepancy. Again, can't post links. but the article number is sln322189. Searching their support site will take you right there.

I cancelled an order over this. I would love if they would make some kind of official statement about the results of the investigation in their last update.

[Tierney]

Can you, Allen or Notebookcheck, confirm that you have not heard from Dell since July 11th - and no official statement from Dell?

[voltoptimus]

I was informed by Dell yesterday, after two weeks of escalation and sharing this article and my own findings (my unit only pulls 106W at the outlet, uses an average of 125-130W under load, drains about 15 % an hour), that the laptop is operating as designed and there is nothing they can do. I don't accept this response.

[Lineal]

That is, the limited akku-cycles are counted down.

[Andreas r]

I was informed by Dell yesterday, after two weeks of escalation and sharing this article and my own findings (my unit only pulls 106W at the outlet, uses an average of 125-130W under load, drains about 15 % an hour), that the laptop is operating as designed and there is nothing they can do. I don't accept this response.

Ask Dell why all xps 15 and some 17 is pulling 130-135 watts from the adapter?

[Dennis07]

Does anybody know if the Dell thunderbold Dock WD19TB with 180w power is a solution? Or is the USB C Port limiting ?

[Sterlinger]

is it a Dual-C Thunderbolt Dock? I have no idea, is it even possible to use two TB ports parallel for charging / as power supply?

[Phil Laurent]

To reply to Dennis07 : I have the WD19TB - 180w power adapter and the battery drain is also present with this USB-C Docking station.
Also plug two adapters the WD19TB and the 130w default adapter don't change anything because only the first plugged adapter is recognized.

[tom5576]

Have you tried swapping the power supplies? My best guess would be a firmware issue in the XPS 17 - it probably doesn't identify the power supply correctly as their own proprietary 130 W and instead behaves like it's an ordinary 100 W supply.

definitely has to be firmware related, unlike the BS i just read at pcworld: "Just got off the phone with support. CONFIRMED: the XPS 17 battery drain is a HARDWARE issue and NOT a firmware issue," HistoGraham wrote. "

have a 5576 here, replaced 130W with 240W, overclocked GPU pulls the most. no way to get more than 140W from wall with battery in, if i detach battery it goes up to 220W from wall.

in case of most dell laptops it is bq24780S in charge and there are suppose to be SMBus way of disabling hybrid power mode. at least one thing i could do via some dell battery software is prevent it from charging until next reboot - sure other commands that charger IC specifies in its datasheet would have an effect too

[CFH2020]

Won't allowing the battery to continually discharge also impact the longevity of the battery itself? 

[Pelleti]

I have these issues with the Dell XPS 17 9700. I got a Dell technician to change my motherboard, but the issue has not been solved.
There is a next step that seems to replace the motherboard with another one that will provide 25W for the processor instead of the original 45w, lowering the power of the processor to deal with tasks... unacceptable.