When the AC adapter is connected and the computer is under a heavy loading environment, the Alienware, Precision, or Dell G series laptops may show 5% of battery discharge/hr. When the battery capacity is low, then system throttling can be encountered instead.
Heavy loading example: Where heavy loading games (e.g. PUBG -PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS) + external devices are plugged in (e.g. Gaming mouse + Gaming keyboard + Headset).
When the computer is under extreme heavy loading, then battery drain may be seen (i.e. discharge of > 5% in one hour). If you are encountering this symptom, but your computer is not under extreme heavy loading, treat these as possible scenarios of battery issues and troubleshoot those issues as per the standard process.
Extreme heavy loading example: Where heavy loading games (e.g. PUBG -PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS) + external devices are plugged (e.g. Gaming mouse + Gaming keyboard + Headset + External Monitor + 2 Extra USB devices such as phones, iPads)
Battery discharge is an expected behavior of hybrid design on the Alienware, Precision, and Dell G Series Laptops.
The design intent of Hybrid Power is to allow the Alienware, Precision, and Dell G Series Laptops to maintain full system performance under extreme heavy loading conditions. It does this by allowing power to be drawn from system battery for up to 5%/hr with the AC adapter plugged in.
Under a heavy loading environment, the computer may be stressed to pull more power than the designed system power profiles allow for. In order to accommodate the additional power needs under heavy loading, the battery will be triggered to provide additional amounts of power to the computer. This occurs without throttling the performance. Due to this you may experience slight drops of the battery capacity (up to 5%/hr) even when the AC adapter is connected. If and when the remaining battery capacity is lower than 20%, then Hybrid Power will be disabled to prevent further battery drop and potential system performance issues (stuttering/lagging/throttling) may be seen.
It prevents system throttling: Without hybrid design, when the system power needs more than just AC adapter power, then the system will throttle due to lack of power. With hybrid design, it prevents system throttling (Until the battery capacity drops below 20%), by using power from the battery to support additional power needs by the system.
It protects the battery: When the battery reaches 100% charged and the AC adapter is plugged in, then the battery will stop charging as this helps to prevent the battery from constantly charging/discharging, which impacts battery life. The battery will resume charging once the battery has dropped to 94%.
| Battery Capacity | Note |
|---|---|
| 100% ~ 94% | Hybrid power function is enabled |
| Battery capacity will drop during heavy loading | |
| 94% ~ 20% | Hybrid power function is enabled |
| Battery capacity will stop dropping after a drop of 5% battery capacity during heavy loading | |
| Less than 20% | Hybrid power function is disabled |
| The system will throttle during heavy loading and may cause performance issues |
Here are some recommended articles related to this topic that might be of interest to you.