Alienware 17r4 RAM Mystery. Any explanations?

[Jobaer Noor]

So recently I noticed that the battery of my Alienware 17R4 swelled up as it pushed the touchpad and right palm rest area up. Also, the GPU was throttling while on load. I ran a full diagnostics test from Dell website which showed decreased battery capacity. Then I turned it off and when tried to turn on, the power button was blinking in 4 blue & 2 red patterns indicating RAM failure.

 

I tried turning the laptop on using both the RAMs separately but it was showing the same RAM failure patterns.

The next day I bought a new RAM and the laptop successfully booted up with it.

Then, just out of curiosity I used the old RAMs with the new one and surprisingly one of them were detected and the other one showed the RAM failure pattern.
Today I tried that RAM again and surprisingly both of them are operational!

Can anyone please tell me why weren't they working in the beginning but started working with the new RAM? Is there a problem in the motherboard or is there some other issue?

 

Also, since this battery is all swelled up and I removed it, I'm trying to game only with the power adapter until the replacement battery arrives. But seems like I'm locked at 60fps while on high-performance mode.

To be sure I connected the swelled up battery from outside and was getting well over 120fps. Is it normal that I can't get over 60fps without the battery or is there some settings I can tweak to get over 120fps? Or is there any problem with the power adapter? Need answers badly!

TIA

[ApolloX75]

Alienware laptops draw supplementary power from the battery in combination with the power adapter when running full tilt, that is why you will see battery drain during heavy use when plugged in. So yes, that part is completely normal. My 15 R3 behaves the same way and I thought it was a problem until I did a little research.

 

As for you RAM mystery that's a strange bug. I would keep using the new RAM and not trust the older sticks to keep functioning for long.

[Jobaer Noor]

Thanks for the answer! I was worried if the power adapter was defective thinking which is why the battery got all swelled up in the first place. Another thing I noticed is that they ship the laptops with two different kinds of power adapters. One is from Flextronics which is plain and another one is from Dell which has stripes on it (Pictures added). I bought the laptop from BestBuy and it came with a Flextronics adapter. No clue why do they do it!

On that note, I checked Dell website for ordering the replacement battery and didn't find any. But there was a 330W power adapter. If I used that instead of my 240W one would that harm the laptop/battery? I wanna believe that its the Flextronics adapter that made the battery to swell up in the first place, not overcharging :')

[ApolloX75]

As far as I know switching to a bigger supply will not hurt the battery in any way, and may or may not allow you to bypass the battery for the extra performance. Really depends on how they designed the power delivery system, and it's definitely something worth checking out. I doubt the power supply itself is bad, the battery may have had a defect. Are you still under warranty?

[Jobaer Noor]

No, the warranty for battery and adapter is only 1 year. Even if I renewed/ extended the warranty, it wouldn't cover the battery and the adapter. Faced another problem while finding the order. Dell only has refurbished batteries in store and they're unsure if a new one will be available any time soon. I doubt there will be since they're using different batteries for the Area 51m.

Also, the price of the refurbished battery is $125.91 with tax. I've found cheaper ones in Amazon & PartsPeople. Can you check which one would be better? The links are below:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07G65Z4K1/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3HF2Y9FOBJA51&psc=1

 

https://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=23858

[ApolloX75]

Having experience buying batteries from third parties, I can honestly say it's 100% a crap shoot. You either get a fantastic battery that lasts as long or longer than the original, or you get a dud that lasts thirty seconds. Now both Parts People and the Amazon battery have one year warranty, so I'd say either one is safe to go with, but the Parts People one might be easier to deal with in the long run. Also both look like they are OEM batteries so I'd say you're relatively safe.