PW7015L Power Companion With Dell XPS 9510/9520?

Try3 said:

Once again, you expect us to put ourselves out to help you but you won't get off your butt for five minutes to help yourself.

I have told you who to ask, I have told you what method to use to get in contact with them. They should answer all your questions about the PW7018LC.

Backup Power Options for Laptop When Power Outage? - ElevenForum [started 14th October 2022]
Dell XPS 15 9520 Powerbank - ElevenForum [started 12th October 2022]
Dell XPS 9520 Powerbank Options - BCForum [started 11th October 2022]
PW7015L Power Companion With Dell XPS 9510/9520 - TenForums [this one, started 31st August 2022]
And you kept repeating the same questions in similarly interminable threads such as Battery Backup For Laptop When Power Outage? - TenForums [4th October 2018 - 1st October 2019]



Denis

I was told it should work. I asked them this and they were checking and then said it should work because it is usb-c. But how are they finding this out? Isn't the information they are looking for on the dell website?

Try3 said:

I assume that your new questions are rhetorical.
I do not have any inside knowledge about what information sources Dell support uses.

Look at your power adapter. It will tell you what current it can supply and at what voltage.
Look at the specs for the PW7018LC. It must supply the correct voltage and be capable of supplying at least the same current as your power adapter if it is to be compatible with your computer.

Merely having the same USB-C connection is not enough.


Denis

My dell xps 15 9520 has a 130W power adapter like every single xps 15 laptop.


Where do you check the voltage exactly on the power charger?


The PW7018LC supplies 65W.


When I used the dell xps 15 9550, it has same 130W power adapter. The PW7015L supplied only 65W but it was no issue with the old laptop as it would slow charge.


My concern though is someone mentioned that the dell xps 15 9520 requires minimum 90W in order for it to charge. I have zero idea where that person found that information and not sure if that is true or not. I then spoke to dell support and they told me this PW7018LC should work with the xps 15 9520 because it uses usb-c.

It shows on the back of the xps 9520 below. Does that mean the minimum is 90W? I also just bought the PW7018LC and received it.


Dell Input: 20V = 4.5A/6.5A




Bought and tested the dell pw7018lc usb-c powerbank now. Had to first charge it for few hours. When i plugged it into the usb c port on my xps 9520 laptop, message pops up bottom right corner



Battery saver

Slow charger

To speed up charging, use the charger that came with the device




Now on the bottom right icon with the battery, there is always like a black exclamation mark there no matter what it seems. it only says plugged in... but doesn't say charging. My old xps with the barrel powerbank showed plugged in and charging. However, it does seem to charge the laptop battery. Am using the laptop at same time as well. However, the poker site i am testing on... doesn't use my 3050 graphics card and only using the intel iris xe graphics card. i normally play lot of tables at once so i use my laptop pretty aggressively, but here am testing just one table which means my cpu usage is like 5% only where normally its much more than this.. same with the ram . That non-us poker site that i normally play on does use the graphics card. But as long as it does slow charge right now, then it should work fine right? i can't test this while in the us.



My other concern is when i connect the powerbank to my laptop battery at around 70%... after about 50 minutes, it already is down to 1 light out of the 5 lights. Battery went up from 70% to around 97% as of right now as i type this. So does this sound about right? Seems like it last max an hour before it goes from 5 to 0 lights. But then again i gained 27% in battery increase so that is about right? Not only that... if i am using my laptop normally when i am playing and using lot of cpu and ram, possible this goes out in half hour or so?



With my old xps 9550 and that pw7015 barrel powerbank, i remember people said the moment you have a power outage even if your laptop battery is at 100%, always connect the powerbank first and use it up and then use your laptop battery last. People mentioned if you let your laptop battery go down to 10% and then use the powerbank, it would use up even more power. That is true right? i use to let laptop battery drain first before powerbank back at first.. So back with the old xps and barrel powerbank, i use the powerbank when laptop battery at 100%, then i remember it took between 1 hour 30 minute to 1 hour 45 minutes before it went out. So would that be similar to what i just did now? Surprise how fast it went to one light.

- - - Updated - - -

The xps 15 9520 power adapter reads something like this.


Dell Output 5.0V = 1.0A/5.0W, 20.0V = 6.5A/130.0W

Input 100-240V-1.8A 50-60Hz

Try3 said:

If that's what the original power supply adapter produces then that's what the computer needs to be able to run itself and recharge its battery.

I am not at all surprised that you are finding limitations using that lower power supply [the powerbank].

Denis

That is what is posted on the dell xps 15 9520 adapter. So what do those numbers mean exactly? It means 130W is the default but do those numbers say what is the minimum W requirement? What does the 5.0V and 1.0A/5.W mean?


Well I wanted to know if this PW7018LC which gives 65W would even work. I am well aware it would not be charging normally... but could it charge is the question because someone mentioned it required minimum 90W. I thought it wouldn't even give it any charge.
Does that make sense?


So based on that test I did, the 65W does work then right? But it slow charging? There is nothing wrong with that right?

Try3 said:

The ratings shown on your existing power adapter show what it is designed to supply - 6.5Amps at 20Volts [6.5A x 20V =130Watts].
Your existing power adapter is designed to supply what your computer is designed to need.
So your computer needs 6.5Amps at 20Volts [=130Watts].
Current [amps] times voltage [volts] equals power [Watts].

It is quite possible that the label on the computer saying 4.5A/6.5A means that it needs
4.5Amp at 20Volts
to power the computer and
6.5Amp at 20Volts
to both power it & charge it at the same time.
Since the PW7018LC powerbank supplies 20Volts, 65Watts then it is capable of supplying 3.5Amps which is less than that minimum 4.5Amps on your computer label.
So you might even find that there are some power hungry activities on your computer that will fail to run properly when you are using the powerbank.

It's not a "default", it's what it does.

Your PW7018LC powerbank is not supplying enough current & hence not enough power.
- Your Dell, like all Dells, checks the specs of its power supply and warns you if it is not up to the total job of powering the computer & charging the battery.
- Many Dells have a setting in Bios to suppress that warning message. But you'd need to remember the warning & adjust your expectations accordingly when using the powerbank.

It's not the end of the world.
- I am deliberately abusing the specs of one computer with the result that it is losing about 1% of charge every hour even when plugged in. So I have to leave it plugged in for a while after turning off or hibernating the computer to let its battery charge fully. It's worth it because the additional [power-hungry] disk I've added to it is of great benefit.
- In your case, you are just trying to keep using your computer for longer when there is no mains power. It will do so to some extent as long as you don't expect both power & charging at the same time.

The 1Ampt at 5Volts output is its USB-A connection for charging phones, [many] tablets & other low power devices.
- My own tablet would not cope with that. It demands 3.5Amps at 5Volts.

I imagine that all this is what Dell have told you already.

Denis

Thanks for the long response. Well during my test, I couldn't test my laptop how I normally do it where I use it very aggressively and also use the nvidia 3050 video card. But when I use my laptop aggressively with the 3050 later on, you are saying there is a chance the powerbank won't even charge at all? Again I cannot test my laptop in normal conditions because I am in the US right now.


Well my old xps 15 9550 also had a 130W charger as well. I took a look at the back of it and it shows below. So is that literally almost the same then? Because when I used my old barrel PW7015L with the old xps 15 9550, it still charged at the 65W it went.
So basically that barrel powerbank wasn't supplying enough power either right similar to like right now with the new powerbank wit the xps 15 9520?

Dell Output 19.5V = 6.67A

Input 100-240V-1.8A 50-60Hz


But it is still same to continue using this new PW7018LC powerbank with my xps 15 9520 right? Is there any issue where it can cause damage to my new laptop? I will only use it when I need to... such as when power outage... and/or when I just need to if my laptop battery is low.