Non-Beastly External Battery for Beastly Laptop [Product Help]

VanDroid

Commendable
Oct 5, 2016
4
0
1,510
So I recently acquired a beastly laptop for work. It has a 4k Screen, 32gbs of Ram, 4TB(ish) of SSD space and an equally beefy processor (Remarkable given that it's only slightly thicker than a Macbook). Now, with creative under-volting and an aggressive power management scheme I've managed to extend it's puny 67kwh battery into giving me about ~5 to 5.5hrs of battery life with light productivity/development.

I'd like to add a bit more to that, I'm not expecting MacBook levels of battery life obviously, I'd be happy with one or two extra hours. The issue that I'm running into is "the beast" has an 180w power brick that's always drawing 180w. (well 179.8w to be exact) From what I have seen most external power blocks that can fit into a laptop messenger bag cap out at 120w, so I'd trip their safety system.

So I thought, well maybe I can plug a battery right into "the beast" as it does not appear to be a proprietary power connectior...no dice, It talks to its power brick. I don't know what it's saying. But if it doesn't like the handshake it get's back, it doesn't accept the charge.

So I was hoping the Tom's hardware community might have stumbled across a product I might have missed in my current scouring of Amazon/Ebay/Alibaba.

Thanks in advance!
 

VanDroid

Commendable
Oct 5, 2016
4
0
1,510


I was afraid that was going to be the answer, I was looking at the Lifepower A2 L 99wh.

It caps out at 120w Though.
Turns out my brick isn't as "rigid" as I thought it was, turns out I needed some of the Bloatware I got rid of out of habit when I got the new machine. On high power, charging the battery, while doing some productivity/development it's pulling around 89-99 watts...But does occasionally spike to 121...126...139, etc.

Makes me wonder if I could get away with one of those batteries. What do you think?
 
I doubt it would work, that is a pretty hefty power rating for a portable battery pack, then then again it's over $300 and still only puts out 100 watts. It may be OK to trickle charge the laptop though to get you more power. But could also damage the power brick, the battery pack or maybe even the charging port/circuit on the laptop.
 

VanDroid

Commendable
Oct 5, 2016
4
0
1,510


That last part definitely makes me take pause, the brick's cheap to replace from the manufacturer (compared to the laptop), the battery/charging circuit I doubt would be as forgiving. Thank you for the input!
 


I usually ask people that want to mod or do something unusual to their laptops, do you want your laptop running well as it is, or do you want a 10% faster laptop when you have a chance of killing it during the attempted upgrade LOL A working laptop is better than a faster dead one.
 

VanDroid

Commendable
Oct 5, 2016
4
0
1,510
So I have good news! I decided to reach out to Life-Power directly, (I really think this could help others since I see a few other external Laptop battery) questions. We spoke back and forth about the Laptop, then they directed me to a tool on Amazon and asked me to order it. this one (http://a.co/gENh0fC)

Then asked me to stress test my laptop for a few days while recording the readings. Which I did. Turns out, my "brick" isn't as dumb as I thought nor is the "beast" as power hungry as I thought. Even on High Power mode, charging as long as I don't engage the GPU, it's only pulling about 85 watts Well within the limits of the battery. (Most batteries actually) It was only when the GPU was engaged did the power drain spike above 120w.

After providing them the information, they explained that likely the absolute worst case scenario would be the battery would shut itself off when the GPU was engaged and I'd have to turn it back on when the GPU disengaged.

But given your suggestion that It may damage the laptop, I reached out to the computer's manufacturer and discussed it with their Technical Support team. They explained that the power brick's main "bulk" came from it's built in surge protector and other safety features. They further went on, when I provided them with the same data that I provided to Life-Power was "As long as you use your computer's brick as the medium to charge, and not a third party adapter. Worst case is you'll trickle charge."

Given all the posts about external batteries, I really think this could help. I've got to give a big shout out to Life Power and their customer service, they went above and beyond to make sure their product would work for my needs. It's going to arrive next week!