Is It Over? Is My Zaurus Dead?

[niv]

Hi,
My 5500 is only two mounths old. Now I got all the software I notice that when I take it after a full charge (orange light goes off) I imdiatly get 33% marked in the battrey meter. It then holds for like 15 min - and shuts down.
I use a Wifi connect+ CF card. but even without it I still get only 20 min.
How would one test the battary, or the device?
I bought another battary that jolds 1800 mAh and got similer resaults.
Is it over?
must I RMA the unit?
Niv

[jomo]

Hi,
My 5500 is only two mounths old. Now I got all the software I notice that when I take it after a full charge (orange light goes off) I imdiatly get 33% marked in the battrey meter. It then holds for like 15 min - and shuts down.
I use a Wifi connect+ CF card. but even without it I still get only 20 min.
How would one test the battary, or the device?
I bought another battary that jolds 1800 mAh and got similer resaults.
Is it over?
must I RMA the unit?
Niv
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Your 5500 is probably much more than two months old, considering that Sharp stopped making them entirely about three years ago.  Did you buy it off of somebody on eBay or did you get it from an online dealer?  There are companies that are offering "refurbished" units, as I recall.  That means that your battery is probably dead, or close to dead.  The most likely repair option is to buy a new battery from Conics or Trisoft, depending on where you are.  There is a good probability that there are still "new" 5500 batteries lurking around that have never been out of the packaging.  That should get you back up and running.

[niv]

Thanks mate,
what are the odds that the unit is defected?
Bought it from computer-geeks as Refurbished.
Oh man, the 90 days warrenty ended two days ago!
why the hell didnt I used it more often?
Niv

[xamindar]

I remimber a few years ago there was talk about how the zaurus charges the battery.  It will charge the battery until it reads a certain voltage from it that indicates it is full.

Somehow it was possible that the Zaurus forgot the "battery full" voltage and was "set" to whatever the voltage of the battery was at the time.  So if the battery was dead when this happened for example the charge complete voltage would be set very low and therefor the Zaurus would not fully charge the battery any more.

I am pulling this all off the top of my head so if anyone on here knows more about what I am trying to say and how this issue was fixed please correct me.

I find it hard to believe that the battery is actually dead as they seem to last pretty long.  My 5600 battery is still going strong and it's been in heavy use for over a year and a half.

[icruise]

Amazon has new batteries for around $40 if that is indeed the problem. It wouldn't surprise me if the battery was close to being worn out, especially since the original poster has no idea how many charge cycles his battery has been through.