C-1000... Blinking Battery Light

[ArKay]

if you disconnect all power, take power out, wait 10s, insert battery, flick the switch back, hold D+M and turn on, do you get the D+M menu?
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Nope. No luck with that or the 'on' and 'OK' buttons either. Or with trying the same with the reset switch either.


But it does function fine & dandy with the battery from a C3000 (same battery model). The battery does _not_ power on the C3000 and has the same effect (charges for a bit then starts blinking.) So it's not the unit - it must be the battery.

The question is - does the blinking light indicate just a bad battery ? Is there a way (short of buying a new battery and crossing fingers) to check the charging circuit ? I'd hate to get a new battery and then have a bad charging circuit just trash it...

[speculatrix]

hmmm. if you take the good battery and put in it the suspect Z, will it charge it up, or does it run down?

[Stubear]

if you disconnect all power, take battery out, wait 10s, hold D+M and plug in the ac adapter, do you get the D+M menu?

Note: Don't put the battery back until after the D+M menu appears

Stu

[Antikx]

How about Fn + D + M

[speculatrix]

if you desolder the CPU, attach a PXA270 in circuit emulator and start from boot, where does it get stuck?

ok, only kidding.

[ArKay]

if you desolder the CPU, attach a PXA270 in circuit emulator and start from boot, where does it get stuck?

ok, only kidding.
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I've tried all the above. D+M, fn D+M, 'OK' plus On  with and without the battery (for all attempts) as well as trying all the same with the reset switch tripped as well. (sigh).
With the battery in the unit fails to come on. With the battery out the battery light just blinks.

I can't get my multimeter probes into the battery area so I couldn't tell you anything beyond that.

The owner of the C3000 is not keen on tossing his battery into the unit and seeing what happens as far as charging goes. It functions with it in there - but he doesn't want to run it don and see if it will charge. The 'bad' battery _does not_ charge in the 3000 either - so I'm guessing the battery is blown. Either used enough that it's dead or just gone.

For purposes of experimentation I've ordered a new generic cheap battery and will see how that works. (sigh) Now to wait the 2 weeks to get the battery.

Is the fuse easy to see when disassembled and easy to tell if it's blown ? I'd be willing to look as long as disassembly is pretty easy...

Any other ideas guys ?

WAIT !

>If you disconnect all power, take battery out, wait 10s, hold D+M and plug in the ac adapter, do >you get the D+M menu?

>Note: Don't put the battery back until after the D+M menu appears

>Stu

YES!    

I do get the menu... as stupid as this newbie question will sound... now what ?

[pelrun]

You'll have to buy a new battery no matter what; ebay has some decent clones quite cheap (I got one for under $20.) It's obvious your old one is dead.

The Z won't be the culprit; LiIon batteries only have a limited lifespan. LiIon batteries can also die if they're left completely flat for several months. (lifespan is maximised if the battery is left at 40% charge when unused for long periods.)

Putting a good battery into a Z with a damaged charging circuit won't harm it, guaranteed, because the charging circuit isn't truly damaged, it's just *disconnected completely* from the battery. The Z is explicitly designed to instantly fail that way on polarity reversal to protect the battery. Fuses are cheaper, after all.

Of course, you would just have to shut the Z down and take the battery out to put it in an external charger every day. Or get some replacement fuses and repair the Z. Z users have successfully done each with no ill-effect on the battery.

[Stubear]

WAIT !

>If you disconnect all power, take battery out, wait 10s, hold D+M and plug in the ac adapter, do >you get the D+M menu?

>Note: Don't put the battery back until after the D+M menu appears

>Stu

YES!   

I do get the menu... as stupid as this newbie question will sound... now what ?
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Now you should be able to put your battery back in, close the cover and switch it back to lock. Then on page 2 of the D+M menu (use the up/down buttons to change pages) there are 3 items related to battery: 5. low battery, 6. Batt Voltage Adjust and 10. Charge

5. Low Battery - shows the current Battery voltage and some other info
6. Batt Voltage Adjust - takes you to another page that gives you
 1. Battery Voltage Adj
 2. Battery Voltage Check
These allow you to play with the battery voltage, but I've lost my reference that had info on how to use them  Maybe someone else can help. Beware of the adj option you can do some weird things to your battery with that.
10. Charge - takes you to a screen with 3 small boxes and 1 large boxes - the small boxes are "Full", "Half" and "Off" and the large box says "Exit". Clicking on the small boxes turns the charge light on/off and from memory charges the battery to Full or Half level - again I'm working from memory here.

Sorry I can't be more helpful, but hopefully this will be of some help (and possibly searching the forums will give you more useful advice)

Stu

[ArKay]

Sorry I can't be more helpful, but hopefully this will be of some help (and possibly searching the forums will give you more useful advice)

Stu
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Sadly the forum search (and lack of finding anything about blinking battery lights) is what spawned the question.

Well, I currently have it on 'Full' charge - the blinking hasn't started and the battery voltage (as noted by one of the other menu options seems to be increasing. I guess I'll know what's up i a couple of hours...

If it looks like the battery won't charge - and the new one doesn't I guess it's time to see what else can be done.

Thanks to everybody for the help.

[Drake01]

I can't get my multimeter probes into the battery area so I couldn't tell you anything beyond that.
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In the past, I've tested operating voltage, amperage, etc., by using aluminum foil.  

If you are checking voltage between two separate contacts, you can:
* cut narrow strips of aluminum foil
* insert a strip between the battery contact and the Zaurus contact
* repeat for the other contact(s)
* run the foil strips to the outside of the battery compartment, ensuring that they will not touch each other
* carefully close the battery cover, such that you do not damage the foil
* I usually use tape to hold the foil in place at this point
* take measurements off the foil

I've also checked amperage this way by using scotch tape as an insulator between two strips of foil stacked together: Foil-Tape-Foil.  I believe what I actually did was Foil-Tape-Foil-Tape, using the second piece of tape to secure and insulate the second piece of foil because the tape was wider than the foil.  Leave an uninsulated spot on the end that you insert between the battery and Zaurus contacts so that you have one piece of foil "extending" the battery contact, and the other piece of foil "extending" the Zaurus contact.  Use your multimeter to complete the circuit and measure the (milli)amps.

I haven't tried this on my Zaurus, but it worked well on my PalmOS PDA.

[pelrun]

1. Battery Voltage Adj
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Careful with this one! It sets the "high-water-mark" for charging to the *current* level of the battery. So if you select this with a half-full battery in the Z it will only ever charge the battery to half full from that point on. So do it with a full battery!

I think you can get the Z to charge beyond it if you leave it in the DM menu, although I'm not sure whether you risk overcharging then.

[ArKay]

1. Battery Voltage Adj
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Careful with this one! It sets the "high-water-mark" for charging to the *current* level of the battery. So if you select this with a half-full battery in the Z it will only ever charge the battery to half full from that point on. So do it with a full battery!

I think you can get the Z to charge beyond it if you leave it in the DM menu, although I'm not sure whether you risk overcharging then.
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Hmmm. So If I was looking between the 'Charge' menu, the Low Battery menu and the Batt Voltage Adjust menu and chose Adjust (but used Cancel to leave the menu) - it would set the 'high water mark' as the voltage the battery had at that time - or only if [HOME] or were picked (as listed in the 'Set Flash' option) ?

The battery (in 2 hours) had gotten up to a couple of volts - and then down to nothing after being out of the unit overnight - so it looks to me like the battery is dead and unable to hold a charge.

Guess I'll find out after I get the new one...

Thanks for all the help.

[ArKay]

Well after a few weeks of waiting  a Sharp original BL11 replacement battery came.

Everything works fine and dandy now. Hurray !

Thanks for the help everyone.