Run the battery dead, what happens?

[RichS]

Since switching to the Z, I have been afraid of letting the bettery run down. I\'ve kept it charged and bought the Semsons external battery just in case. But after all the reading I\'ve done about the Z, I have yet to see it clearly stated as to what happens if you do run the battery down all the way?

Will the Z give a warnig and then shut down, saving enough battery power to keep alive for a while? I\'ve done this on my old Clie several times with no ill results. But what happens on the Z??

If I kill the battery dead, what is lost and will the Sharp backup program restore everything to the state I had it in before the battery died?

Or do I really have to worry about running the battery down?

Just thought this would be a great question for the newbie forum...

[Inuyasha]

Assuming it\'s a 5600, as in your sig... Nothing really bad. Supposedly if you run it down to completly no power a lot (like every single charge/discharge cycle), it can cause the battery to mess up, but you can buy another.

So to sum it up... Nothing really bad.

[Qman]

Assuming it\'s a 5600, as in your sig... Nothing really bad. Supposedly if you run it down to completly no power a lot (like every single charge/discharge cycle), it can cause the battery to mess up, but you can buy another.

So to sum it up... Nothing really bad.

What if its a 5500?

[RichS]

\"Nothing really bad\"? I am guessing that I would have to do a restore though?

And that didn\'t answer the question of whether or not the Z would shut down after a warning before the battery was completely dead?

Yes, it\'s a 5600 like in my sig ;-)

And since Qman asked about a 550, I guess it wasn\'t such a dumb question ;-)

[nevarrie]

Will the Z give a warnig and then shut down, saving enough battery power to keep alive for a while? I\'ve done this on my old Clie several times with no ill results. But what happens on the Z??

So far I have ran mu SL-6000L down one in hte last week since I got it and the onlything it did was boot up when I put the ac power to it.  I have a friend with a SL-C700 that will not power on till it has been on AC power for about 5 minutes.  Though neither of these two Z loss any information that has alreay ben save...though any open screens will close sinc it does do a reboot...to me it is the same as when I take the battery out...

If I kill the battery dead, what is lost and will the Sharp backup program restore everything to the state I had it in before the battery died?

I can not tell you on the backup program since I am not using it..so far I have only used rsync over the wireless network to backup my z since I only have Linux and Solaris machines...Though I have not had the need to restory since the memory does not reqire a battery to keep its data unlike my Handsprings...

Or do I really have to worry about running the battery down?

From what I understand only if you leave stuff running do you need to worry about running the batter down.  Though on thing about the battery is that they are only good for about 500 charges. Going by this idea, if ou charge more then once a day then you will shorten the batteries life, but if you are using it that much then I see that is part of owning a portable handheld...I am the type that keeps my Z on ac when I am sitting and using my targus keyboard and near and AC outlet...Though I am still a new Z owner so there maybe somethings I am not aware of yet...I just have been reading the ZUG for over a year now...

[Inuyasha]

On the 5500 the memory will be wiped, and it will be back in the default state (not factory new, if you\'ve changed ROMs, it will still have that ROM), because the memory is different from the flash memory used in later Zauri. (I could be wrong on this -- I\'m a 5600 owner).

On the 5600, 6000, Cxx0, there will be no harm done, if this happens once or twice. All your information should still be there.

[RichS]

Good news for me (5600) and not so good news for the 5500. Thanks for the info. I\'m sure there\'s more than one brand new user who would appreeciate this...

[bluedevils]

The 5500 uses volatile memory to store your home directory, but the others don\'t.  The 5500 has an internal battery to save your information when changing batteries, but that battery can also easily drain dead after the main battery dies.  The sharp backup/restore app should br able to get you back up and running after a full recharge.

The other Zs wouldn\'t require any restores, but the battery\'s protective circuitry would be uncallibrated (hence the no power on while first charging).  Everything should be good after a full recharge is done.

All Zs will warn you to save your material before they suspend.  This means there is still a power draw, but it is not nearly as much.