Is My Battery Dead?

[trejkaz]

Just bought an SL-C860 unit (beautiful piece of machinery.)

Unit worked fine with the battery's initial charge (it had about 80% charge.)

Converted 240V to 110V for the AC adapter, checked the adapter (which outputs around 5.1V, which should be safe enough), charged the unit for about 2 minutes while using the unit, and everything seemed fine.

Then I switched it off, and I can't switch it on again!

Argh!  It let me play with it for just long enough to get me hooked, and then broke down!  The cruelty!

The battery light still comes on when the AC adapter is in, whether the battery is in or not (I assume that this is normal), but no amount of pressing the power on key works (I can't even get into maintenance mode by holding OK, so I'm willing to bet it's not the system itself which is at fault, but something along the power supply.)

Has anyone seen behaviour like this?  I'll be sending it back for warranty as soon as I can anyway, but any solutions I can find before then which make it work would be awesome. :-/

[el_borak]

Then I switched it off, and I can't switch it on again!

I assume you are remembering to lock the battery cover before trying to power on?

Pardon if this is obvious, but sometimes that's the easiest thing to miss.

[trejkaz]

Yeah, I made sure to do that.

I'm at a loss at the moment.

The battery says it's a 3.7V battery, but my multimetre measures it as 4.0V, is that healthy?

Other than that, I can't see any influences I could have brought in which would cause something like this.

[kbranch]

Yeah, I made sure to do that.

I'm at a loss at the moment.

The battery says it's a 3.7V battery, but my multimetre measures it as 4.0V, is that healthy?

Other than that, I can't see any influences I could have brought in which would cause something like this.

4 volts is perfectly normal.  That's about what any Lithium ion reads when it's fully charged.

When you're trying to get into the service menu, are you holding ok while flipping the battery door switch?

[trejkaz]

4 volts is perfectly normal.  That's about what any Lithium ion reads when it's fully charged.

When you're trying to get into the service menu, are you holding ok while flipping the battery door switch?

I'm holding OK while hitting the On button, which was how I got in there the first time.

Holding it while flipping the battery door switch seems to have the same result, though.

I'm glad that it (probably) isn't the battery, but I'm really not happy because if it isn't the battery, it's the unit itself. :-/

[Miami_Bob]

Pull the battery for several minutes. No AC connected. Leave the battery switch "off" & the battery out. Hold down the FN, the D & the M keys while you plug the AC adapter in. Do you get the Service/Diags menus?

Be VERY carefull what you do in these menus, if you get them. Some actions have been reported to cause irreversable "brickage".

If you get the menus, replace the battery & switch to lock. Arrow key to menu 3/3 then down to Extra Menu. Arrow to RESET. Be SURE you are on RESET. Enter. The display should go off.

Now try turning the C860 back on from the rear button.

If you do NOT get the menus, you may have a 'major malfunction".