Is anyone else having battery issues with their new DR1000S? I am. :angry:

The battery initially fully charged and I could see it as full by the icon. However, since I turned it on today, the light at the top has stayed orange and the battery icon only shows about 2/3 full. I unplugged it and replugged in it. It stayed the same.

Later, I turned it off, then after awhile turned it back on. For about 6 hours or more the light remained orange and the battery icon did not change.

I then tried removing the SD card and shutting the DR1000S down. Later I put in a new (formatted and unzipped Companion contents) after starting the Reader up. Everything is fine EXCEPT the charging light at the top remains orange and the icon only shows 2/3 full.

The light has stayed orange for the last 11 hours.

What seems to be the matter?

Haven't run into that yet. Did you try an alternate way of charging, if available (Wallcharger, other computer)?

Haven't run into that yet. Did you try an alternate way of charging, if available (Wallcharger, other computer)?

No, I do not have a wall charger (does one even exist for the DR100s?), but I will try your suggestion to try to charge to another computer. Thanks! I check back later.
CJP

No, I do not have a wall charger (does one even exist for the DR100s?), but I will try your suggestion to try to charge to another computer. Thanks! I check back later.
CJP

Any usb wall charger is supposed to work for charging.

Any usb wall charger is supposed to work for charging.


That's a good thing to know! Unfortunately, I changed the computer for the USB connection to charge, and no change. I also shut the DR1000S down while the DR1000S charged. When I fired it up a few minutes ago - with high hopes - the light at the top remains orange and the battery charge remains at 2/3 - 3/4 charge. There still seems to be a problem.

Any ideas as to what I should do? (As a doctoral student, I have limited time and funds and both I have sacrificed for this seemingly terrific Reader of PDF's.) Should I contact iRex because it does seem to be a real issue, or is there something else I can try to make this work?
CJP

That's a good thing to know! Unfortunately, I changed the computer for the USB connection to charge, and no change. I also shut the DR1000S down while the DR1000S charged. When I fired it up a few minutes ago - with high hopes - the light at the top remains orange and the battery charge remains at 2/3 - 3/4 charge. There still seems to be a problem.

Any ideas as to what I should do? (As a doctoral student, I have limited time and funds and both I have sacrificed for this seemingly terrific Reader of PDF's.) Should I contact iRex because it does seem to be a real issue, or is there something else I can try to make this work?
CJP


Dont just change computer. Try a standalone charger.
I seem to notice that computer USB does not charge my smart phone
as good as a standalone charger.

Good luck.

I had one side's buttons stop working; a power off and on did not fix it but a reset did.

Did you try to let the battery run down completely? I.e. until the LED turns red then after another 1/2 hour hour or so even that will turn off and the battery is completely empty.

Then try connecting it, reset it and wait for it to hopefully recharge completely.

(I had my own scare earlier when the above happened to me, and it just wouldn't turn on again even with the charger plugged in :eek: Turns that the fuse of that outlet had popped unbeknownst to me... phh... had a vision of brickage for a second there...)

Before that, the battery LED was acting up as well, being stuck on blinking green, but the reader was locked up, and after a reset it turned instantly red: the reader couldn't power back up, thus the above recharging attempt.

Re: Charger. Besides the Garmin one (A/C straight to mini-USB) I also have successfully used the TEKKEON MP1600 I got for $13 from Newegg.com. This one is used with the USB cable that came with the reader.

Did you try to let the battery run down completely? I.e. until the LED turns red then after another 1/2 hour hour or so even that will turn off and the battery is completely empty.

Then try connecting it, reset it and wait for it to hopefully recharge completely.

Before that, the battery LED was acting up as well, being stuck on blinking green, but the reader was locked up, and after a reset it turned instantly red: the reader couldn't power back up, thus the above recharging attempt.

Re: Charger. Besides the Garmin one (A/C straight to mini-USB) I also have successfully used the TEKKEON MP1600 I got for $13 from Newegg.com. This one is used with the USB cable that came with the reader.

Thank you so much for the good advice. I turned it off and let it charge over night. I then unplugged it, waited a bit, then turned it on. All though the buttons and folders respond, I too got the dreaded blinking green light now, and find that battery still remains at 2/3. When I plugged it in (I only have the USB charger that came with it) the light at the top turns orange - meaning it probably is not holding or giving a charge.

I will try as you suggest - let the battery run all the way down and then somme, Then reconnect it, reset it and wait for it to recharge completely.
I'll check back later today. (And I check out Newegg's charger - I wanted one for when I'm at the university. Again, thank you!
CJP

Re: Charger. Besides the Garmin one (A/C straight to mini-USB) I also have successfully used the TEKKEON MP1600 I got for $13 from Newegg.com. This one is used with the USB cable that came with the reader.

I just ordered the TEKKEON MP 1600, $12.95 PLUS free shipping. I've ordered from them before, good company! Thanks a bunch for the tip.

Right,
As my battery has never shown anything above 3/4 I left it charging all day (unit off) yesterday (from a wall charger) then disconnected the charger. Switched on the unit (shows 4/4 full) at 11:30pm and left it on all night. This morning it was completely dead. Hd to leave it connected for a few minutes before it would then boot up & sure enough battery showed empty.
It has now been charging all day (switched off) from a wall charger & the battery still shows only 3/4 full & orange LED.

At this stage I'm not too concerned as you do need to cycle batteries a few times before they operate to their best. So I'll do so for the next day or 2.

Howard

Right,
Switched on the unit (shows 4/4 full) at 11:30pm and left it on all night. This morning it was completely dead.

Howard

Seems a Samsung UMPC can work longer(6-7hours with std battery,
11-12hours with large battery) than Irex Reader.

Feel disappointed with Irex.

Right,
As my battery has never shown anything above 3/4 I left it charging all day (unit off) yesterday (from a wall charger) then disconnected the charger. Switched on the unit (shows 4/4 full) at 11:30pm and left it on all night. This morning it was completely dead. Hd to leave it connected for a few minutes before it would then boot up & sure enough battery showed empty.
It has now been charging all day (switched off) from a wall charger & the battery still shows only 3/4 full & orange LED.

At this stage I'm not too concerned as you do need to cycle batteries a few times before they operate to their best. So I'll do so for the next day or 2.

Howard


I let it run down completely as you and AllovertheGlobe suggested - that took only 3 hours! Yes. Three hours. The functions all worked and I read several long journal PDF articles. It shut itself off (as though I turned it off) at 12:37pm. At 1:10pm I plugged it in, waited for it to start (no SD card in it now) and then reset it. I waited for it to reboot - the device shows up on my computer.

It has been charging for more than one hour now. So far, the battery icon still remain completely blank (but there is a lightening bolt over it) and the top light is orange. However, since I read your response above, I went ahead and shut it down. I will wait until at least 5pm to unplug it and start it up as you did.
I will keep you all posted - hopefully the advice to let it run completely down, reconnect and reset it will fix the issue. If I experience the same as you have, I will continue to do this for another couple of days to completely re-cycle the battery. But then, if I can only read articles for 3 hours and it doesn't seem to hold a charge, I probably will need to contact iRex. But I will give this a try first.
CJP

Hi CJP,
I'm in the midle of a charge -recharge too. I staretd the latest at 7pm local time, it is now 9:00pm and it's down to 2 bars, so I suspect Im going to get longer than 3 hours, but them I'm not "using" it.
iRex did say that they will be getting another software release out to improve things, ie standby mode, reduced processor speed etc. But, 3 hours is low. I too hope things will improve. I'll get a better feel over the next few days.

Howard

OK, today I tried to keep track of the usage: I got about 5 1/2 hours of continuous use out of it with the tablet functionality turned off for the most part. It was on all the time, but I didn't constantly switch pages. It went from solid green / 4 bars (full charge) to red / no bars (low battery) It actually shut itself down normally instead of just hanging like last time.

Considering that for now there is little to no power management, I think that's pretty good for the general snappiness of the reader. I can live with that, even if I have to turn it off for an extended break. Not that this should be an excuse for iRex to drag their feet on some proper power management & suspend mode.

I also want to clarify that 4 bars on the battery meter didn't last for more than a few minutes before it went down to 3 and stayed on the remaining bars (3,2,1,0) for a long time each. No bars still gave me a considerable amount of usage (at least 30-45 min.) before the LED turned red and I got the low battery warning.

Oh no - my new DR1000S is completely dead. If you see my above posts regarding the battery, I let it run down today, which only took 3 hours after charging all night.

I then plugged it in and restarted it about 1pm this afternoon. For quite some time, the battery box icon was empty, but it had a ligtening bolt over it. The blinking green light was gone and was orange as it should be to recharge. It looked promising!

I then shut it down and waited for more than 4 1/2 hours to check on the charge.

A little while ago, I press on the Menu/Open Sensor. Nothing! It does not start at all. NOT AT ALL. Now when it is plugged into my computer, nothing shows that the DR1000S exists. (That is the first time it hasn't shown up.)

I switched computers, twice, once to my husbands desktop, and then to my Toshiba laptop. Nothing. And I notice now too that when I plugged it in to the different computers, normally the green light above the Menu sensor would come on - but now it doesn't.

I unplugged it. Since it has been fully charging since 1pm this afternoon (it is now 5:20pm), it should easily turn on. But it doesn't. It is completely dead.

I am so very discouraged.
CJP

UPDATE!
Ok - it is 40" later, I unplugged it again. Pressed the Reset button, and it came on! Moreover, all 4 bars are finally there in the battery icon. I am going to let it stay on until the battery is gone again, (but it will probably not be used because I've gotten a bit behind on my work). I am hoping that it will hold a charge for more than 3 or 4 hours this time.

As far as I understand, the reader MUST STAY ON for charging. If you shut it down as you wrote in your post, it wasn't charged at all. (P.13 of the user manual, in the table: Turned Off | Not Charging | No LED) (as must the computer you hook it up to, and if it goes into sleep mode, I'm not sure it would provide power to the USB port for the reader to charge - one reason I use a wall charger)

I had a scare like that yesterday, as I wrote earlier, and it turned out that the reader wasn't receiving power through my own fault.

Hook it up again, wait for a while (maybe 10 min.) and if nothing happens, try a reset (keep pushing the pen in for a little longer, count to ten...) then wait a few more minutes and if necessary, try another reset. If it doesn't come back on after that, you may indeed have a problem.

Worst comes to worst, I wouldn't hesitate to contact Jeff from eReader Outfitters. He seems to be pretty responsive, and though I don't know if he will arrange for your repair, I'm sure he can at least explain to you the best course of action since he should be in direct contact with iRex.

You make good sense here. The odd thing though and as you point out, the manual states that if the Reader is turned off, and there is no LED, it is not charging. So, it is especially puzzling that mine finally did charge - while it was off.

As you suggested, I reconnected it for awhile, then hit the Reset button. That seemed to do it. Also, like you the 4th bar was gone after 15". I'll be up late working to see how long it stays charged but I know that I read somewhere that the DR1000S holds a charge for ? days, especially if just viewing PDFs. Let's see how long it holds a charge this time. I am hoping...
Thanks again -

Dont just change computer. Try a standalone charger.
Good luck.

Yes, that seems to be the concensus. I ordered one today that allovertheGlobe recommended, (Garmin; A/C to mini-USB) and one for the office, TEKKEON MP1600 for $13 from Newegg.com with free shipping that plugs in but the cord from the DR1000S goes from the reader to it.

Thanks for the good advice, all of you!
CJP

As you suggested, I reconnected it for awhile, then hit the Reset button. That seemed to do it. Also, like you the 4th bar was gone after 15". I'll be up late working to see how long it stays charged but I know that I read somewhere that the DR1000S holds a charge for ? days, especially if just viewing PDFs. Let's see how long it holds a charge this time. I am hoping...
Thanks again -

If it's losing a bar of charge after 15 seconds, that would suggest to me that there is something wrong :(.

After my second charge discharge cycle I got 5hrs+ (though not using it) which is up from 3hrs. Interestingly mine has never yet shown the green fully charged light whether from a wall or computer charge. Anyway we shall see. it is obviously improving in my case. I have found in general though that most battery charge indications, are a guide at best and can be somewhat misleading, like some fuel gauges in cars. They move quickly off full & then take a while to go from half to empty.

After my second charge discharge cycle I got 5hrs+ (though not using it) which is up from 3hrs. Interestingly mine has never yet shown the green fully charged light whether from a wall or computer charge. Anyway we shall see. it is obviously improving in my case. I have found in general though that most battery charge indications, are a guide at best and can be somewhat misleading, like some fuel gauges in cars. They move quickly off full & then take a while to go from half to empty.

I've submitted a ticket to iRex to ask if indeed 3 to 5 hours is "normal" to simply read PDFs. Hopefully, I will hear from them soon.

As a note, I recharged it again over night, then this morning before I left home, I unplugged it at 6:15 am. I called my husband, he reports it has one bar. He'll try to see when it shuts down, but it seems that my short battery life remains at ~ 5+ hours justing sitting there.

He'll try to see when it shuts down, but it seems that my short battery life remains at ~ 5+ hours justing sitting there.

While that is not awesome I am wondering... do you plan to use it more than 5 hours straight through alot?

BOb

I've used my iLiad for more than 5 hours straight fairly often. Since classes in my doctoral program only meet once a week, they last 2.5 hours each, and some nights I have two classes back-to-back. I use my iLiad to take notes. If the battery only lasted 5 or 5.5. hours, I'd have trouble. :( I also use it at all-day conferences, though less often. I can take notes on it for 8-9 hours before it's out of juice. (This is the original model, before the battery expansion.)

Yes, probably so. On a day "off", I normally work 10-12 hours. Seriously. Not all reading mind you, but as a struggling PhD student, this was supposed to be a sound investment. But hey - it still might be. I just might have a defective unit, which can be remedied. I'll let you know what iRex says.

While that is not awesome I am wondering... do you plan to use it more than 5 hours straight through alot?

I do so almost on a daily basis (iLiad v2, at the Uni Library and during class)
Sees about 6-7hrs a day of continuous use

You do not have to remove the stylus from the DR in order to use another stylus. The Wacom pad is always active unless you disable it.
When i read this in the other thread, I'd sort of assumed they'd managed to improve on the power use of the Wacom, but I guess the 5.5hrs worth of battery life are a good indication that they haven't.
Odd (read: idiotic) choice though, to enable it continuously.. wonder what rationale behind that is.
"Ease of use" for business users? (who are incapable of realising they need to remove the other pen from the bay when they're using their Pro/advanced pens?)

Re: the TEKKEON MP1600 I got for $13 from Newegg.com.

This charger came yesterday, and indeed, it charges the Reader faster. (I'm still at ~ 5 1/2 - 6 hours of time before it shuts down, which is better, but using it, it is still closer to 3 1/2 hours.)

Now that I think nothing is seriously wrong with my Reader, it is just the battery life that (hopefully) will be improved over time with some updates. I shut it off now when I am not going to be using it for awhile.
So that is good, I think this Reader is really great.

For now, I was wondering if, using the Tekkeon charger, is there is another (much) longer cord that you know of? This one is great for the office, especially the retractable portion, but at home I could really use one longer so that it reaches from a chair to an outlet.

For now, I was wondering if, using the Tekkeon charger, is there is another (much) longer cord that you know of? This one is great for the office, especially the retractable portion, but at home I could really use one longer so that it reaches from a chair to an outlet.
It's standard USB (A male to mini B male)
10 feet long enough?:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812189162
How about 15 feet?:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812189163
Or simply an extension cable to your existing one for some 17 feet total:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119226
I'd probably expect some signal strength issues at that length, but since it's only for charging, it doesn't really matter.

You can also just stop by your local Office Supply or Electronics store and ask them for the above type (or show them the one you have) They may not have these extreme lengths, but certainly longer than the included one.

It's standard USB (A male to mini B male)
10 feet long enough?:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812189162
How about 15 feet?:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812189163
Or simply an extension cable to your existing one for some 17 feet total:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119226
I'd probably expect some signal strength issues at that length, but since it's only for charging, it doesn't really matter.

You can also just stop by your local Office Supply or Electronics store and ask them for the above type (or show them the one you have) They may not have these extreme lengths, but certainly longer than the included one.



Sweeeet! I thought 10 ft. was great, buy my eyes are just watering to think of 15-17 ft. Thanks! I'm just determined to try to be able to use this Reader on a regular basis - which was why I bought it. :thanks:

With this you even can walk in the garden:

http://www.usbfirewire.com/Parts/rr-lan-0101.html

200ft !!!! :thumbsup:

Gogolo

With this you even can walk in the garden:

http://www.usbfirewire.com/Parts/rr-lan-0101.html

200ft !!!! :thumbsup:

Gogolo

We just keep spending the $ to get the DR1000S just to be usable for one entire day don't we? First, the longer USB cords and A/C adapter so I can actually use it while charging. Then today, the purchase of the battery pack and batteries so that I can actually leave my office .... :rofl:

(But, without all these great suggestions from this forum, the DR1000S would be entirely unusable for me.) And by the way, I STILL am not certain that something is wrong with my Reader or not. I only get ~ 3 1/2 hours use.

well, I've been playing with my new DR and I agree with the general opinion here:

The good news: you really can read A4 documents. :2thumbsup

The very bad news: Battery life is absolutely terrible. After charging it for more than 6h. I had a bar drop within the first 30s of operation. And as discussed (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30693), iRex plans point to a 12h battery life.:smack:

I charged untill all 4 bars are full and turn-off and turned-on, one drop dropped!

With stylus, zooming and panning it gives 2 - 3 hours!

Is my one faulty?

Nope. You will presently get between 3.5 - 6hrs. In (hopefully a short) time, this will be extended hopefully to between 2x & 3x that. You may get longer depending on whether you are "using it" or just leaving it on between uses.

I am using it with stylus as well as zooming and other stuff. What about that four bars?

I charged untill green ( four bars) and then turn-off and turn-on, one bar gone!

4 bars is what I aspire to. I do not seem to get them always. Don't ask why, you can leave it charging from a wall or whatever all night and day ad sometimes you only get 3 bars and an orange light.

However, when I do get the 4 bars, I will also get 4 bars when I next switch on.

I suspect the fuel gauge is, at best, an approximation & when the battery issues get remedied, the "dipstick" we presently use, may improve :)

I wonder why they took not a better battery, like the 2800mAh one that someone upgraded his iLiad with for 15$. Maybe they wanted to save half of the 15$ when taking the 1300mAh battery for the DR1000... :smack:

Gogolo

I wonder why they took not a better battery, like the 2800mAh one that someone upgraded his iLiad with for 15$.USB provides only 500mA. This goes down to 100mA if connected to a laptop. So they would have to have a removable battery with external charger to keep the charge time within reasonable limits.

Why they didn't go that route, I don't know. Cellphones, mp3-players, cameras etc. can be bought with removable batteries.

USB provides only 500mA. This goes down to 100mA if connected to a laptop. So they would have to have a removable battery with external charger to keep the charge time within reasonable limits.


That's a really good point. I hadn't thought of that before.