Help, my pocket pro is locked and can't unlock it

[SDRebel]

Originally Posted by AJ Starr

I had mine freeze when I was playing with the TTS. After punching many buttons, I HELD the Exit button and it did reset to the bookshelf.

Don't know if this will work on yours, but just wanted to share it.

AJ

I tried pushing and holding almost every button and a few combinations.... right now it should be on it's way back to CA....RMAed

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by SDRebel

I tried pushing and holding almost every button and a few combinations.... right now it should be on it's way back to CA....RMAed

As is mine. I just dropped it off.

[SDRebel]

Originally Posted by kennyc

As is mine. I just dropped it off.

best of luck!

[wayamauro]

Originally Posted by SDRebel

The baby is going back the short time I had it we were happy together
... I contacted tech support over the phone but they told me they had to look at it. Now I have to pay for shipping to send it to them

That's what sucks about it. Paying for shipping after paying $212 for a device that gives you problems right away is just outrageous. The shipping should be on them, not on you. When I bought my HP computer, it stopped working in 2 weeks. I called them, they sent me a box with the shipping labels. Some guy came pick it up AT MY HOUSE, and some guy brought it back HOME, working perfect. I paid nothing for the shipping nor the fixing(of course), and the amount I paid for the computer was less than 2 Pocket Pro together. I am seriously hesitant about ordering now...I was thinking about doing it tomorrow...I do not think so.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by wayamauro

That's what sucks about it. Paying for shipping after paying $212 for a device that gives you problems right away is just outrageous. The shipping should be on them, not on you. When I bought my HP computer, it stopped working in 2 weeks. I called them, they sent me a box with the shipping labels. Some guy came pick it up AT MY HOUSE, and some guy brought it back HOME, working perfect. I paid nothing for the shipping nor the fixing(of course), and the amount I paid for the computer was less than 2 Pocket Pro together. I am seriously hesitant about ordering now...I was thinking about doing it tomorrow...I do not think so.

Yep, that's the way it should be if it's broken.

Mine was not broken, I'm just not happy with the features/functions/etc. So I have no problem with paying the shipping back (approx $10) from here to there.

[SDRebel]

Originally Posted by wayamauro

That's what sucks about it. Paying for shipping after paying $212 for a device that gives you problems right away is just outrageous. The shipping should be on them, not on you. When I bought my HP computer, it stopped working in 2 weeks. I called them, they sent me a box with the shipping labels. Some guy came pick it up AT MY HOUSE, and some guy brought it back HOME, working perfect. I paid nothing for the shipping nor the fixing(of course), and the amount I paid for the computer was less than 2 Pocket Pro together. I am seriously hesitant about ordering now...I was thinking about doing it tomorrow...I do not think so.

I agree with you, many companies indeed send you a prepaid box or similar. Sony also has (or used to to have) this method.

[SDRebel]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Yep, that's the way it should be if it's broken.

Mine was not broken, I'm just not happy with the features/functions/etc. So I have no problem with paying the shipping back (approx $10) from here to there.

agreed as well

[KarateMonkey]

Well crap. I think mine is a brick now too.

From my letter to tech support:

It's been locking up alot lately, but until today I've been able to get it working again. Last night I let the battery run down while I was reading, per the instruction manual. I plugged it in to charge, and after an hour of charging it still wouldn't respond so I left it to charge overnight. This moring I was able to get it unlocked for a little while, but when I tried plugging it into my computer at work to move some files over it didn't work, and locked up again.

I've tried the power button, the back button, the reset button, both while plugged into a power cord and and unplugged.

[SDRebel]

Originally Posted by KarateMonkey

Well crap. I think mine is a brick now too.

From my letter to tech support:

crap, sorry for your loss. I'm getting really concerned.... I wonder if I should ask for a refund instead of a replacement. I don't want to pay for shipping it to them every month.

[KarateMonkey]

I'm withholding judgement until I see how they handle this. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to ride the wave of returned defective colored units and get shipping paid both ways.

I really did like it while it was working, and I'm not sure what I would go with if I decided to return it.

[Morlac]

One thing that occurs to me is that these lockups are happening when the battery has been completely drained.

If I understand correctly from what others have said about this kind of Lithium ion battery, the smart sensors in the system are supposed to prevent it from actually draining to 0% to avoid the risk of battery failure or explosion on a recharge. Thus, "0 bars" is never the same thing as no-energy, as "0 bars" is calibrated to some % charge remaining.

For that to work, the system would have to shut down completely to avoid any further charge being drained below the 0-bars level.

So what if that step is not working and the battery is being drained below 0-bars? At that point, you might still have the protective mechanism preventing you from initiating the charge cycle. You'd suddenly have a completely unresponsive battery where it had been working fine right up until the failure.

Quoting from Battery University.com

Extreme low voltage must also be prevented. The safety circuit is designed to cut off the current path if the battery is inadvertently discharged below 2.50V/cell. At this voltage, most circuits render the battery unserviceable and a recharge on a regular charger is not possible.
There are several safeguards to prevent excessive discharge. The equipment protects the battery by cutting off when the cell reaches 2.7 to 3.0V/cell. Battery manufacturers ship the batteries with a 40% charge to allow some self-discharge during storage. Advanced batteries contain a wake-up feature in which the protection circuit only starts to draw current after the battery has been activated with a brief charge. This allows prolonged storage.

In spite of these preventive measures, over-discharge does occur. Advanced battery analyzers (Cadex C7000 series) feature a 'boost' function that provides a gentle charge current to activate the safety circuit and re-energize the cells if discharged too deeply. A full charge and analysis follows.

If the cells have dwelled at 1.5V/cell and lower for a few days, however, a recharge should be avoided. Copper shunts may have formed inside the cells, leading a partial or total electrical short. The cell becomes unstable. Charging such a battery would cause excessive heat and safety could not be assured.

[Robertb]

Dear All:

IF you are having any problem, PLEASE call techncial support! The toll free number is: 1-866-368-8788. Let us try to solve the problem and authorize a remedy. I appreciate that everyone jumps in trying to help (great community spirit) but we may be aware of something that you are not and we can remedy situations like this.

We are constantly trying to assist you... so please try this and then let us see where it all stands.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by Morlac

One thing that occurs to me is that these lockups are happening when the battery has been completely drained.

If I understand correctly from what others have said about this kind of Lithium ion battery, the smart sensors in the system are supposed to prevent it from actually draining to 0% to avoid the risk of battery failure or explosion on a recharge. Thus, "0 bars" is never the same thing as no-energy, as "0 bars" is calibrated to some % charge remaining.

For that to work, the system would have to shut down completely to avoid any further charge being drained below the 0-bars level.

So what if that step is not working and the battery is being drained below 0-bars? At that point, you might still have the protective mechanism preventing you from initiating the charge cycle. You'd suddenly have a completely unresponsive battery where it had been working fine right up until the failure.

Quoting from Battery University.com

Extreme low voltage must also be prevented. The safety circuit is designed to cut off the current path if the battery is inadvertently discharged below 2.50V/cell. At this voltage, most circuits render the battery unserviceable and a recharge on a regular charger is not possible.
There are several safeguards to prevent excessive discharge. The equipment protects the battery by cutting off when the cell reaches 2.7 to 3.0V/cell. Battery manufacturers ship the batteries with a 40% charge to allow some self-discharge during storage. Advanced batteries contain a wake-up feature in which the protection circuit only starts to draw current after the battery has been activated with a brief charge. This allows prolonged storage.

In spite of these preventive measures, over-discharge does occur. Advanced battery analyzers (Cadex C7000 series) feature a 'boost' function that provides a gentle charge current to activate the safety circuit and re-energize the cells if discharged too deeply. A full charge and analysis follows.

If the cells have dwelled at 1.5V/cell and lower for a few days, however, a recharge should be avoided. Copper shunts may have formed inside the cells, leading a partial or total electrical short. The cell becomes unstable. Charging such a battery would cause excessive heat and safety could not be assured.

Dear All:

Morlac has a very learned post here. It takes so little time to recharge and I have already said many, many, many times that low power can cause problems. All matter of possible maladies seem to pop up when the battery is low. I still recharge whenever my battery gets a little below 1/2 charge. I have been doing this for a year now on my 6 inch and not a single problem. The battery stays fine and I get no problems at all.

The factory does say in the user manual to try to deplete the battery the first few times. I recommend against that and have said so. I can only go by my own personal experience but recharging when the gauge gets just slightly below half has been great for me. Yes, I am still on the origional battery and yes, it is still working perfectly without a problem ever!

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear All:

IF you are having any problem, PLEASE call techncial support! The toll free number is: 1-866-368-8788. Let us try to solve the problem and authorize a remedy. I appreciate that everyone jumps in trying to help (great community spirit) but we may be aware of something that you are not and we can remedy situations like this.

We are constantly trying to assist you... so please try this and then let us see where it all stands.

+++


.

[Morlac]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear All:

The factory does say in the user manual to try to deplete the battery the first few times. I recommend against that and have said so. I can only go by my own personal experience but recharging when the gauge gets just slightly below half has been great for me. Yes, I am still on the origional battery and yes, it is still working perfectly without a problem ever!

Robertb --

Thanks for the reply. Simply depleting the battery the normal way shouldn't cause these problems, though. You should only see the kind of behavior I proposed if the normal built-in safeguards against draining the battery too far are not working. When they are working, it's like having the gas gauge in your car show "E" when you're really only down to your last gallon or so.

This is also a problem because people aren't necessarily seeing the gauge drop below 1/2. Some have been reporting that the battery seems to drain faster than expected (e.g. dropping from full or 3 bar straight to zero).

Hope you can discuss the problem with the factory and issue some official guidance to people quickly. Hopefully you have SDRebel's returned unit in hand now or will have it soon for examination. Based on the timing of the colored unit shipments, the imprecision of the battery gauge, and the fact that the official instructions specify that we should drain the battery for the first few cycles, there will be a lot of people running the batteries down to zero over the next few days!