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Old 02-05-2013, 05:44 AM   #1
mrbowman
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Strange battery behavior.

Hello.

The battery performance on my Kobo Touch is very strange. I just have it over two weeks, and except for the time its connected to the Calibre on my computer, I have charged battery directly on wall socket at least four times.

Last Sunday evening, when I couldn't use the reader because the battery completely drained, and after being 4-5 hours charging, the battery got 100%. That night I used the Touch during an hour and a half or so. Before going to bed, I put it to sleep mode and I didn't used it again until the next day. The Touch had been about 15-16 hours in sleep mode , and when I turned it on, the battery was at 56%. I saw that before going to bed battery marked 100%.

This is the second time this happens to me. In previous charges, battery last a week or so. Using it daily two hours maximum. In the last two charges, it drains very fast until 60%-55% and after that, it seems that it drains as it should.

My settings. No wi-fi on, always off. Activate sleep mode after 10 minutes, and never turn off. My firmware version it's 2.3.2.

Kobo customer service, told me that this is and unacceptable duration of battery. They suggest to drain the battery completely and then charge it for at least 5 hours plugged to wall socket. I think I will leave one complete day. If no improvements in the next charge(s), the reader should be returned to be repaired or replaced.

I would avoid this, because as I mentioned in another post, I have several notes and marks in books, I don't know how to save them, and don't want to lose them.

Any help will be appreciated

Thanks in advance.
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Old 02-05-2013, 06:16 AM   #2
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It definitely sounds like your Touch's battery is bad. My Touch (an old model) lasts more than 30 days in sleep mode. (Current estimate is 41 days, but I'm suspecting the lower half of the battery will drain slightly faster.)

You say you've had your Touch for just over two weeks and have already charged it four times (at least)... That's an average of two charges a week: absolutely bad.

If I were you I would definitely exchange your device for a new one (either from the place you got it or directly via Kobo, depending on which is easier/faster).

As for your notes, I'm afraid I can't help you there. I hope you get some help in your other thread. You could look around this forum, there have been a few other posts about extracting notes and attempting to put them back.
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Old 02-05-2013, 08:50 AM   #3
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It does sound like a bad battery. It's been twenty days since my last charge and my battery is at 40% after 35 hours reading, that's with turning it off after I've finished reading for the day and wifi off. My battery does appear to deplete much quicker from 100% to approximately 70%, my girlfriends is similar, that happens with these sort of batteries.

As Mrs Often wrote, charging it twice per week is unacceptable and you should return your device.
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Old 02-07-2013, 08:08 AM   #4
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Well, I'm waiting to make the full charge that Kobo's customer service adviced me, and see what happens

But it's true, seems a defective battery. I'm making a log during these days where I write down, time of the day and level of charge. In the last 24 hours, almost a 20%. From 54% to 38%, and being used only two hours for reading.

Thanks a lot for your help
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Old 02-07-2013, 09:30 AM   #5
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FWIW I have two Kobo Touch's one running the old firmware and one that has the new (Glo) firmware. I have seen similar battery problems with both units running in airplane mode and with sleep set to 15 min and power-off set to 30 min. In my case when the problem occurs the Touch does not transition from sleep into full power-off as it should but instead stays in sleep mode and consumes a disproportionate amount of power in a short space of time (as if the processor was stuck running at 100% in the background).

I'm currently exploring whether the sleep/power-off interval is the cause in this thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=204803 if you would care to contribute your times?
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Old 02-07-2013, 04:46 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shai-Hulud View Post
FWIW I have two Kobo Touch's one running the old firmware and one that has the new (Glo) firmware. I have seen similar battery problems with both units running in airplane mode and with sleep set to 15 min and power-off set to 30 min. In my case when the problem occurs the Touch does not transition from sleep into full power-off as it should but instead stays in sleep mode and consumes a disproportionate amount of power in a short space of time (as if the processor was stuck running at 100% in the background).

I'm currently exploring whether the sleep/power-off interval is the cause in this thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=204803 if you would care to contribute your times?
Wow, what a coincidence, I was reading a while ago that post.

And it makes ​​me think that this could be the solution, a combination of sleep and power-off settings. If so, I'll think that the firmware developed by Kobo is quite poor.

Do not you think that there are too many complaints about the battery life of the different Kobo readers?

My KT has gone within hours from 38%, to the black screen message that warns low battery. No use in that interval.

And on this subject, does anybody remember which were the default energy settings? I'm now recharging and I want to test it with those values. The seller told me that there's no problem about replacing the unit, so I will make the test that Kobo customer service adviced me.

Have good readings!
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Old 02-07-2013, 09:26 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by mrbowman View Post
And on this subject, does anybody remember which were the default energy settings? I'm now recharging and I want to test it with those values. The seller told me that there's no problem about replacing the unit, so I will make the test that Kobo customer service adviced me.
My memory says sleep after 15 minutes and never power off. The settings are stored in the file "Kobo eReader.conf" on the device in .kobo/Kobo". If you delete the settings in the "PowerOptions" section, they will be reset to the defaults when the device restarts.
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Old 02-08-2013, 01:28 AM   #8
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Good morning.

After discharging the entire battery, did a full wall-socket charge during 5 hours.

Before going to bed, I put the settings in 15 sleep, never power-off (as the defaults), also I used the KT for at least an hour.

This morning, battery was at 100%. No drain at all.

What's it's going on here??? Well, let see what happens this evening.

The only different factor it's that I used another charger, actually my HTC phone charger. Previous charges were made with and Apple USB wall charger for iPods, phones... and I suppose that they both work as it should.
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Old 02-08-2013, 04:11 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mrbowman View Post
The only different factor it's that I used another charger, actually my HTC phone charger. Previous charges were made with and Apple USB wall charger for iPods, phones... and I suppose that they both work as it should.
That's what I would think too. However, I recall that a long time ago, someone warned against apple chargers for some reason. That some might give problems... I always ignored that because I thought it ridiculous, but, maybe there's something there. I must admit I think I charged most my cycles with an apple charger and got horrible battery life... on the other hand, I also used a generic one that gave the same results... And also, I used both chargers with my Touch as well, and no problems there... Hmmm...

Also, don't forget that the battery drain isn't linear. It might be stuck on 100% for a while and then suddenly drop to 70% or something. Many of my tests started out with 11 hours of 100%, only to have the rest of the battery drain within 4-5 days after that.
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Old 02-15-2013, 07:00 AM   #10
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My battery testing...

I was in a bit of giving up with my Touch, after two complete charges and very disappointing battery results, but I'm not sure, but it could be related to some sideloaded ebooks I have been reading lately.

My battery tests.
- Feb 8th morning. After more than 5 hours of wall charge, battery was dead on 00:30am 11th Feb.
- Feb 11th - A new wall charge, this time during all night. At 01:00am 14th battery was dead.
- Feb 14th - Another allnight wall charge. But before falling sleep I was reading another book. Guess what?? Now it's Feb 15th 12:44pp and battery is still at 100%

What is happening here?? I'm not really sure, but as I said before, I'm thinking about the issues being caused by some sideloaded ebooks.

I'm going to spend the weekend observing this issues, and maybe on Monday I will decide wether to ask a replacement or not.

Any advice to reformatting ebooks in Calibre in a more efficient way for the Kobo Touch?
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Old 02-15-2013, 10:19 AM   #11
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Weird! Please keep us posted.

From the other thread started by VelvetElvis I think we were leaning towards thinking it was not due to certain books... but hmm... maybe it is afterall.
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Old 02-15-2013, 11:43 AM   #12
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I am following with interest VelvetElvis's thread, our readers seem to have parallel lives.

Anyway this is tiring, as several of you pointed in the other thread, those battery test aren't a matter of hours, they last several days. We all have bought a ereader for read, not to be fighting against something we really don't know very well. Meanwhile you are surprised by the amount of issues that are giving to other users those damn Kobo batteries or firmware or who knows what...

I really wonder if I made a bad choice with a Kobo ereader.
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Old 02-18-2013, 06:47 PM   #13
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I don't think you made a bad choice of reader. Kobo has a few issues to iron out yet, but they do offer a superior set of features compared to the competition in several ways, especially the ability to adjust stroke width of some built in fonts, and the lighting on the Glo model appears to win for best of breed...

I really do think there is something in some epubs that causes the Kobos to get stuck on processing something and leads to battery drain. It'd be helpful if they could identify just what and compensate for it.
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Old 02-20-2013, 07:39 AM   #14
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I don't think you made a bad choice of reader.
I hope so.

I'm just preparing the Touch to be returned to the dealer. He is on charge of shipping it to Kobo.

This next two weeks I'm going to deal only with hardcopy paper.
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Old 02-20-2013, 09:35 AM   #15
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As a few of you have echoed, the real issue is not knowing whether it's software or hardware bugs. We are trying to discover this empirically and by discussing our findings which takes time and a lot of false leads and tail-chasing I'm sure.

To nail it, Kobo need to 'fess up and let us know what's going on. Then they might rebuild customer confidence and incur thanks for their candour rather than anger and resentment at being stonewalled!
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