DR1000 Battery drain with 1.7.1

[Gogolo]

Hi

Since a long time I have the battery drain bug with my FW 1.7.1. When I shut off and leave the DR1000 for some days the battery is completely drained.

Is this bug gone when I install FW2.0?

Thanks for your help. This bug makes the device unusable for me (we have a meeting, I want to start up ... )

Gogolo

[Gogolo]

OK, the other way round: Has somebody experienced battery drain with 2.0?

Thanks!
Gogolo

[Mackx]

I didn't, but then I also didn't on R1.7.1.

[Gwaihir]

I've been following any and every mention of this, as it would for me be THE reason to upgrade. Unfortunately, folks tell (in other threads here) that it still happens .

[Sardy]

But ... is the battery really drained? After i had put an on/off switch in my DR, the battery gauge got completely unreliable for a while. It would show a fully charged battery and still the DR would go down after an hour. Or it would show an almost empty battery even when i was sure it was fully charged. Every time i used the on/off switch after closing down because of a supposedly empty battery, the DR would come op with a gauge showing a FULL battery again. Often i could read on for hours!
So, could this problem somehow be related to the chip that tracks the battery status?
By the way, obviously putting in an on/off switch wasn't quite as usefull as i had hoped to adress the batteryproblems all DR's are suffering from. I remember a thread long ago where this was suggested as a possible solution.

[Gwaihir]

Originally Posted by Sardy

So, could this problem somehow be related to the chip that tracks the battery status?

Yes, I would think so. Where did you place the switch? Did it effectively disconnect the battery from the device (and thus from the circuits trying to track battery status)?

[Mackx]

Originally Posted by Mackx

I didn't, but then I also didn't on R1.7.1.

I should not have written this ... during charging last thursday, I pressed one of the right hand side buttons, which cuased all three right hand side buttons to stop reacting (one led stayed on). I waited until it was fully charged and shutdown using the stylus (the led went off). On my way back home, I started my DR but still the righthand side buttons where not functioning, but I could read and switch pages via the left hand side buttons. I did not use the DR until this morning and found that it did not start at all. Back at work I saw that its battery was completely empty.
So Gogolo, it is still happening on R2.0 and seems (in my case) to be related to the standby/keyboard processor. Do you have any simular experiences?

[Gogolo]

I also had this behavior when the right buttons didnt work. But right now its allright. I think these bugs are not replicable. If 2.0 shows the same behavior Im not upgrading.

[Mackx]

This was the first time I saw the battery drain in more then two years of using the DR.

[ThR]

This bug is "replicable". It will happen every time when some of the buttons did not respond anymore. I've had this behaviour 3 or 4 times. Why this happened - I don't know.

But when it happens - make a full reset. Then it's ok again and the battery will not be drained over night.

I think, when some buttons did not respond anymore - some processes of the os could not be stopped, when the device is shutting down, but the device did not recognize this. So these processes are running even when the device is off. And so the battery will be drained.

[Mackx]

Thanks, that is a good hint on how to detect and prevent a battery drain. Maybe it also helps IRX to find the problem and fix it in the future (unless it is a hardware problem)?

[Sardy]

Originally Posted by Gwaihir

Yes, I would think so. Where did you place the switch? Did it effectively disconnect the battery from the device (and thus from the circuits trying to track battery status)?

The switch cuts both leads between battery and the board. I tested the switch to find out which pins i had to use, to be sure. After a full recharge and some reading i'd switch the DR completely off with the switch. But ... when switching it on after some hours or the next day, the battery still seemed drained as if it hadn't been switched off!
The gauge went totally unreliable for some time after i'd built in a new type A female usb connector because the original one broke. At the moment that is back to normal (new connector working perfectly btw).
Like i said, it didn't work out the way i hoped. On the other hand: the on/off switch did come in handy a few times when my DR wouldn't recharge and/or reset. When i used the on/off switch it did a reset and started up with the welcoming screen.