Aura HD Battery is not charging, frontlight not detected.

[kodi]

I love my Aura HD. It was with me in good times and in bad times.
Few weeks ago I noticed that I cannot turn on the frontlight. Was looking for some hints, but well - it just doesn't work. I can live with that. However yesterday it just turned off with the message to "please connect your reader to the A/C" outlet while connected to the charger.
So my first thought was that battery died. But hey, it's drawing 0.25 A from 5V even when off - it must be charging, right? Nope. Opened the device, on the battery connector - 1.2V. Not good.
Disconnected the battery thinking it's gonski now. Well - it isn't - healthy 3.2V when disconnected from the board. Connected the battery to external charger - battery accepts charge. Connected turned off reader to the 5V (without battery) - drawing 0.25A, won't turn on. So charged the battery to 3.8V, connected to the device - device started to work.
Scratching my head what to do now. I decided to charge the battery just in case (and check it's health), then I want to do full internal SD backup, but... What to do next?
Just in case: my board model is 37NB-E606C0+6B4, I found 37NB-E606C0+6B3 - will it be compatible?
Help!

[kodi]

Battery is fine - capacity shown on external charger is 1512 mAh.

[ReaLx3m]

Few devices that i converted to Li-ion batteries from ni-mh i made posible to charge with external Li-Ion charger using these connectors:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/10PCS-Batte...gAAOSwxQhaqMil

If you dont manage to find another solution it could do the job for you, should be pretty easy to make a port in the plastic for the small jst connector.

[kodi]

I'm thinking about similar solution - there is enough space inside to just mount an USB charger inside. However I'm worried that the existing problem will start to drain the battery.

[Cootey]

Is it possible that you have a bad USB port? I've had that happen on several Kobo devices.

[ReaLx3m]

Originally Posted by kodi

I'm thinking about similar solution - there is enough space inside to just mount an USB charger inside. However I'm worried that the existing problem will start to drain the battery.

If youre thinking one of those cheap TP4056 modules, id prefer if it was outside the device.At 1A they get pretty toasty(havent tried them at 500ma). Not sure how the heat would affect e-ink screen, so better be safe.
Preffered way for me is using the jst connector and making the module external with the male connector(female on battery) + slapping a ram heatsink on it for good measure and enclose all the shabang in shrinkwrap. Also easier to replace that way if charger module stops working.

[kodi]

Originally Posted by ReaLx3m

If youre thinking one of those cheap TP4056 modules, id prefer if it was outside the device.At 1A they get pretty toasty(havent tried them at 500ma). Not sure how the heat would affect e-ink screen, so better be safe.
Preffered way for me is using the jst connector and making the module external with the male connector(female on battery) + slapping a ram heatsink on it for good measure and enclose all the shabang in shrinkwrap. Also easier to replace that way if charger module stops working.

Interesting approach I will consider this if I will be unable to fix the issue on the motherboard. For now it looks like something in the region of BQ24074 is causing trouble.

Originally Posted by Cootey

Is it possible that you have a bad USB port? I've had that happen
on several Kobo devices.

My USB port is a little funky - it got loose, so I bend it back a little together after opening. It was causing lack of contact from time to time.
However now I am getting stable +5V delivered to motherboard.