Is my battery bad?

ayekappy · 12-01-2006, 11:50 AM

I just got a reader the other day. I let it charge completely before using it... took about an hour to charge though, but I left it plugged in all night. Anyways, at about 10am I started using the reader unplugged... just a few reads of an e-book or two. When I went to work I started reading comics on it, about 250KB a piece comics, took a little bit between screens switches, definitely more than regular text. The thing is, i'd estimate that 30-35 comic page flips drained 1/4 of the battery!!! It was drained by 6pm! Is that normal, is ist just 7500 page turns for text and just 120 page flips for 250KB Jpegs? Or should I exchange this reader for another one?

Thanks!

HarryT · 12-01-2006, 12:00 PM

If you completely drained the battery in a day, I'd say that you have a problem. The number of page turns should be pretty independent of what's being displayed.

ayekappy · 12-01-2006, 12:12 PM

Oh, to add to that, if I put 4,500 images onto an SD Card, should the reader really take 15+ minutes to sync it all? That's how long it's been and it's still not done!!!

HarryT · 12-01-2006, 12:31 PM

Oh yes, that's reasonable enough - syncing is pretty slow. For a very large number of images like that's you'd be a lot better off writing them straight to the SD card with a USB card reader.

diabloNL · 12-01-2006, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ayekappy

I just got a reader the other day. I let it charge completely before using it... took about an hour to charge though, but I left it plugged in all night. Anyways, at about 10am I started using the reader unplugged... just a few reads of an e-book or two. When I went to work I started reading comics on it, about 250KB a piece comics, took a little bit between screens switches, definitely more than regular text. The thing is, i'd estimate that 30-35 comic page flips drained 1/4 of the battery!!! It was drained by 6pm! Is that normal, is ist just 7500 page turns for text and just 120 page flips for 250KB Jpegs? Or should I exchange this reader for another one?

Thanks!

Could it be you had a Mp3 song playing in the background?

NatCh · 12-01-2006, 12:42 PM

If it's not the MP3 thing (good thought, DiabloNL), then try charging it up again and see if it performs better after that. Apparently, the battery meter sometimes needs to be calibrated before it knows what a 'Full Battery' looks like.

If none of that does it, I'd contact tech support, or toddle back to the store and exchange it.

stxopher · 12-01-2006, 04:30 PM

Had something similar on mine. Though not 30-35 flip bad! It took about an hour of steady flipping to drop a bubble. Basically about 250 pages. Most of it got fixed by doing the "Charge to full, drain to warning tango" a couple times as soon as possible. Now I can get roughly 3,000 PDF pages (from the SD card) before it starts getting low. Just using the internal memory about gets about 6,000.

I've also noticed the bigger the card, the lower the battery life seems to be. The same PDFs on a 1gig card uses more juice than a 512meg card to go from start to finish. (But that could just be my unit.)

PDFs and other images (as opposed to text only) also seem to shorten read time.

NatCh · 12-01-2006, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stxopher

Now I can get roughly 3,000 PDF pages (from the SD card) before it starts getting low. Just using the internal memory about gets about 6,000.

I've also noticed the bigger the card, the lower the battery life seems to be. The same PDFs on a 1gig card uses more juice than a 512meg card to go from start to finish. (But that could just be my unit.)

PDFs and other images (as opposed to text only) also seem to shorten read time.

Even if it is just your unit (which I doubt

), it's still very interesting. I s'pose it makes sense, since the card has to draw power from the Reader, and the internal memory is probably a lower drain ....

stxopher · 12-01-2006, 06:29 PM

That was the reasoning here also. The current thought train is that a high storage card combined with seperate images (such as JPGs) will drain the fastest, high storage with PDFs (just as big, just as much power to haul out and display but MUCH less indexing) next fastest. Text seems to be the lowest drain since it's not hitting any stoarge very much combined with....well, the fact that that is really what it is built to do. Display text. One good sized image can easily be the size of a book in terms of storage and is a bit harder on the battery.

Next goal is a 2gig card and see if that makes it worse. Ah, science....

(we're getting quite the standard sheet here between in club testing and MobileRead)

ayekappy · 12-01-2006, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Oh yes, that's reasonable enough - syncing is pretty slow. For a very large number of images like that's you'd be a lot better off writing them straight to the SD card with a USB card reader.

Actually I did write them to an SD card. It's the problem with syncing the SD card data with the device. The Reader was never able to sync all of those files... it would lock up after about 20 minutes of trying. Once it did 'go through' but the screen was locked and had to be reset by way of the reset button the back of the device. I guess I'll just try to consolidate all of those files into ten or so large PDFs, a lot less indexing for the Reader to do.

I'll try the charge and discharge thing for a few days and see if that helps at all, maybe even call tech support. I was kinda dumb and ordered mine from an online vendor in New York so an exchange / return is possible but not the most prefered outcome.

edit: Oh, and no mp3s in the background. Just straight up 250KB JPG browsing.

Solan0 · 12-01-2006, 10:52 PM

i have finished 21 volumes of manga(20 century boys) plus others, maybe total of 35 volumes , first i was using 2gib card then i put a 4 gib card and i havent charge my battery yet. I using the 4 gib card cause i like to reread my manga, havent seen any change at all(both sync or change of memory card).

bostonte · 12-02-2006, 05:18 AM

I agree with SolanO. My battery life experience with the Reader (using an SD card loaded with PDF full-page "graphics") is in some large enough level that I couldn't tell you. DEFINATELY draining too fast on your reader. I read through at least 20 connect e-books and experimented with 100's of 40+ page PDFs before my reader needed it's first recharge (the only other charging it got was the 1-2 minutes it was connected to the computer for downloads 2-3 times -- the rest I used a SD writer).

It's like the Blackberry days of lore (before they added everything and the kitchen sink to the BB) where it took so long to drain the battery compared to anything else that I would be in shock and literally have to search for my charger.

stxopher · 12-02-2006, 08:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ayekappy

I guess I'll just try to consolidate all of those files into ten or so large PDFs, a lot less indexing for the Reader to do.

Not to mention all that page flipping in the front alone to find what you are wanting to look at! 4,500 images=a LOT of front index pages! I get antsy just going through 10 of them.

Salon0: That manga I'm familiar with so that makes a common reference point. Did you read those all at a time or scattered? How many at a time? Pre-sized or original format? Data! We need data! (Asking because we have noticed that reading 2 or 3 at a time with a break between sessions seems to actually extend the battery time immensely. Slow period at the club, no recharge needed that week. Busy, charge every couple days.)

We might be in a weird usage spot here since our readers are used for books (big Baen fan here) and the local manga club so we're getting a heavy mix of text and graphics but our units are sequential so if there was a line flaw we would never know.

ayekappy · 12-02-2006, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solan0

i have finished 21 volumes of manga(20 century boys) plus others, maybe total of 35 volumes , first i was using 2gib card then i put a 4 gib card and i havent charge my battery yet. I using the 4 gib card cause i like to reread my manga, havent seen any change at all(both sync or change of memory card).

How many png/jpgs would you say all of that was together? In the realm of 4.5k or were those volumes in PDF?

ayekappy · 12-02-2006, 11:04 AM

Oh darn, I feel like such a newbie for posting this in the incorrect forum... can this be moved to the troubleshooting forum???

12-01-2006, 11:50 AM	#1
ayekappy I like books! :) Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2006 Device: Sony Reader	Is my battery bad? I just got a reader the other day. I let it charge completely before using it... took about an hour to charge though, but I left it plugged in all night. Anyways, at about 10am I started using the reader unplugged... just a few reads of an e-book or two. When I went to work I started reading comics on it, about 250KB a piece comics, took a little bit between screens switches, definitely more than regular text. The thing is, i'd estimate that 30-35 comic page flips drained 1/4 of the battery!!! It was drained by 6pm! Is that normal, is ist just 7500 page turns for text and just 120 page flips for 250KB Jpegs? Or should I exchange this reader for another one? Thanks! Last edited by ayekappy; 12-01-2006 at 11:52 AM.

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12-01-2006, 12:00 PM	#2
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	If you completely drained the battery in a day, I'd say that you have a problem. The number of page turns should be pretty independent of what's being displayed.

12-01-2006, 12:12 PM	#3
ayekappy I like books! :) Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2006 Device: Sony Reader	Oh, to add to that, if I put 4,500 images onto an SD Card, should the reader really take 15+ minutes to sync it all? That's how long it's been and it's still not done!!!

12-01-2006, 12:31 PM	#4
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Oh yes, that's reasonable enough - syncing is pretty slow. For a very large number of images like that's you'd be a lot better off writing them straight to the SD card with a USB card reader.

12-01-2006, 12:42 PM	#6
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	If it's not the MP3 thing (good thought, DiabloNL), then try charging it up again and see if it performs better after that. Apparently, the battery meter sometimes needs to be calibrated before it knows what a 'Full Battery' looks like. If none of that does it, I'd contact tech support, or toddle back to the store and exchange it.

12-01-2006, 04:30 PM	#7
stxopher Nameless Being	Had something similar on mine. Though not 30-35 flip bad! It took about an hour of steady flipping to drop a bubble. Basically about 250 pages. Most of it got fixed by doing the "Charge to full, drain to warning tango" a couple times as soon as possible. Now I can get roughly 3,000 PDF pages (from the SD card) before it starts getting low. Just using the internal memory about gets about 6,000. I've also noticed the bigger the card, the lower the battery life seems to be. The same PDFs on a 1gig card uses more juice than a 512meg card to go from start to finish. (But that could just be my unit.) PDFs and other images (as opposed to text only) also seem to shorten read time.

12-01-2006, 06:29 PM	#9
stxopher Nameless Being	That was the reasoning here also. The current thought train is that a high storage card combined with seperate images (such as JPGs) will drain the fastest, high storage with PDFs (just as big, just as much power to haul out and display but MUCH less indexing) next fastest. Text seems to be the lowest drain since it's not hitting any stoarge very much combined with....well, the fact that that is really what it is built to do. Display text. One good sized image can easily be the size of a book in terms of storage and is a bit harder on the battery. Next goal is a 2gig card and see if that makes it worse. Ah, science.... (we're getting quite the standard sheet here between in club testing and MobileRead)

12-01-2006, 10:52 PM	#11
Solan0 Member Posts: 18 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Montreal Device: Sony Reader	i have finished 21 volumes of manga(20 century boys) plus others, maybe total of 35 volumes , first i was using 2gib card then i put a 4 gib card and i havent charge my battery yet. I using the 4 gib card cause i like to reread my manga, havent seen any change at all(both sync or change of memory card).

12-02-2006, 05:18 AM	#12
bostonte Enthusiast Posts: 36 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2006 Device: Sony Reader	I agree with SolanO. My battery life experience with the Reader (using an SD card loaded with PDF full-page "graphics") is in some large enough level that I couldn't tell you. DEFINATELY draining too fast on your reader. I read through at least 20 connect e-books and experimented with 100's of 40+ page PDFs before my reader needed it's first recharge (the only other charging it got was the 1-2 minutes it was connected to the computer for downloads 2-3 times -- the rest I used a SD writer). It's like the Blackberry days of lore (before they added everything and the kitchen sink to the BB) where it took so long to drain the battery compared to anything else that I would be in shock and literally have to search for my charger.

12-02-2006, 11:04 AM	#15
ayekappy I like books! :) Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2006 Device: Sony Reader	Oh darn, I feel like such a newbie for posting this in the incorrect forum... can this be moved to the troubleshooting forum???

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