Replacing PRS500 Battery

[Bierius]

Hi,

Does anybody know if/how one can replace the battery in the PRS500? My reader's battery seems to be loosing its charge at an ever increasing rate! Nothing too serious at present but enough to get me thinking about it.

My partner thinks I'm imagining it just as an excuse to get one of the newly released devices.... as if I would do such a thing

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Bierius

Does anybody know if/how one can replace the battery in the PRS500? My reader's battery seems to be loosing its charge at an ever increasing rate!

Search this forum.
When the PRS-500 came out someone posted photos of the insides together with instructions of how to take it apart. The battery is not considered to be user serviceable part, so be prepared to use screwdriver.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8426
Look at the post #37 on the above thread.
...
Battery:

Sony Fukushima Sew
US473850 A7T
01C45NI22V
...

The battery is connected using a connector, so you will not need to use soldering iron.

[nannan]

did anybody replace a new battery before?

[Bierius]

Thanks for the link kacir

Seems to me that it's not recommended to try and replace the battery yourself. Hmm... the replaceable battery system in the Cybook Gen3 seems to be a big plus as far as I'm concerned.

[astra]

Originally Posted by Bierius

Thanks for the link kacir

Seems to me that it's not recommended to try and replace the battery yourself. Hmm... the replaceable battery system in the Cybook Gen3 seems to be a big plus as far as I'm concerned.

But Cybook Gen3 has 5 days or 1 week of life time from one charge. Sony has 3.5 weeks. You can afford to loose 1 week per year and still use it for 3 years

[DrMoze]

Originally Posted by astra_lestat

But Cybook Gen3 has 5 days or 1 week of life time from one charge. Sony has 3.5 weeks. You can afford to loose 1 week per year and still use it for 3 years

One advantage of a replaceable battery nis that you can carry around a spare instead of a bulkier charger. (One extra battery with an electronic book can be 'insurance' for a very long vacation away from electrical outlets. Except for an iliad, which would require a truckload of batteries! )

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by astra_lestat

But Cybook Gen3 has 5 days or 1 week of life time from one charge. Sony has 3.5 weeks. You can afford to loose 1 week per year and still use it for 3 years

That's rather misleading, AL .

The Sony and the CyBook use their battery in rather different ways. The Sony's power switch puts it into "standby" mode where it's still running the o/s. The CyBook's power switch genuinely turns it off, where it's using no power. If you're a relatively infrequent reader (say a couple of reading sessions a day), the CyBook is likely to have a longer time between charges than the Sony because it's not draining the battery between uses.

[astra]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's rather misleading, AL .

The Sony and the CyBook use their battery in rather different ways. The Sony's power switch puts it into "standby" mode where it's still running the o/s. The CyBook's power switch genuinely turns it off, where it's using no power. If you're a relatively infrequent reader (say a couple of reading sessions a day), the CyBook is likely to have a longer time between charges than the Sony because it's not draining the battery between uses.

I agree

I think new prs-505 can be switched off completely too? But it take 40 seconds or 1 minute to start ...how long does it take CyBook to start?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by astra_lestat

I agree

I think new prs-505 can be switched off completely too? But it take 40 seconds or 1 minute to start ...how long does it take CyBook to start?

It's quick enough not to really notice it. About 15 seconds; something like that.

The Gen3 is in one of three states:

"Active" - when it's displaying a page, or playing music.
"Standby" - when it's just sitting there having displayed a page.
"Off".

The "Standby" state is where the battery lifetime of 5 days comes into it. There's a menu item which allows you to set a time period after which it will turn itself off if left in "standby" mode. This can be set anywhere from 5 minutes up to 1 hour, or disabled entirely. As I say, though, unlike the Sony, the normal thing to do with the Gen3 when you've finished reading is to turn it off completely, something which you don't generally do with the Sony.

Both machines have excellent battery lives, but they use their battery in different ways.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by astra_lestat

I think new prs-505 can be switched off completely too? But it take 40 seconds or 1 minute to start ...how long does it take CyBook to start?

I timed my Cybook and it took 26 seconds to start.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Sony's power switch puts it into "standby" mode where it's still running the o/s.

What? That's news to me. It was my understanding that it only used power when you turned the page, to redraw the page and that the O/S is held in NVRAM and only "runs" during page turn.

Where did you get your information that the Sony still drew power other than during a page turn?

BOb

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

What? That's news to me. It was my understanding that it only used power when you turned the page, to redraw the page and that the O/S is held in NVRAM and only "runs" during page turn.

No, the screen only uses power when it's refreshed, but the CPU, RAM, etc, have a small but constant power drain.

Where did you get your information that the Sony still drew power other than during a page turn?

BOb

It is a well-established fact which simple observation will demonstrate. Leave your Reader turned "off" and you'll find that it will lose about 1 "bar" of charge from the battery meter every 5 or 6 days. A fully charged Reader, left unused, will flatten its battery in about 3 weeks. There are brave people who have taken the Reader apart and measured the power drain in different circumstances; it's pretty constant whether the Reader is "off" or "on". All that actually happens when you turn the Reader "off" is that the screen blanks and most of the buttons are disabled.

Unless you're an exceptionally heavy reader, the constant power drain of the o/s is a more significant factor in determining battery life than the page turning. If you read for an hour a day, say, the machine will lose a lot more charge during the 23h each day that it's "off" than during the 1h that it's "on".

The 505 has a menu item allowing you to genuinely turn it off, but then you have to wait a minute or so for it to "cold start" the next time it's turned on.