Glo Battery depleting completely overnight after 3.1.1

[icallaci]

Originally Posted by paola

sorry, out of curiosity, did you do a factory reset before "downgrading" your firmware version?

Yes, I tried a factory reset to see if that would correct the battery discharge problem, but it didn't. I've been on FW 2.8.1b for more than 24 hours now, and I read for about an hour and a half today (on the reader that was discharging ~25% after 8-10 hours under FW 3.1.1) and my battery is still at 100%. So I am sure that there is a problem with 3.1.1 (and 3.1.0), but I am %#&@ if I know what it is or how to find it. A runaway process somewhere?

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by icallaci

Yes, I tried a factory reset to see if that would correct the battery discharge problem, but it didn't. I've been on FW 2.8.1b for more than 24 hours now, and I read for about an hour and a half today (on the reader that was discharging ~25% after 8-10 hours under FW 3.1.1) and my battery is still at 100%. So I am sure that there is a problem with 3.1.1 (and 3.1.0), but I am %#&@ if I know what it is or how to find it. A runaway process somewhere?

I always (perhaps wrongly) suspect unassigned pointers and/or absolute jumps/calls. Can't think why it would differ so much between different identical devices with identical firmware. Maybe back in the days when they hand soldered everything.

Helen

[icallaci]

It's just such an odd, random thing. I also noticed that even though I followed exactly the same steps to load 2.8.1b (first doing a factory reset back to 2.4.1 on both readers), as well as exactly the same steps to load all of my books (first formatting the SD cards), the database sizes are not the same. Close, but not the same. Anyway, I am reasonably happy with FW 2.8.1b, but I'd be happier if Kobo could find and fix this.

[GeoffR]

It might be a hardware fault, such as an area of bad memory, and just a matter of chance that one firmware version uses that area for something important while another uses it for something else. If that is the case then there might be nothing in the firmware to fix, and it will just be a matter of luck whether the next firmware version triggers a fault or not.

If it was mine I would return the device that drains for a replacement while it is still under warranty.

[robko]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

It might be a hardware fault, such as an area of bad memory, and just a matter of chance that one firmware version uses that area for something important while another uses it for something else. If that is the case then there might be nothing in the firmware to fix, and it will just be a matter of luck whether the next firmware version triggers a fault or not.

If it was mine I would return the device that drains for a replacement while it is still under warranty.

I would strongly agree with this suggestion. Based on the lack of numbers of people reporting this issue here, any fix for you in a new firmware is going to be pure chance. There is almost no chance they are going to devote any developer time to this unless they are getting a bunch of reports to customer service with the same issue as you're having.

[icallaci]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

It might be a hardware fault, such as an area of bad memory, and just a matter of chance that one firmware version uses that area for something important while another uses it for something else. If that is the case then there might be nothing in the firmware to fix, and it will just be a matter of luck whether the next firmware version triggers a fault or not.

If it was mine I would return the device that drains for a replacement while it is still under warranty.

Maybe, but knowing Kobo's record of fixing one thing only to break something else, I doubt it. Still, I think returning it for a new one is probably the best thing to do at this point. Ugh. What a hassle.

[jgoguen]

I did return mine (to Chapters) after seeing this and the new one I got is working great on 3.1.1.

[icallaci]

Originally Posted by jgoguen

I did return mine (to Chapters) after seeing this and the new one I got is working great on 3.1.1.

That does it. Mine is going back too. Thanks for confirming, jgoguen.

[icallaci]

After reverting back to FW 2.8.1b, I decided to try upgrading directly to 3.1.1 (bypassing 3.1.0). And guess what? It's been 2.5 days and my Aura HD is still at 100%! I don't know if the problem was with 3.1.0 and just carried through to 3.1.1 (seems doubtful, but at this point, who knows?), but it appears that my battery problem is gone. (I originally upgraded from 3.0.0 to 3.1.0, then to 3.1.1. When I started having problems with 3.1.1, I did a factory reset and upgraded to 3.1.0 to see if the problem was with 3.1.1. This time I did a factory reset, upgraded to 2.8.1b, then upgraded to 3.1.1. Presto, changeo--battery problem is gone.) For what it's worth.

[speakingtohe]

It is interesting. Same hardware, same final firmware and different behaviour.
Next time I am bored I may reset my Mini to its original firmware and upgrade one by one. See what comes and goes.

Helen

[icallaci]

Not me. It's working now, and I'm not going to touch it again unless Kobo comes up with something spectacular (and at least a month or two of the good people on this forum singing its praises).

I'm off to actually read a book now.

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

It is interesting. Same hardware, same final firmware and different behaviour.
Next time I am bored I may reset my Mini to its original firmware and upgrade one by one. See what comes and goes.

Helen

[TechniSol]

Being a cynical curmudgeon (in the making, I only possess junior status presently), based on lack of proof of the actual battery level and Kobo's lack of precision in that department, my guess is something got zapped in the routines or tables used to determine actual charge status, or the routine got scrambled and would have perhaps required a full discharge/charge cycle or two to figure things out. The firmware was probably just incorrectly reporting the charge level, or maybe it was correct considering how long Kobos typically sit on 100% and often seem to get stuck at different levels for a while. The problem is they're probably just looking at the voltage level of the battery under "normal" current draw and interpolating on a straight line. The problem is that while lithium batteries are pretty good about it, they have a discharge CURVE like most batteries, not a straight relationship between voltage and remaining capacity. The curve that was dropping faster may in fact have been the more accurate of the two overall.

Kobo... Join the Adventure! (If they use that, I want compensation...)

[icallaci]

Originally Posted by TechniSol

Being a cynical curmudgeon (in the making, I only possess junior status presently), based on lack of proof of the actual battery level and Kobo's lack of precision in that department, my guess is something got zapped in the routines or tables used to determine actual charge status, or the routine got scrambled and would have perhaps required a full discharge/charge cycle or two to figure things out. The firmware was probably just incorrectly reporting the charge level, or maybe it was correct considering how long Kobos typically sit on 100% and often seem to get stuck at different levels for a while. The problem is they're probably just looking at the voltage level of the battery under "normal" current draw and interpolating on a straight line. The problem is that while lithium batteries are pretty good about it, they have a discharge CURVE like most batteries, not a straight relationship between voltage and remaining capacity. The curve that was dropping faster may in fact have been the more accurate of the two overall.

Kobo... Join the Adventure! (If they use that, I want compensation...)

Thanks for the explanation of how lithium batteries work. I don't know if the % was correct or incorrect, but I discovered the problem when my Aura HD popped up the message to "Recharge now or else" after ~3 hours of reading over 3 days, and wouldn't display the page until I plugged it in. I am just happy it is working now, so I can read.

[TechniSol]

Well, that's new info as previously your posts referred to percentages between 60-some and 80-some percent remaining... Sounds like something was drawing a lot of current in the background. There was quite a long thread concerning that and the then relatively new Glo units along about firmware 2.4 - 2.6, if I recall correctly. Actually, that was the thread where a bunch of us collectively came to the conclusion that sleep covers touching or interfering with the IR matrix just over the screen were leading to strange battery drains when users thought their devices were in sleep mode.

It seems very odd to me that only certain units are affected, even if it's a memory related failure, since checksums could easily rule such problems out when firmware is updated by calculating again after the flash memory is programmed. Of course, someone would have had to think to do it, and we all know how that goes unless there is a big enough problem that must be solved in development.

[icallaci]

It's not really new info, since I didn't start measuring the battery loss until after the first time it happened. When I got the message to "recharge now or else," I suspected the sleep cover problem, so I removed the sleep cover, charged the reader to 100%, left it overnight, and saw a ~25% loss the next morning. I charged it up to 100% again, left it for several hours while I was out and about, and noted the battery loss when I checked it again. I checked it at least once a day, but the percentage varied with the amount of time elapsed--that's why it ranged from 60%-80%. If I had been troubleshooting at work, I would have noted all the times and percentages more rigorously, but it's the holiday season and I'm busy, so I didn't. Anyway, after I reverted back to 2.8.1b and then upgraded directly to 3.1.1, the problem went away. I have no idea why, and I know I did not check out every possibility (for example, I had reloaded all my books onto a new SD card under 3.0.0), but I just didn't feel like spending any more time on it if I didn't have to. It's working now, and I am glad.