Post-update battery weirdness

[WilliamG]

Honestly can't believe there's no update for this bug.

[Nightwing]

Starting to think the bug is some task when its in sleep mode eating power when it should be off.

[Aprilbeginnings]

Oh this battery thing is starting to drive me crazy........... on one book I have gone down from full charge to 1 bar left......... (this book is taking me longer by the way) so last night I plugged the thing in with it on and immediatly the bars read up to three....... I left it charge until around 2 am in the morning when I thought I would hate for some kind of burn in with text on the screen (if that could happen) so I came back here and turned it off. Checked it this morning, still 3 bars..... plugged the plug back in and jumped to four bars....... I agree they need to fix whatever the heck it is that is ailing these batteries........ I mean was a really getting on the low side or is that a bunch of bunk, cause an immediate plug in to charger ran it right back up three bars............ argggggggggggggg

Good news is I am a cockatiel birdy grandma, LOL.......... have one little one in the cage, parents taking good care of he/she.... more ??? I am not sure........ ha!

[NatCh]

Congratulations on your new addition, Karen!

I don't think you need to worry about burn in, I don't think that the particles can develop an affinity for a particular point in space.

[Aprilbeginnings]

OKay, well I know when I leave the reader on you can always see hints of the text when I change the page so when I thought I had it on a page for hours and hours on end I might have a problem.

Little bird is doing well, it will be for my birdsitter when it grows up now..... lets say it was a baby on request thing, LOL, I usually toss the eggs but she finally wanted one so I let them be.....

here is a pic of the little fella <G>
http://members.aol.com/aprilbeginnings/baby1a.jpg

[pinenut]

Originally Posted by WilliamG

Honestly can't believe there's no update for this bug.

Neither can I. Every time I recharge the battery I have to reset the reader. That has to be fixed pronto.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by Aprilbeginnings

OKay, well I know when I leave the reader on you can always see hints of the text when I change the page so when I thought I had it on a page for hours and hours on end I might have a problem.

Little bird is doing well, it will be for my birdsitter when it grows up now..... lets say it was a baby on request thing, LOL, I usually toss the eggs but she finally wanted one so I let them be.....

here is a pic of the little fella <G>
http://members.aol.com/aprilbeginnings/baby1a.jpg

Oh, my, I'd forgotten how ugly new hatchlings can be -- in a cute sort of way, of course. It's probably more that they suffer by comparison to the adults, which are always so pretty.

I know what you mean about the ghosting being more pronounced when the Reader's on the same page for a while, but it goes away after a page turn or two, so I don't really see any reason to worry about it. (I sure seem to be getting a lot of shrugging in today ....)

[Aprilbeginnings]

I am not shrugging you. Must be on some other threads..... I haven't been around too much lately..... And yes, the are ugly yet cute, only a face a mother could love, LOL.....But they grow pretty fast, soon it will be a pretty bird.

Okay I won't worry at all about burn in....still this battery thing needs to be addressed by Sony....although I am sure a minor bug, it's a pain in the $$$ bug.........

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pinenut

Neither can I. Every time I recharge the battery I have to reset the reader. That has to be fixed pronto.

You really don't have to reset it. Just momentarily plug in the wall charger with the Reader switched on, after you've finished charging, and the battery meter will immediately just to 4 bars.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by Aprilbeginnings

I am not shrugging you. Must be on some other threads..... I haven't been around too much lately.....

That should have read: "I seem to be getting in a lot of shrugging today." I meant that I was doing a lot more shrugging even than I usually do.

And I agree the battery meter needs to be fixed. It doesn't seem to bother me as much as others, but it needs to be fixed, regardless.

[Aprilbeginnings]

Saw your ---> And thought, *wow I could have had a v-8* LOL.......first thing that crossed my brain.......... and for some reason I am very tired, I go to read and I keep nodding off, dropping the reader on the carpet....I really think I need a nap and that is something I just don't usually do.............

[KlondikeGeoff]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You really don't have to reset it. Just momentarily plug in the wall charger with the Reader switched on, after you've finished charging, and the battery meter will immediately just to 4 bars.

Or, as I do (think it was April who suggested it) when charging is done, turn it on, unplug from the Reader, plug it back in, and viola, 4 bars.

I'd quit keeping track, but last charge I kept track of page turns (and did not count bookmarks, going to the menus, etc), and got 3020 page turns. Not too bad, I guess. The battery meter went down bar by bar as would be expected. Shortly after it got to one bar, I recharged.

So, for some goofy reason, my battery and the meter seem to be working OK. Obviously this not the same for everybody.

[russl]

I just spoke to Sony support using the number provided earlier in this thread. I've only had my reader for a couple weeks but I noticed this issue the first time I charged it after the firmware update.

The support technician I spoke to did find some reference to the issue and said that it was currently being "researched" so hopefully there is some kind of fix on the way. The interesting thing was that she had a "workaround" which was to do a hard reset of the reader.

The problem hasn't reached the level where I'm ready to reload everything on my device but I'm wondering if a hard reset truly fixes the problem or does the same thing as the soft reset.

Russ

[Aprilbeginnings]

hmmmmm, well I am not anxious to try the hard reset, besides, it looked complicated.... I rather deal with the stupid thing that doesn't work right.

[russl]

Originally Posted by Aprilbeginnings

hmmmmm, well I am not anxious to try the hard reset, besides, it looked complicated.... I rather deal with the stupid thing that doesn't work right.

I'm with you, especially if a fix which won't require the hard reset is on the way.

I am hoping that maybe there's someone out there more frustrated than us. It would be interesting to find out if it actually does anything other than reseting the meter from the most recent charge.

Russ

[yvanleterrible]

I don't look at the bar anymore. When the reader asks, I charge. If I need it on a trek I charge. It's no more complicated than fueling a car.

I have an Apple usb charger, has anyone tried this yet?

[diabloNL]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

I don't look at the bar anymore. When the reader asks, I charge. If I need it on a trek I charge. It's no more complicated than fueling a car.

I have an Apple usb charger, has anyone tried this yet?

I tried it and it doesn't work.

[JSWolf]

From what I gather, you cannot read while it's connected to the USB port anyway. So that's not a good idea. But what I was thinking was since it supposedly can chrge from USB, getting a USB tip for the cell phone charger and using that int he car when needed. Would that be a good idea you think?

[Aprilbeginnings]

You know I was just thinking....... a hard reset puts the reader back to the way we bought it correct? which in turn would undue the fix Sony sent us....and I think the battery problem still existed even before the update? So how could this be fixed or am I full of hot air? LOL

[dhbailey]

I don't think that the hard reset puts the Reader back to the way it was bought. It resets all user-altered things to their original status, using the system software which is currently burned into the flash bios. The update would have overwritten data in the flash bios, which would not be reset in such an instance.

At least that's the case with my Palm units -- whenever I've done system updates, they have held even through hard resets, while all other things which I have changed have returned to the original state. The same with my computer motherboards -- once the system bios flash has been changed it stays changed. Same with my digital cameras and my mp3 player as well.

[yvanleterrible]

OK! Had three notches on the charge bar so I decided to try the Apple USB charger.
Left it on for two hours and took it off. ARGH! It got down to one notch. Did a soft reset, ditto. Put the Sony charger to it while the reader was on and pulled it right back out... back to three notches.
Conclusion Same as diabloNL. No effect
Advice keep to Sony charger.

[Gravitas]

I got my Reader yesterday and installed the connect software, authorized my reader and was asked if I wanted to upgrade the firmware - after reading this thread I said no.

So far so good.

Am I missing anything vital by not upgrading my firmware? Was there any benefits to the upgrade?

[HarryT]

USB chargers don't work with the Reader - you'll find that the charge light doesn't come on. Even charging on a PC's USB port won't work unless the "Connect" software is installed on that PC!

Gravitas - the problem you'll have is that you'll be asked if you want to upgrade every time you connect the Reader to your PC. May as well just do it and get it over with. The battery thing is completely irrelevent, IMHO. All you have to do is, after you've charged the Reader (which is a "once ever few weeks" thing), just momentarily plug in the mains charger with the Reader turned on. The battery meter will immediately reset itself to where it should be, and you're done.

[Aprilbeginnings]

Actually I just charged mine the other day with it on and the batter never went above three bars charged. I had to unplug, turn it off and found it still read three bars, the trick is having to once again plug the charge in and that is what resets it....... or is it at least with mine......... crazy crazy.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Aprilbeginnings

the trick is having to once again plug the charge in and that is what resets it.......

Yes, that's exactly what I said . You have to plug in the mains charger cable a SECOND time WITH THE READER TURNED ON. It's that second connection - after you've done a charge until the light's gone out - which resets the battery meter.

[Aprilbeginnings]

Yep, that is what you said and what I said, LMAO

ducking.

[Nightwing]

Been a major pain to NOT use the reader for two week. But think I have a confirmed on some speculation.

Two weeks ago recharged and reset as per listed by other posters. Also remove the SD card so its just itself. Nothing else draining.

After the first week. Turned on and fliped about 4 pages. Power droped one bar.
After the 2nd week. Turned on and fliped about 5 pages. Power droped another bar.

Either:

A) Battery is bad.
b) Update software is eating power that it did not do before.

Am leaning on the 2nd one. Before it ran over a month with use. After software barely can keep a charge.

Have not tried the reset the battery bar. Thinking on it.

[halljames]

Regarding this bizarre charging issue.

What happens if you were to buy a sony reader today, does it have the latest firmware on, meaning it has the funny battery meter issues, or does it have the old firmware on it that had no such problem. OR does it have a secret new firmmare that is not available for download yet.

I wish sony would get a new firmware out that fixes this.

[Aprilbeginnings]

Good Question......

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Nightwing

Been a major pain to NOT use the reader for two week. But think I have a confirmed on some speculation.

Two weeks ago recharged and reset as per listed by other posters. Also remove the SD card so its just itself. Nothing else draining.

After the first week. Turned on and fliped about 4 pages. Power droped one bar.
After the 2nd week. Turned on and fliped about 5 pages. Power droped another bar.

Either:

A) Battery is bad.
b) Update software is eating power that it did not do before.

Am leaning on the 2nd one. Before it ran over a month with use. After software barely can keep a charge.

Have not tried the reset the battery bar. Thinking on it.

Hang on a minute. By your own figures, you could go a month without having to recharge. That hardly counts are "barely can keep a charge", does it?

If you've not reset your battery meter, eg by plugging in the wall charger briefly, as described here, how can you trust what the meter is showing you?