PRS-T1 battery problem - any suggestions?

[PKFFW]

So my PRS-T1 seems to have died.

I was reading on it before bed, noticed the battery was just about dead, so I put it on the charger over night. Next morning the battery symbol says it is 100% but whenever I try to use it it flashes up a message saying "no power on battery, network setting turned off, try recharging before using again" and then it shuts down.

I've tried resetting it both while it is unplugged and also while plugged into the charger, tried charging it again, tried using it while it is plugged in..........all to no avail.

Before stumping up a new ereader, I thought I'd try the collective wisdom of MR. Anyone had this problem? Anyone found a solution? Any suggestions at all?

[PKFFW]

For those interested, I found this youtube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MD_CzEgPyU

I'm going to give it a try when I visit home at Christmas and can borrow Dad's soldering gear. More out of curiosity and a desire to see if it works than anything else.

[Terhi]

Try to drain battery totally empty. Even after it's has shut, try to open reader again until it battery is drained. Then charge it at least 48hrs. Try this first, Li-ion batteries has revived this way.

[Pajamaman]

Do a hard factory reset (this will delete all your books, which is also a good thing in this case).

[PKFFW]

I've done the hard factory reset, no change besides deleting all my books.

The battery charge symbol says it is 100% but I don't know if that is accurate. I can't drain the battery because as soon as I unplug it from the charger and try to take it out of sleep mode or turn a page or load a book etc, it gives me the "no power in the battery" message and simply shuts down. It will then not turn back on. I've tried charging it for more than a full day and still no luck.

I'm most likely going to be getting a new Kobo in the boxing day sales anyway. Doing this battery thing is more for curiosity and to see if I can really. Can't do any real harm because the reader is completely unusable now as it is.

[Ghitulescu]

If the T1 says the battery is empty, then the battery is defective, it holds voltage as long as it's charging but it drops the voltage back to the low limit immediately as the charger is disconnected. The battery is therefore dead, it cannot be charged anymore. It has to be changed.

[PKFFW]

Yeah the battery is probably defective. However the PRS-T1 says the battery is full, not empty. It only says it is empty and switches off as soon as I try to do anything with it.

And as I'm not willing to pay for a new battery and risk destroying the device at the same time there is no harm in trying the bypass hack just in case it is a defective overheat monitoring chip.

[PKFFW]

Just in case anyone is wondering, I tried the suggestion in the youtube video. Essentially soldering a wire from one connection to the another in order to bypass some sort of overheat sensor chip.

Worked like a charm.

Not sure about the long term results......will my battery overheat when charging? Will it burn out? Only time will tell. For now I can read again.

[Sm0och]

Originally Posted by PKFFW

For those interested, I found this youtube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MD_CzEgPyU

I'm going to give it a try when I visit home at Christmas and can borrow Dad's soldering gear. More out of curiosity and a desire to see if it works than anything else.

Hey folks, one more heads up this method works for the described behaviour that I observed in my ~10 year old PRS-T2. The contacts on the logic board that you need to bypass between the battery and the charging port or a little bit on the thin side but with a moderately steady hand and an inexpensive soldering iron, you will be fine. Super happy to revive the device, and as a side note amazing so many years later, it is still very capable for my use case.