I replaced my Onyx Boox M96C battery! Now it works!

[exiannyc]

Hi all, I'm new here, this is my first post.

After three or so happy years with my M96C I got into a bootloop. The device could not boot up unless it was plugged into the wall. Otherwise it would say BOOX READER, pause 3 seconds, screen goes blank, BOOX READER, repeat.

But it could boot up if it was plugged in.

Aha, I said to myself, maybe it's the battery. (If you see this pattern on your reader, functioning when plugged in and not when not, maybe it's the battery, not your operating system or whatever.)

I had already sent the device back after having a screen problem. I paid shipping to China but they were very prompt and sent me another one (I assume), no charge and no problem. But after 3 years the warranty was a thing of the past, and if it was just a battery issue, I wasn't going to send it to China again.

I looked online. No one sells batteries for the Onyx M96C. I wrote to the company's customer service.

Prompt response. The battery would be less than $15, and the shipping less than $25. That seemed reasonable to me. I paypal'd the money, within a day they sent me a DHL tracking number, and within 3 days after that, I had my battery. Great service.

I also couldn't find any how-to video about changing the battery on this particular reader, so after fortifying my courage with some other e-reader battery-replacement videos, I unscrewed the 2 screws, took a thin bladed knife, and carefully pried the reader open. It wasn't hard.

I found the battery easily and pulled off a couple pieces of tape. The original battery was stuck in place with very strong double sided tape. I had to pry it off carefully with the knife, little by little, sometimes sawing at the tape adhesive with the serrations of the knife. Within a couple minutes I got it out.

I easily inserted the new battery and plugged it in. Instantly my reader started up normally. Success!

Then i carefully lined up the back cover and snapped it back into place. (Sometimes you have to squeeze pretty hard.) It was difficult or impossible to get the back cover 100% aligned like (I think) it was originally. I think the back cover is about 1 mm lower compared to the front cover than it used to be ( by which I mean, if you hold the reader vertically in front of your face, as if you were reading it, the back cover would be 1 mm closer to the floor than the front). However, once I screwed the screws back in, the power button functioned normally, which is the main thing I care about.

I was left with small scratches in places on the sides of the cover, but I just don't care about that. Also, there's a small decal inside the reader that says "Void" and gets broken if you open it up, so there's that, but you already knew you were voiding the warranty if you open it, and if the warranty is over with anyway, you've got no reason not to try this, in my opinion.

It's been 24 happy hours, and I've had no problems with it. I recommend this course of action if you have this kind of trouble with your reader. Replacing a battery can get you years more use out of a beloved device. And my experience with Boox customer service was thumbs-up all the way.

Christian

[DaleDe]

The is great, I would not want it to get lost in the forum. It needs to be in our wiki for a permanent record. Could you move it to there or if you can't do I have your permission to place it in the wiki?

Dale

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

The is great, I would not want it to get lost in the forum. It needs to be in our wiki for a permanent record. Could you move it to there or if you can't do I have your permission to place it in the wiki?

Dale

I second that. Very useful information which I hope to never have to use...

[DaleDe]

I decided to capture this. Looks like the poster is a frequent visitor. See Battery replace BOOX M96

[Vibs62]

Hi,

I am new to this forum and want to share my experience so that others can avoid making the same mistake as I did.

I bought my Onyx Boox N96CML a year ago but one month ago it started acting as described by Exiannyc. I was therefore pretty certain that it was a defect battery even though the device was only 1 year old and has only been charged around 40 times..

I contacted Onyx and was told that I could get a new battery for 5$ but I would have to pay the shipping expenses 60-80$ to Europe even though the device was still on warrenty when I reported the problem.

This shipping amount is almost 1/4 of the price I paid when I bought it and I do not want to pay this much for a battery that apparently only last around 1 year and probably is refurbished too.

Problem is that the battery is a non-standard battery (!!!!) which cannot be bought in Europe and therefore I can only advise future European buyers to find a non-chinese fabric, for Onyx Boox are some of the most expensive products on the marked but apparently the quality is not worth this kind of money.

I bought the device because it has Google play (a non-licensed version for Google now only supports Android 8x and above) since I am using an online streaming service for reading books but I will NEVER AGAIN buy a Chinese product which can only be repaired in China for shipping costs are much too high and the product isn't worth it.

Addition: After a long struggle with Onyx I finally managed to get them to send me the batteries (I demanded 2!) free of charge. I only had to pay 5$ per batteri which I accepted. After replacing the battery everything worked fine.

[exiannyc]

Hi everybody, it is 100% fine with me for anybody to post the information about how I replaced my Boox M96 battery, here or anywhere.

I hope it helped somebody. Vibs62, I am sorry to hear you are having a frustrating time. I had a problem with the device while it was under warranty, and I reported it. They said if I would pay to ship it to China they would repair it and ship it back at their expense. Shipping was a little difficult - I think DHL does not like to ship electronics, something like that - but we managed it, and I have to say they fixed it promptly and shipped it back. I don't remember how long it took or how much it cost.

I also have a Sony T1 reader that is bricked, probably because the battery needs replacing - but you have to do some soldering to change the battery on that one, and I'm not going to do that. Replacing the battery on the M96C is super easy by comparison. Just unplug the old one and plug the new one in.

Full disclosure: Sometimes if my new battery gets completely discharged (if I forget about my reader for a week or two) it won't recharge unless I unscrew the screws, remove the back, unplug the battery, and plug it back in. That process takes about a minute and a half. If I keep the battery from getting all the way to zero, this is not necessary.

Also, if you have a SD memory card, you should remove it before unscrewing and removing the back, and replace it afterwards. Dismount the card first if your unit is powered on or sleeping.

Best of luck to all of you. The M96C is an amazing reader - I read computer software manuals and journal articles a lot, and it's just not the same on a Sony Reader PRS300, which otherwise is my favorite reader of all time. I don't know of any other large format reader at an accessible price point. So if you can extend its life with a new battery, go for it!

sincerely
Christian

[exiannyc]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

I decided to capture this. Looks like the poster is a frequent visitor. See Battery replace BOOX M96

I'm delighted that you captured it in the wiki. Can you maybe add this additional information to that entry?

Sometimes if my new battery gets completely discharged (if I forget about my reader for a week or two) it won't recharge unless I unscrew the screws, remove the back, unplug the battery, and plug it back in. That process takes about a minute and a half. If I keep the battery from getting all the way to zero, this is not necessary.

Also, if you have a SD memory card, you should remove it before unscrewing and removing the back, and replace it afterwards. Dismount the card first if your unit is powered on or sleeping.

Christian

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by exiannyc

I'm delighted that you captured it in the wiki. Can you maybe add this additional information to that entry?

Sometimes if my new battery gets completely discharged (if I forget about my reader for a week or two) it won't recharge unless I unscrew the screws, remove the back, unplug the battery, and plug it back in. That process takes about a minute and a half. If I keep the battery from getting all the way to zero, this is not necessary.

Also, if you have a SD memory card, you should remove it before unscrewing and removing the back, and replace it afterwards. Dismount the card first if your unit is powered on or sleeping.

Christian

Anyone can edit the wiki and add or fix things. Give it a try!

Dale

[Waiting4somethin]

Originally Posted by Vibs62

Hi,

I am new to this forum and want to share my experience so that others can avoid making the same mistake as I did.

I bought my Onyx Boox N96CML a year ago but one month ago it started acting as described by Exiannyc. I was therefore pretty certain that it was a defect battery even though the device was only 1 year old and has only been charged around 40 times..

I contacted Onyx and was told that I could get a new battery for 5$ but I would have to pay the shipping expenses 60-80$ to Europe even though the device was still on warrenty when I reported the problem.

This shipping amount is almost 1/4 of the price I paid when I bought it and I do not want to pay this much for a battery that apparently only last around 1 year and probably is refurbished too.

Problem is that the battery is a non-standard battery (!!!!) which cannot be bought in Europe and therefore I can only advise future European buyers to find a non-chinese fabric, for Onyx Boox are some of the most expensive products on the marked but apparently the quality is not worth this kind of money.

Onyx said something similar to me, that batteries are contraband, making shipping almost four times the battery costs, and that I should disassemble my device and go to my “local digital mall”(?).

It’s a shame as it should be an easy fix.

[vas123]

The same happened with my lightly used Onyx N97cml..I asked the service for a battery replacement but never received answer...It seeems Onyx equipped eraders with defective batteries and thinks that an ereader about 2 years old bought at the price of 400$ is not worthing..
Does anyone knows where i can buy a replacement battery?

[james_]

Reading this, it seems Onyx has a general poor design issue with regards to power and batteries. The one in my new Note failed in two weeks... unlike my Kindle DX which has been going for years, although I replaced the battery in that recently, it was trivial and cheap to source and replace.

Incidentally I'd recommend getting hold of AccuBattery application, it has an alarm so that you don't charge your device fully. So, if you only charge to 93% you should be able to halve the wear on your battery, which might be useful on Onyx devices...