PRS-950 strange battery issue

sovre · 03-27-2011, 03:31 AM

Was wondering if anyone has experienced this or knows what might have caused it.

I had put my reader into sleep mode last night. At this time my battery had all black bars in the display, leading me to believe it had a lot of charge left. Also, I have the wifi switch turned to off. But when I picked it up just now the screen was blank. I tried pressing the home button--nothing. Tried the power switch a few times--nothing either.

At this point I plugged it in via the charger The display then came on giving me a message about low battery and saying network features had been turned off. "please charge the battery before attempting to connect again."

Two things are puzzling me--how did my battery which showed as fully charged drain over night? And why is the reader telling me network features have been turned off, and advising me to recharge the battery before attempting to connect, when I wasn't attempting to connect and have wifi turned off via the switch?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can clarify this for me.

elcreative · 03-27-2011, 08:32 AM

Only check is if it happens again otherwise it could be something as simple as thinking that you'd turned Wi-Fi off but not quite engaged switch or just a glitch...

Anyone else with 950 had similar?

Aurora W · 03-27-2011, 10:59 AM

Was the 3G still turned on?

Bookworm_Girl · 03-27-2011, 11:13 AM

I had my 950 battery drain overnight recently with the wireless switch turned off. I thought it was odd. I charged it fully, read for an hour or so, and then the same thing happened again. I powered off and back on and it's been fine since. My theory is that before this behavior occurred the first time I had made a large quantity of notes in a very large EPUB file (2000+ pages). Even though I had exited the book perhaps there was some process still working in the background that should not have been. Maybe that's why the power off/on cycle helped refresh everything.

sovre · 03-27-2011, 04:09 PM

Aurora: Looking under applications I saw that "mobile network" was "on." But I don't think this could have been the culprit because I had never turned the mobile network off before, and never had the overnight battery drain take place. This makes me curious though--will having that setting set to "on" make the battery drain more quickly, even if one is not using the mobile network?

Bookworm Girl: that's interesting what you say about the file. The night before switching it off I was reading a epub document I had converted from pdf. I noticed for some reason the Sony was having difficulty with this document. When I would highlight passages it was moving very slowly, and sometimes would end up flipping to the previous or next page instead of highlighting. Finally it just refused to highlight at all. I wonder if there could be something about the formatting of the document that the Sony has some trouble with, and which was making the processor work extra hard. Would still be surprised if that caused the battery drain though, because I only spent about an hour reading that document--and the other mysterious thing is the battery icon did not show any drain--all four bars were there before I turned it off.

One possibility that just came into my mind: if the eReader is in sleep mode, but something is making contact with the touch screen, could this cause battery drain? Would the processor keep firing if something was making contact with the screen, even if the reader was sleeping?

Bookworm_Girl · 03-27-2011, 04:57 PM

If the reader is in sleep mode, then contact with the screen shouldn't cause battery drain. Sounds like maybe it is a file issue. My battery icon didn't show any unusual drain before it went into sleep mode either.

I usually have mobile network set to "off" because 3G can wear the battery down faster than Wi-fi, especially if you live in an area with an unreliable signal. I usually keep Wi-fi set to "on" and also Wireless Standby set to "on". I get about a week's worth of battery life with Wi-fi set to "on" continuously and reading for a few hours every night.

My 950 battery has drained overnight before due to a poor Wi-fi connection. I had to reset my router and modem that morning due to issues that my ISP was having. My NOOKcolor also drained overnight too. I assume that it lost the Wi-fi connection and was constantly trying to reconnect and therefore draining battery.

Your original post says you had wireless turned off via the switch. If you have turned the wireless hardware switch on the bottom of your 950 to "off", then it over-rides the software system settings. You will see that the wireless icons (in the lower-left corner of the status bar) show the word "OFF" in this case.

mopbucks · 03-29-2011, 05:58 AM

I have the same experience. My device is PRS 650 with no wifi function. Half of the power drained overnight.

I think it's because of the temperature.

Extragooey · 03-29-2011, 01:37 PM

I have this strange battery drain issue as well. I have a prs-650. This has happened several times already with my device. The most recent scenario is the following.

Charged to full on Friday
Read for 45 min on the commute home
Left in sleep mode and over the weekend the device automatically shut off
Monday morning, turned device on to read for 45 min during commute to work, battery indicator showed full bars
Monday evening, turned on from sleep mode to read for 45 min during commute home, battery showed 3/4 bars
Tuesday morning, turned on from sleep to read and battery indicator showed 1/4 bars

So the device was probably in use for a little over 2 hours and the device was at less than 25% battery. Like I said, this was not the only incident.

reneveliz · 03-30-2011, 11:53 AM

The issue with the battery will depend on the way that the reader is charged, for example, these Sony readers are drained out if you leave it charging for too long, charging overnight or more than 5 o 6 hours will drain the power that it already had.
Just make sure to reset the reader before charging it,(just push the reset hole and it will not delete anything) then get it to charge for no more than 3 o 4 hours and see if that helps or the behavior comes back

elcreative · 03-30-2011, 01:24 PM

Basically this is rubbish... check out the other threads relating to batteries, power etc. Sony's are perfectly happy to be left charging and do NOT discharge unless you use a computer which is set to sleep/hibernate, switching off its USB ports then it will start to discharge. All of my Sonys, and the ones used by friends, are perfectly happy to be left charging overnight, over the weekend, for a week, whatever... they have circuitry which stops the possiblilty of overcharge and certainly do NOT discharge unless you turn the PSU or computer (USB port) off.

By all means press the reset before you charge (or after) as it simply resets the machine to its normal state without affecting anything else. After that just charge it, either with a separate wall charger or by computer... just ensure computer is set to stay awake and keep USB ports active (some do keep ports active) and do so for at least 4 hours (red light should go off) which'll probably give you 80% charge or do as I (and many others) do and charge overnight for 6-8 hours (I'm not getting up early to disconnect it for any voodoo science ideas) or more... if you want more precise info then google "lithium ion batteries technical specification" or similar and get the full accurate info from the battery manufacturers...

Quote:

Originally Posted by reneveliz

The issue with the battery will depend on the way that the reader is charged, for example, these Sony readers are drained out if you leave it charging for too long, charging overnight or more than 5 o 6 hours will drain the power that it already had.
Just make sure to reset the reader before charging it,(just push the reset hole and it will not delete anything) then get it to charge for no more than 3 o 4 hours and see if that helps or the behavior comes back

Amalthia · 04-25-2011, 06:05 PM

My sony prs-650 also completly drained overnight after I charged it for three hours the previous night until the light turned off. I didn't have any audio files playing so I'm not sure what happened or why it drained. I don't take notes on my device or use any special features.

Shopaholic · 04-27-2011, 01:14 PM

Ok, I'll throw my experience into the ring! I have the 350 and have never let it drain down all the way before recharging. I've plugged it in overnight and let it charge when it was at 2 bars. This past week I had something odd happen. I hadn't used the reader in about 2 weeks and naturally it did a full shut down.

I was working the advanced polls for the Canadian elections so wanted to bring my reader if/when there was downtime so charged it overnight. I unplugged it in the morning yet by noon it was down to 3 bars. By dinner it was down to 2. By late evening it gave me the low battery warning. WTH??? Ok, charged it overnight again. Over the next day and a half I got the same results. I watched the battery drain to nothing.

I don't take notes and don't use the slideshow. I did a full shutdown and restart and read the device with no bars until I bed when I charged it again overnight. I'm on day 2 now with that charge and still on 4 bars.

Very weird! I'm wondering if it's because I never drained it fully since getting it mid-February. Any thoughts on that?

I wasn't impressed with Sony service. They said they'd take it and either replace the battery on MY unit or replace my unit with a refurb which may have some blemishes. I'm really picky about my stuff. I have a pristine unit. I don't want one with blemishes of any sort on it. When I asked what happens if I get a refurb and am unhappy with it because of said blemishes I was told it's their discretion and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I understand their position but by the same token this thing isn't even 3 months old!! I don't want a 'blemished' unit.

Do you guys think that draining the battery to nothing twice and then doing an overnight charge will 'make it normal' again? I want a working reader but would really rather not send it in and possibly get stuck with a 'blemished' unit.

elcreative · 04-27-2011, 02:52 PM

No, lithium polymer batteries do not work that way, it's an outmoded idea from the days of Ni-Cad cells which are completely different... I would suggest an overnight charge from a wall charger or a PC that will definitely not go into sleep/hibernate mode if left unattended... when the red light goes out then battery is at 80% charge so it doesn't hurt to leave charging and it can't overcharge due to circuitry designed to stop that happening...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shopaholic

Do you guys think that draining the battery to nothing twice and then doing an overnight charge will 'make it normal' again? I want a working reader but would really rather not send it in and possibly get stuck with a 'blemished' unit.

Shopaholic · 04-27-2011, 03:09 PM

Elcreative please re-read my post. It was one of your posts that I read on this same topic that had me charging my 350 when it was down only 2 bars instead of waiting until there were no bars. I do understand that Ni-Cad batteries are different from Lithium Polymer but twice now in the last week the reader battery drained before my very eyes from a full overnight charge to nothing in less than 2 days.

Every single time I charge the unit I leave it overnight with my AC Blackberry charger. Only last week have I had the issue with the very fast battery drain. So far I'm on day 2 with no battery droppage after those unusual episodes. +++ fingers crossed

If draining it fully twice (on it's own) and then charging overnight each time wouldn't affect the battery what then do you suggest was the issue that made it drain to nothing and why does it appear alright so far now? If the battery was faulty enough to fully drain in less than 2 days twice in a row, would it not be faulty enough do to so a third time and every subsequent charge?

Amalthia · 04-27-2011, 03:23 PM

I'm sending my device back because in standby mode it doesn't actually go into standby mode and as a result the battery is draining very fast. I'm not sure what caused this to start happening but all my buttons on the device are messed up. Luckily, the touch screen still works so I can still use my device to read while waiting for the replacement unit to arrive. But it's hard to remember not to hit the home button or options button. I don't know why the buttons put the device in standby mode when standby doesn't seem to actually work. To save my battery I'm currently turning off the device when I'm not using it.

but for others with battery drain issues are you turning off the device or going into standby mode? Failed standby could be a culprit.

03-27-2011, 03:31 AM	#1
sovre Zealot Posts: 108 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: United States Device: iPad Mini; iPhone; Kindle Paperwhite (10th gen)	strange battery issue Was wondering if anyone has experienced this or knows what might have caused it. I had put my reader into sleep mode last night. At this time my battery had all black bars in the display, leading me to believe it had a lot of charge left. Also, I have the wifi switch turned to off. But when I picked it up just now the screen was blank. I tried pressing the home button--nothing. Tried the power switch a few times--nothing either. At this point I plugged it in via the charger The display then came on giving me a message about low battery and saying network features had been turned off. "please charge the battery before attempting to connect again." Two things are puzzling me--how did my battery which showed as fully charged drain over night? And why is the reader telling me network features have been turned off, and advising me to recharge the battery before attempting to connect, when I wasn't attempting to connect and have wifi turned off via the switch? Thanks in advance to anyone who can clarify this for me.

03-29-2011, 01:37 PM	#8
Extragooey Member Posts: 21 Karma: 790 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: Sony PRS-T1	PRS-650 Battery Drain I have this strange battery drain issue as well. I have a prs-650. This has happened several times already with my device. The most recent scenario is the following. Charged to full on Friday Read for 45 min on the commute home Left in sleep mode and over the weekend the device automatically shut off Monday morning, turned device on to read for 45 min during commute to work, battery indicator showed full bars Monday evening, turned on from sleep mode to read for 45 min during commute home, battery showed 3/4 bars Tuesday morning, turned on from sleep to read and battery indicator showed 1/4 bars So the device was probably in use for a little over 2 hours and the device was at less than 25% battery. Like I said, this was not the only incident.

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03-27-2011, 08:32 AM	#2
elcreative Wizard Posts: 2,888 Karma: 5875940 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: PRS505, 600, 350, 650, Nexus 7, Note III, iPad 4 etc	Only check is if it happens again otherwise it could be something as simple as thinking that you'd turned Wi-Fi off but not quite engaged switch or just a glitch... Anyone else with 950 had similar?

03-27-2011, 10:59 AM	#3
Aurora W Addict Posts: 208 Karma: 2435146 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: back in the Midwest, USA Device: PRS-950, iPad, Nexus 7	Was the 3G still turned on?

03-27-2011, 11:13 AM	#4
Bookworm_Girl E-reader Enthusiast Posts: 4,871 Karma: 36507503 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Southwest, USA Device: Kindle Oasis 3; Kobo Aura One; iPad Mini 5	I had my 950 battery drain overnight recently with the wireless switch turned off. I thought it was odd. I charged it fully, read for an hour or so, and then the same thing happened again. I powered off and back on and it's been fine since. My theory is that before this behavior occurred the first time I had made a large quantity of notes in a very large EPUB file (2000+ pages). Even though I had exited the book perhaps there was some process still working in the background that should not have been. Maybe that's why the power off/on cycle helped refresh everything.

03-27-2011, 04:09 PM	#5
sovre Zealot Posts: 108 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: United States Device: iPad Mini; iPhone; Kindle Paperwhite (10th gen)	Aurora: Looking under applications I saw that "mobile network" was "on." But I don't think this could have been the culprit because I had never turned the mobile network off before, and never had the overnight battery drain take place. This makes me curious though--will having that setting set to "on" make the battery drain more quickly, even if one is not using the mobile network? Bookworm Girl: that's interesting what you say about the file. The night before switching it off I was reading a epub document I had converted from pdf. I noticed for some reason the Sony was having difficulty with this document. When I would highlight passages it was moving very slowly, and sometimes would end up flipping to the previous or next page instead of highlighting. Finally it just refused to highlight at all. I wonder if there could be something about the formatting of the document that the Sony has some trouble with, and which was making the processor work extra hard. Would still be surprised if that caused the battery drain though, because I only spent about an hour reading that document--and the other mysterious thing is the battery icon did not show any drain--all four bars were there before I turned it off. One possibility that just came into my mind: if the eReader is in sleep mode, but something is making contact with the touch screen, could this cause battery drain? Would the processor keep firing if something was making contact with the screen, even if the reader was sleeping?

03-27-2011, 04:57 PM	#6
Bookworm_Girl E-reader Enthusiast Posts: 4,871 Karma: 36507503 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Southwest, USA Device: Kindle Oasis 3; Kobo Aura One; iPad Mini 5	If the reader is in sleep mode, then contact with the screen shouldn't cause battery drain. Sounds like maybe it is a file issue. My battery icon didn't show any unusual drain before it went into sleep mode either. I usually have mobile network set to "off" because 3G can wear the battery down faster than Wi-fi, especially if you live in an area with an unreliable signal. I usually keep Wi-fi set to "on" and also Wireless Standby set to "on". I get about a week's worth of battery life with Wi-fi set to "on" continuously and reading for a few hours every night. My 950 battery has drained overnight before due to a poor Wi-fi connection. I had to reset my router and modem that morning due to issues that my ISP was having. My NOOKcolor also drained overnight too. I assume that it lost the Wi-fi connection and was constantly trying to reconnect and therefore draining battery. Your original post says you had wireless turned off via the switch. If you have turned the wireless hardware switch on the bottom of your 950 to "off", then it over-rides the software system settings. You will see that the wireless icons (in the lower-left corner of the status bar) show the word "OFF" in this case.

03-29-2011, 05:58 AM	#7
mopbucks Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: prs-650	I have the same experience. My device is PRS 650 with no wifi function. Half of the power drained overnight. I think it's because of the temperature.

03-30-2011, 11:53 AM	#9
reneveliz terron Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2011 Device: none	The issue with the battery will depend on the way that the reader is charged, for example, these Sony readers are drained out if you leave it charging for too long, charging overnight or more than 5 o 6 hours will drain the power that it already had. Just make sure to reset the reader before charging it,(just push the reset hole and it will not delete anything) then get it to charge for no more than 3 o 4 hours and see if that helps or the behavior comes back

04-25-2011, 06:05 PM	#11
Amalthia Wizard Posts: 1,158 Karma: 32196 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Anchorage, AK Device: Sony Reader PRS-505, PRS-650, PRS-T3, Pocketbook HD2	My sony prs-650 also completly drained overnight after I charged it for three hours the previous night until the light turned off. I didn't have any audio files playing so I'm not sure what happened or why it drained. I don't take notes on my device or use any special features.

04-27-2011, 01:14 PM	#12
Shopaholic Cockatoo Mom! Posts: 1,509 Karma: 1812695 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Ontario, Canada Device: PW4, Kobo: A1, Clara, Libra 2, iPad Pro 11, iPad Mini	Ok, I'll throw my experience into the ring! I have the 350 and have never let it drain down all the way before recharging. I've plugged it in overnight and let it charge when it was at 2 bars. This past week I had something odd happen. I hadn't used the reader in about 2 weeks and naturally it did a full shut down. I was working the advanced polls for the Canadian elections so wanted to bring my reader if/when there was downtime so charged it overnight. I unplugged it in the morning yet by noon it was down to 3 bars. By dinner it was down to 2. By late evening it gave me the low battery warning. WTH??? Ok, charged it overnight again. Over the next day and a half I got the same results. I watched the battery drain to nothing. I don't take notes and don't use the slideshow. I did a full shutdown and restart and read the device with no bars until I bed when I charged it again overnight. I'm on day 2 now with that charge and still on 4 bars. Very weird! I'm wondering if it's because I never drained it fully since getting it mid-February. Any thoughts on that? I wasn't impressed with Sony service. They said they'd take it and either replace the battery on MY unit or replace my unit with a refurb which may have some blemishes. I'm really picky about my stuff. I have a pristine unit. I don't want one with blemishes of any sort on it. When I asked what happens if I get a refurb and am unhappy with it because of said blemishes I was told it's their discretion and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I understand their position but by the same token this thing isn't even 3 months old!! I don't want a 'blemished' unit. Do you guys think that draining the battery to nothing twice and then doing an overnight charge will 'make it normal' again? I want a working reader but would really rather not send it in and possibly get stuck with a 'blemished' unit.

04-27-2011, 03:09 PM	#14
Shopaholic Cockatoo Mom! Posts: 1,509 Karma: 1812695 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Ontario, Canada Device: PW4, Kobo: A1, Clara, Libra 2, iPad Pro 11, iPad Mini	Elcreative please re-read my post. It was one of your posts that I read on this same topic that had me charging my 350 when it was down only 2 bars instead of waiting until there were no bars. I do understand that Ni-Cad batteries are different from Lithium Polymer but twice now in the last week the reader battery drained before my very eyes from a full overnight charge to nothing in less than 2 days. Every single time I charge the unit I leave it overnight with my AC Blackberry charger. Only last week have I had the issue with the very fast battery drain. So far I'm on day 2 with no battery droppage after those unusual episodes. +++ fingers crossed If draining it fully twice (on it's own) and then charging overnight each time wouldn't affect the battery what then do you suggest was the issue that made it drain to nothing and why does it appear alright so far now? If the battery was faulty enough to fully drain in less than 2 days twice in a row, would it not be faulty enough do to so a third time and every subsequent charge?

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04-27-2011, 03:23 PM	#15
Amalthia Wizard Posts: 1,158 Karma: 32196 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Anchorage, AK Device: Sony Reader PRS-505, PRS-650, PRS-T3, Pocketbook HD2	I'm sending my device back because in standby mode it doesn't actually go into standby mode and as a result the battery is draining very fast. I'm not sure what caused this to start happening but all my buttons on the device are messed up. Luckily, the touch screen still works so I can still use my device to read while waiting for the replacement unit to arrive. But it's hard to remember not to hit the home button or options button. I don't know why the buttons put the device in standby mode when standby doesn't seem to actually work. To save my battery I'm currently turning off the device when I'm not using it. but for others with battery drain issues are you turning off the device or going into standby mode? Failed standby could be a culprit.