Battery running down in 3 days

[rdolmat]

Hi folks...

hmm. I thought the reader was supposed to have a LONG battery life when not in use. I do some reading...(no MP3s etc), then close the cover and leave it for a few days....then I turn it on, and get a low battery warning?

WT hell? What happened to "it only takes power when changing pages" claim?

mine is less than 1 month old.

[Nate the great]

This isn't the first time we've heard of battery problems in the 505. I suspect that there was a run of bad batteries. If you can, return the Reader.

[mlbspike]

Although, it's the probable problem, it's not 100% guaranteed that it's the battery. I'm on my 3rd battery, with a 500. I'm giving this one another cycle test before I call in, and send it in again. In my case, it's apparent that something in the reader is faulty, and draining the battery. Each time, I've been getting about 6 days (not reading a darn page). My 505 is nearer 16 days, while reading about 1600 pages.
Mike

[rdolmat]

dang it....so how do I find out?

I live in Canada and bought this from Borders in Seattle...don't know what the warranty situation is...

[spooky69]

It's been pointed out that reading books off of a memory card seems to drain the battery a lot faster than it would otherwise. If you've been using a memory card, try taking it out and only reading books that are stored on the internal memory.

[dhbailey]

Originally Posted by spooky69

It's been pointed out that reading books off of a memory card seems to drain the battery a lot faster than it would otherwise. If you've been using a memory card, try taking it out and only reading books that are stored on the internal memory.

I wouldn't say that it drains the battery "a lot" faster, but rather it does drain it somewhat faster.

I use a memory stick in my 500 and would say that it is reaching the point where I usually recharge it (one segment of the battery meter remaining) in maybe 18 days rather than perhaps 21 days when I have used the 500 without the memory stick.

Certainly not enough extra power drain to get the low battery warning in 6 days.

[safjazz]

I've had my Reader for four weeks. I discovered two weeks ago that I can't use my SD card in the reader or I get only about 350 pages per bar on the battery power indicator. I was ready to return the Reader until I read somewhere in this forum about the SD card draining the battery.

Without my SD card loaded, I get a bit more than 1200 pages per bar.

I've heard that people are getting better results from memory sticks. I haven't tried that yet.

Also, I wondered if the improved battery performance was because I started charging my Reader with the power adapter I bought last week. Do you use an adapter?

[rsdavis9]

I went to one bar in 11 days with a memory stick inserted but reading off main memory. I only read about 100 pages a day average. With a sd card inserted I went to 2 bars in about 4 days. I took out all cards and I am still reading with 2 bars and its been 13 days.
My impression is that the cards use power when you turn on and off because they need to be read to get their contents. The memory stick is significantly better than sd card.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rsdavis9

My impression is that the cards use power when you turn on and off because they need to be read to get their contents. The memory stick is significantly better than sd card.

Remember, though, that (unless you use the menu option on the 505) you are never actually "turning off" the Reader; all the "power switch" does is to blank the screen and disable most of the buttons. While it's "off" the operating system is still running and the card will be drawing a constant, but small, amount of power.

Not all SD cards have the same power consumption. In particular, old SD cards will generally have a higher power drain than new cards. It may be worthwhile to replace an old card with a new one.

[roofone]

I can confirm the poor battery life (at least when using an SD card) on the 505 -- I thought it was just me!

Reading from an SD card (a SanDisk Ultra II 2 GB that Amazon recommended), I get less than 150 pages per bar: I went from three bars to one on a 2.5 hour plane trip (~150 pages) last night, and this morning, my reader is giving me the stop sign battery out warning. Back on to the PSP charger I guess.

The reader seems to drain very quickly even when "off" (suspended) and a book from the SD card is loaded in memory.

Would a sony memory stick give me better results? The performance with an SD card is just unacceptable.

[jakeluck]

interesting, so would the battery improve if i only read off the main memory while still leaving the SD card in the slot? (I keep a lot of reference material on the SD card, but only access them occasionally.)

[safjazz]

See, this is what I can't figure out. My SD card seems to drain the battery even if I am reading off the main memory. Of course, the Reader loads the contents from the SD card when I insert it, so maybe that's why?

I have a few other SD cards to try (maybe they're newer). I'm assuming from what HarryT said that I should turn the Reader completely off when I have an SD card inserted and am not using the Reader.

I really wish I could copy a book from my SD card to the Reader as I can with my PDA. That way, I could carry my library of e-books w/o having to keep the SD card inserted.

[Deputy-Dawg]

How are you putting the books on your SD card? If you are simply coping them via a usb connection (eg _NOT_ using the Sony software) in addition to loading the file on the Reader the Reader also must parse the file and format it for the various font sizes. These operations are, apparently, quite cpu and therefore power intensive. If you use the Sony software this parsing and at least some of the formatting is done on the PC and the results are simply stored in the database on the Reader. What is worse it seems as if the formatting information is lost if it is done by the Reader with any change in the file structure on the SD. Which is not say that some SDs may be more power hungry than others.

[safjazz]

Oh. Excellent points. I never thought about that. I move the books directly from my e-books folder on my hard drive to my SD card. I didn't think about doing it that way. I'm still in "reading on my PDA" mode and not "reading on my Reader" mode.

Thanks, Deputy-Dawg!

[roofone]

I use libprs500. I'll try it with the Sone REader software.