VisorCentral.com - !!HELP!! - Is my Visor really dead?!

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Posted by mchlwise on 05-04-2001 01:51 AM:

Last night I rode my bike to and from a friends house - about a mile. I had my Visor in it's EB Slipper, and put it in a pouch hanging from the back of my bike seat. (by the way, the last I saw it, my battery level was at about 7%).

Today, I put it in it's little cradle the hotsync, and nothing happened. I thought maybe my computer was messed up or something, so I took it out of the cradle and tried to turn it on (pressing the power button). For an instant it showed the "connecting to desktop" screen, then went blank. I tried to turn it on again, and it started flashing that screen with the low battery warning over it. It flashed maybe 5 times with that same "connecting" screen and , then I saw the Palm OS startup screen (like it had been reset, but I didn't push the reset button) with some streaks, then it flashed again with different streaks, then went out. I thought maybe it was my batteries, so I changed them for brand new ones and tried to turn it on again. This time, nothing - at all.

I've had my Visor for over a year, so thought I had nothing to loose by taking it apart. I've tried to check for loose connections, thinking that the only thing that made sense is something vibrated loose on my bike ride - but nothing seems to work.

PLEASE HELP!!!

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Posted by euangel on 05-04-2001 06:41 AM:

I've something similar happen on a friend's Visor. He ended up leaving the batteries out for about a day, and it seemed to work after that.

Posted by markleetoo on 05-04-2001 06:50 AM:

quote:
I've something similar happen on a friend's Visor. He ended up leaving the batteries out for about a day, and it seemed to work after that.

Even a half an hour should do it. I had that happen to my VDX when I let the batteries get too low. Called Handspring support and they suggested to do just what euangel said to do.

Posted by mchlwise on 05-04-2001 04:57 PM:

thanks

Thanks for the replies and ideas.

I emailed Handspring about it and got a form e-mail back about it which said to change the batteries, check the contrast, soft reset, etc. It said "as a last resort" to take the batteries out and leave them out for at least a half-hour. I'm 14 mintues into that and hoping real hard.

I can't seem to find anything else wrong with it. I checked all the connections and everything looks fine, so I'm hoping it's some kind of software problem. I've had my batteries get lower than they were yesterday, but who knows.

Posted by mchlwise on 05-04-2001 05:41 PM:

IT'S BACK (but something funny happened)

The good news - IT'S BACK!!!

but...

Something really weird happened that I can't explain.

I waited 40 minutes and put my batteries back in. Nothing. So, I called tech support. We went through the usual making sure I'm not an idiot questions ("Make sure the polarity on the batteries is correct" yeah, yeah, yeah). As one of those questions (I thought) he said "try a different set of batteries". I said "they're brand new" (because they were last night when I put them in. He said "see if you have a different set". I seriously considered humoring him and telling him I replaced them when I hadn't, but decided I'd go through the motions.

Suddenly, I saw the Palm startup screen!!!!! Of course, all my data was gone, but it was back!!! So what was weird, was checking my 2 brand new batteries, one of them was still brand new, and the other was dead. Like doornail dead. It came from a brand new package, so I know it didn't go into my Visor like that. Somehow, whatever my Visor was doing completely drained one battery and left the other alone.

I don't know... I'M JUST HAPPY MY VISOR'S BACK!!!

Posted by mcristia on 05-04-2001 05:49 PM:

Re: thanks

quote:
Originally posted by mchlwise
my battery level was at about 7%...I've had my batteries get lower than they were yesterday, but who knows.

WOW! You are brave. Normally, I change mine at the first hint that the batteries are losing it. Seems the low battery message pops up first for me usually between 20% - 10% left. If it is lower that 12%-15%, I replace immediately, otherwise, I adjust the HotSync settings to only sync data I know as changed, do a quick HotSync, then replace the batteries.

It would be nice if someone here could give a brief Batteries 101, so folks would have some confidence about the way batteries work, and what to watch out for in the future. If that has already been done, does anyone know the URL for the discussion?

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Posted by mcristia on 05-04-2001 05:56 PM:

Re: IT'S BACK (but something funny happened)

Love for

quote:
Originally posted by mchlwise
"try a different set of batteries".

You could get a couple packs of batteries, each one from a different manufacturer, or with different covering if from the same manufacturer, and rotate between them each time you change. Helps to keep things straight.

Recently I tried that with Duracell and Kroger brand alkalines (did not check that that they had the same capacity). The Kroger batteries seemed to last just long enough for me to put them in the Visor, while the Duracells have done much better.

__________________
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Peace and Every Good!

Michael W. Cristiani
[email protected]

Posted by MPM on 05-04-2001 08:42 PM:

Re: IT'S BACK (but something funny happened)

quote:
Originally posted by mchlwise
<snip>...So what was weird, was checking my 2 brand new batteries, one of them was still brand new, and the other was dead. Like doornail dead. It came from a brand new package, so I know it didn't go into my Visor like that. Somehow, whatever my Visor was doing completely drained one battery and left the other alone.

I don't know... I'M JUST HAPPY MY VISOR'S BACK!!!

No, the Visor did not drain one battery and not the other. This just isn't possible the way the Visor is wired.

The battery that was dead was defective. I've had this happen to me with a handfull of batteries over the years. One brand new D cell died after I dropped the flashlight it was in onto a carpeted floor from about 3 feet. The flashlight, bulb, and four other batteries were fine, but one battery was completely dead - no voltage at all.

I have also had this happen with brand new AAA, AA, C, and 9V batteries. I think that the batteries had a defect in them that made the suceptible to shock or vibration. So they tested fine at the factory, but then opened up somewhere in shipping.

Posted by Yorick on 05-11-2001 07:44 PM:

Re: Re: thanks

quote:
Originally posted by mcristia

It would be nice if someone here could give a brief Batteries 101, so folks would have some confidence about the way batteries work, and what to watch out for in the future. If that has already been done, does anyone know the URL for the discussion?

How about :
http://www.howstuffworks.com/battery.htm

First page talks in general about batteries; the bottom of page two lists types and typical uses.
I learned battery voltages combine -- two 1.5V cells make up 3V. a 9V cell is actually six little 1.5V batteries.

So far, to get the most $$ out of my batteries, I've been letting them go as far down as possible, until I can't hotsync at all, then switching to fresh ones.
mchlwise, I'm thinking you had this happen, that the batteries were too low to allow a Hotsync.
you did say that you changed batteries, but later learned one was chargeless.

Personally, I'm switching to NiMH when my current pair run out.
I already had a charger, and a pack of four cost $18.
I only get about 3 weeks from alk's and a package of 12 Rayvac Maximums runs $5 (6 x 3 = 18 weeks, about 4.5 months)
As soon as I pass a year on NiMH they'll have paid for themselves.

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Posted by bradhaak on 05-11-2001 07:59 PM:

Keep in mind that the display and serial port take much more power than the memory. Even if you run the batteries down to the point that the screen goes blank and you can't HotSynch, you probably still enough power to keep you data for a couple of weeks. Don't just assume that it's dead and remove the batteries or do a hard reset.

Always do a quick battery change even if you think that the unit is probably dead. You may get a pleasant surprise.

Posted by markleetoo on 05-11-2001 08:28 PM:

quote:
So what was weird, was checking my 2 brand new batteries, one of them was still brand new, and the other was dead. Like doornail dead. It came from a brand new package, so I know it didn't go into my Visor like that. Somehow, whatever my Visor was doing completely drained one battery and left the other alone.

Whenever anyone asks for MHO

- I always recommend going with a couple of sets of NiMH batteries. I've been using them for over six months and they work like a charm.

Posted by tucson_sailors on 05-11-2001 10:18 PM:

NiMH

And the choir said "Amen"!

I've recently switched to NiMH and a portable charger, and its the difference between night and day. Now I don't worry if I have low batteries, just plug it in and let it charge.

Also I bought the backup module, and it has been a great relief to know that even if I screw up and let it die, I can
get disposable batteries from *anywhere* and get back to what I was doing. I now backup every morning after my initial hotsync, and can't imagine not doing it.

Cheers!

Tucson Sailors

Posted by Airmech on 05-12-2001 12:02 PM:

Why would anyone let the batteries run below 20% you are asking for trouble. At the cost of batteries,you should not worry about the little bit of life that is left in them,as opposed to the disaster that could be awaiting you. As someone else said get a BackUp module it wil pay for it self the first time you are are away from your computer and disaster strikes.

T

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Posted by Winchell on 05-12-2001 02:57 PM:

I don't have to worry about it for my Prism, but for my wife's VDX I always use Duracells or other batteries that have those built-in power checker devices.

I compulsively use the checker on new batteries before I remove the old ones from the Visor. I've heard too many horror stories about batteries that were dead right out of the box.

Posted by Yorick on 05-12-2001 05:17 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by Airmech
Why would anyone let the batteries run below 20% you are asking for trouble. At the cost of batteries,you should not worry about the little bit of life that is left in them,as opposed to the disaster that could be awaiting you. As someone else said get a BackUp module it wil pay for it self the first time you are are away from your computer and disaster strikes.

There's very little disaster involved if you regularly backup your data and monitor your battery life.
While batteries are generally inexpensive I'd really rather put as few of them into a landfill as possible.

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Posted by calroth on 12-07-2001 03:50 PM:

I was in a restaurant today, and using my Visor Platinum, trying to eke out every last bit of battery power. It probably didn't help that I had a FlashAdapter and a 32MB Compact Flash card running too...

Anyway, I got dots and streaks across the screen, and it wouldn't respond to anything... resetting it would give me the same streaks (even a hard reset) and I couldn't turn it off. So, in the hopes that I could still preserve my RAM, I left it on until I got home... by then it was still showing the same dots and streaks, even though the batteries must have been pretty low by then.

So, I swapped in a new set of batteries. Now the Palm Powered startup screen came up, with dots all over. One time, it came up with a blinking "cursor" in the upper left hand corner. Holding the down-button down and resetting, the image would slowly get darker, like the contrast was being jacked up... Every time I took batteries out, left it for a few minutes, and tried again, there would be more speckles, until eventually it was a solid black screen. (At this point, I was looking up the warranty info on the Handspring site )

Eventually, as suggested, I left the batteries out for an hour and put them in again afterwards, and all was well. Restored from backup (hey, that CF backup program comes in handy!) and I'm back to normal.

-Terence

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