Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 106

Is everyone that is having problems with they're Prisms charging correctly also have a travel Charger?

I don't have a travel charger, but was considering it. I've had no charging problems (knock on wood).

Is there someone out there having these charge problems that has not used the travel charger?

Ethos

Registered: May 2001
Location:
Posts: 1

I don't have a chance to put my prism in the cradle very much, so I got my hands on a USB sync cable that recharges from power off the PC's USB port. Seemed to work like a champ.

Then I got a non-powered USB hub so I could use my mouse at the same time. Wasn't expecting to be able to charge the prism, but I got the same symptoms that other people here are having.

There is apparently enough power to turn on the power light steady, and battery is shown at 100%, though actual voltage shows well below 4v. After removing USB hub, still can't charge normally again until resetting prism. Then all is well.....

So could problem be started by insufficient voltage getting to prism at some point, and not being fixed until reset?

Matt

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Texas
Posts: 47

quote:

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snippet. i had the same problem also. put your prism in the hot sync cradle where you normally charge it and do a soft reset on it. ( it's somewhat awkward, you have to put your reset pin into the little whole on the back of the prism while its sitting in the cradle.) it works.

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Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 76

Theory about Prism charging issues

My theory about the issues with the Prism charging is as follows: The Prism tracks the State of Charge (SOC) of it's battery by the on-time or some sort of internal measurement of current consumption. However, it appears that it doesn't correctly track current consumption when there's an external (serial) connection which consumes battery current. When you do a soft reset, that resets the SOC meter, which fixes it for a bit.

There may be a way to get around this problem for mobile usage. There is a cable called the PDCH-M9EPOW-6 from:

www.pcables.com

which can be used to externally power the Prism and a RS232 interface.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 18

My Prism wasn't charging either.

My Prism had not been charging either recently (I bought it right when the Prism was released, so it's been, what... a year or more, I guess?). Light stayed solid, battery would charge verrrry slowly, but never really get there. I had tried both on the USB cradle and using the travel charger.

In any case, after reading this thread, it occurred to me I hadn't tried a soft reset. I did, and it's blinking on the travel charger now. Hopefully in a little while I'll find that it's charged properly.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 23

I have had a similar experience with my Prism. During the first four months of use I have not encountered any problems with charging. I do own a battery operated travel charger and have been using it during my trips. During my last trip I charged with the travel charger. Unfortunately, after charging I could not recharge again, the green light would not blink, and after disconnecting the charger the indicator would show low charge, say 28%. I changed several sets of batteries to no avail. Several soft resets changed nothing. Finally, I backed up the Prism - than goodness for the Back up module - and proceeded with the hard reset. After restoring form the module I tried again. This time I could charge with the travel charger. Unfortunately, after the second charge I was back to square one. Again, backing up and hard reset. Again, after charging couple more times I am at the same point. Finally I am at home and try to charge in the cradle - no luck. This time, however, soft reset seems to be working. Again, I am able to charge from the cradle (and the battery charger - for how long, though?).

What is going on? Seems to me that the battery charger does play some role. Also, when I was unable to charge I was having some weird readings from the indicator. I would see the bar on the battery above the half-way mark, but the indicator would say 15% and than the bar would drop to near the end of the battery and than equally suddenly it would go to the half-way mark and the indicator would read 54%. Since the resets seem to do the trick, this looks like some kind of a software quirk. Could anyone enlighten me on this subject? Do I have a defective Prism (hardware problem) that needs to be replaced - it is still under warranty - or is this a software issue? I thought that one of the last patches had something about fixing a problem with the battery indicator - I might remember it wrong.

Registered: Sep 2001
Location: toronto
Posts: 85

Ok I just got back from a 6 week stint in italy...same problem happend to me over there....Just a solid light when I charged the prism.I thought mine was f&$ked and the travel charger blew it up or something.

But alas!! All I had to do was open that sucker up, unplug the battery and plug it back in ....oh ya make sure you sync your goods before you do this

I ended up getting so frustrated I took mine apart unplugged the battery plugged it back in then realized I lost everything 5000 miles from home ...thank god for the back up on the laptop ..heheeh

worked for me..hope it works for you!

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