Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 16

My Visor Deluxe has been suckin' up my batteries every 2-3 days. It used to take 2-3 weeks. Has anybody else experienced this?

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 100

No. What have you changed with regard to the Visor at around the time that you started experiencing this change? There are many variables and possible causes, depending. Have you changed batteries (inadvertently going to a bad batch of batteries)? Have you loaded something new? Have you changed your usage? (HotSyncing all the time)?

Are you using a USB cradle? Have you recently changed PCs and gone from a serial to a USB connection on your cradle? If so, do you leave your Visor on the cradle all the time when you're not using it? The Visor is not like the Palm V, which should sit on the cradle when not in use, so it can be recharged. Except for the Prism (which has a rechargeable battery you charge up on the cradle), the USB cradle discharges the battery from the Visor when the Visor is sitting there doing nothing.

If this is the case, remove your Visor off of the USB cradle unless you are performing a HotSync.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 16

I haven't changed anything. I still have the same apps that I had before the battery drain problem. I use a usb cradle but I don't leave it in there.
I carry it with me all day with the plastic cover on in the leather case in my shirt pocket -not in a back pocket. So I'm not accidentally turning it on by sitting on it.
I've never dropped it.
I've tried new packs of batteries (energizers and duracells). I never mix brands and I always replace both.
I suspect that it's a short circuit.
Thanks for the feedback though.

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: aurora, co, usa
Posts: 21

are you perhaps running the CRASH hack?

my visor prism recently went into battery draining mode after I did a rebuild of it. I disabled all my hackmaster hacks and enabled them one by one, once I enabled the crash hack (which reboots your visor if it hangs) the battery draining behavior went away. I reloaded the crash hack from scratch and alls been well so far....

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 16

Thanks for the suggestions
I used to have HanDbase, Avantgo, Vindigo, and Aportis on it.
A funny thing happened 2 days ago. I clicked the avantgo icon and it said I had a fatal error. I had to hard reset it to bring it back.
Right now, I have nothing on it but the apps it comes with.
Now it's draining in less than 12 hours!
I called Handspring and they're going to send me a replacement this week.
Thank you Handspring!

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Posts: 109

Yes!!!

Yes, I have this very same experience! I even e-mailed Handspring support about it. After an initial reply fo things to try (none of which fixed it), I have not heard a PEEP out of them.

Fortunately, I got a FullCharge for Christmas, so I'm not wasting tons of money on new batteries. But, still, my battery drain for Alkalines was 2-3 days (when they used to last more than a month)

I too suspect it is a short circuit. At least we know we're not alone.

quote:

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Originally posted by SciJohn
My Visor Deluxe has been suckin' up my batteries every 2-3 days. It used to take 2-3 weeks. Has anybody else experienced this?

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 16

Trinition,
If it's less than a year old, call Handspring and ask for a replacement. They guy I talked to at Support was very helpful. I got a replacement 2 days ago. It's not draining batteries, it doesn't look like a refurbished visor and I'm happy.

I also got an email from support saying that screen protectors can drain the battery by applying constant pressure to the screen. I'm not so sure about that. Removing my screen protector didn't slow down the drain for me. It still died in 12 hours.

Good luck.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Posts: 109

How old is it?

I got my original Visor in November of 1999. I had it replaced last summer because the hardware buttons were sticking, causing it to stay on and drain power.

So, is my Visor new as oflast summer, or the November before?

quote:

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Originally posted by SciJohn
Trinition,
If it's less than a year old, call Handspring and ask for a replacement. They guy I talked to at Support was very helpful. I got a replacement 2 days ago. It's not draining batteries, it doesn't look like a refurbished visor and I'm happy.

I also got an email from support saying that screen protectors can drain the battery by applying constant pressure to the screen. I'm not so sure about that. Removing my screen protector didn't slow down the drain for me. It still died in 12 hours.

Good luck.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 16

I say give them a call. It won't hurt to find out. My experience with them has been very positive.
Also, if you paid for the original with your credit card, they may have automatically extended your warranty to 2 years. Check with your credit card company.

Registered: Apr 2000
Location: Newburgh, IN, USA
Posts: 3

I am having the same problem with VDx - Green. I got it in Feb '00, so I am going to call Handspring right away and see if I can get a replacement before the warranty wears out.

BTW, I am with you on the mystery of the root cause. I was on a business trip and had not replaced my batteries after about 2 days of low battery warnings. I finally did, before the completely died, and the new ones I put in died in less than 24 hours. Not only that, but while I was in a meeting I turned in on to review my scheduled and literally watched the battery meter click away juice before my eyes!

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 50

Although my battery drain has not been as severe as some of those mentioned here, I did notice a decrease in battery life after performing the suggested DRAM memory fix that was released over the summer. Shortened battery life was even mentioned on the Handspring site. For info see: http://www.handspring.com/support/t..._download.jhtml

Just an idea...

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 16

Thanks for the info Helen5
Ok here's something wierd.
When I called tech support and explained the problem, he asked me if I had Avantgo installed. I told him that I used to but since it had completely drained, and I hadn't hot synched it, it wasn't on it now and it's still draining quickly. All I had on it was the basic stuff.
So they sent me a replacement. My batteries have indicated a full charge for 5 days.
Once I synched the replacement on the 5th day, I could watch the battery indicator go down!
I quickly deleted the apps Avantgo, Vindigo, and OmniRemote from my Visor and my Palm folders and I re-synched it.
Guess what? My battery indicator when UP (very slightly but noticeably) and it's stayed that way all day.
I use my Handspring at work all day and it never changed.
I think it was one of those 3 apps.
I'm not convinced that it's Avantgo but it has caused fatal errors a few times.
If OmniRemote somehow stayed on in the background, beaming all of the time, that would certainly drain the batteries.
Anyway, I'd rather do without them than waste money on batteries.

Registered: Mar 2000
Location:
Posts: 27

Me too

I had that same problem when I got my VDX last year. The batteries started draining overnight about a week after I got it. I took it back to CompUSA and got a replacement. Havent had a problem since.

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 5

My wife got me the Stowaway keyboard for Xmas; 2 days earlier I had replaced the batteries. The morning after I had installed the software my batts were dead. Chased it down to version 1.0 of the software that came with the keyboard on CDROM. No problems after I updated to the latest version from their website. Another funny problem that was also fixed by the upgrade was that my buttons were "hyper", almost like when you set the typematic repeat too high on a keyboard.

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 50

quote:

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Originally posted by SciJohn
Thanks for the info Helen5
Ok here's something wierd.
When I called tech support and explained the problem, he asked me if I had Avantgo installed.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 16

Hi Helen5,
He never explained why he mentioned Avantgo and I never pursued it. I had been using Avantgo for months with no problems. I'm not installing it though.
John

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 50

I was just curious. I have Avantgo installed, and while I've had the occassional time out from specific channels, I've never had a problem with Avantgo itself. In fact, Avantgo was one of the reasons I splurged on my Visor in the first place (Last summer I was writing for a website just as it was going through the process of becoming a channel, and I couldn't resist. )

Helen

Registered: May 2000
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Posts: 163

Avant Go = More On Time?

My guess (since I noticed my batteries didn't last quite as long after installing Avant Go) -- your hotsyncs would be longer, and you would have your Visor on for longer periods of time reading the content.
Like I said, just my guess.

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 16

Jazzlover,
I bet you're right; Maybe that's what the support guy was getting at when he asked me about Avantgo. He probably wanted to know if my usage habits had changed.
My battery problem started months after I installed Avantgo and my usage habits hadn't changed.
Originally, my batteries lasted 2-3 weeks. -Then it went to 2-3 days -then to less than 10 hours.
Fortunately, I hotsync with a T1 connection to the internet so downloading Avantgo and Vindigo took less than 2 minutes so it wasn't sitting in the cradle for very long.
I thought that he might be implying that it was a problem with the Avantgo app. -leave it to the computer tech to blame the software!
Scijohn