Registered: Feb 2001
Location:
Posts: 2

I am on my second Prism (within one month) and I am having the same problem. Initially, I was able to charge the battery in an USB docking cradle. The LED light functioned properly. Now, the Prism is in its docking station, but the LED light does not blink and the battery does not charge. I have done a soft reset. Am I encountering a user or a hardware problem? Any input would be appreciated.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Texan in Calgary for a while
Posts: 1361

Make sure the power cable has a good connection. I plug the USB cable into my keyboard and it slips out all the time.

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James Hromadka
Old Friend

Registered: Feb 2001
Location:
Posts: 2

Visor Prism: Can't recharge battery

James,
Thanks for the response. Actually, I wondered if the USB port connection might be the problem. However, I am using a serial port docking cradle at work, and I know the connection is snug.
At this point I am waiting for Tech support to call me back (within a 24 hour window). This is really taking the fun out of my new Prism.
Sabrespace

Registered: Feb 2001
Location:
Posts: 4

Also having recharge problems

I too, am suddenly faced with recharge problems, after about three months of Prism bliss. Hotsyncing is still possible, indeed, it works fine, and I have tried USB hookup from a variety of places (I use Macs) but no flashing light. Meanwhile, the battery dwindles...

Curious to hear what Tech Support says. Thanks.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Warren, OH, USA
Posts: 57

I had an unrelated problem with my Prism freezing up and not even a hard reset would correct the problem. While I was being sent a replacement, I went ahead and opened the case, disconnected the small cable from the battery to the board, and then reconnected the battery to the board. It fixed my Prism immediately.

Now I say that to suggest you look at this connection inside the Prism to make sure there is good contact between the battery and the board.

I have no idea if this will fix your problem, but it is a very easy procedure and I would think it worth a try.

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: USA
Posts: 54

If you guys can get access to a Multimeter, by all means measure the voltage in your craddle. Between pins 7 and 4 you must have about 6 Volts. If you do, your problem is either the Prism itself (yuck!) or the connection between Prism and craddle.
If there is no voltage, check between Power supply (measure the voltage on the little DC connector that plugs into the USB connector) and craddle. Good luck!

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</font></B><BR><FONT face="verdana,arial,helvetica" size="1" >It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, a half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. - Hit it.</font>

Registered: Feb 2001
Location:
Posts: 6

WHERE ARE THE BATTERIES?

are there batteries in a prism? If not, how can you recharge in a remote location?

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: USA
Posts: 54

Why yes, of course there are! Rechargeable batteries inside the housing (Prism is slightly more bulky than the other Visors).

__________________
</font></B><BR><FONT face="verdana,arial,helvetica" size="1" >It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, a half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. - Hit it.</font>

Registered: Feb 2001
Location:
Posts: 4

talked to tech

When I spoke to tech support at Handspring, I essentially was told (politely enough) that if -- following the cable SOP, etc. -- a hard reset didn't do it, then a return was the only possible option. Since I'm away on business, can anyone else substantiate this for themselves, should they be suffering the same issue? I'm curious.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Baltimore MD, USA
Posts: 717

Re: WHERE ARE THE BATTERIES?

quote:

---

Originally posted by aur
are there batteries in a prism? If not, how can you recharge in a remote location?

---

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Phoenix Arizona
Posts: 74

I'm not sure if I'm seeing this as well. I was using my Prism early this morning and the battery was at about a 86% charge. I sat it in the cradle and no blinking - just a steady light.

I messed with this a little, left it in the cradle, did some surfing - nothing new. I took it out and it showed a 100% charge. Then, about every 3 seconds it went down a % point. It stopped going down at the 93% point.

I did a soft reset, then a warm reset. Plugged it back into the cradle and it started blinking for about a minute. Then steady light for 15 seconds, then a few blinks, repeat the cycle and then steady light.

Pulled it off the cradle and the charge indicator went down again, slowly, to 92/93 %.

Now, I thought that these came with Lithium/Ion batteries -- could we possibly be experiencing some kind of memory effect here and not a charging problem? For those that are experiencing this -- does your Visor sit on the cradle a lot? Does this problem go away with a travel charger? Has anyone drained their Visor all the way down and then charged up?

Just a couple of thoughts......
dave

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Kuala Lumpur
Posts: 247

Im having the same problem as Dave is - I put it in the charger and even though fully charged, it soon drops down to 93% or so as soon as I take it out.

Not sure what the problem is, but I have been "topping up" power instead of fully draining it first.

Am now trying to drain power totally first before recharging to see if it makes a difference.

If that doesn't work, I'm toying with the idea of doing a complete hard reset and restoring NOTHING from my backup folder to see if it makes any difference.

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Tan Kit Hoong,
Star Publications (M) Ltd
<img src="http://thestar.com.my/tech/images/thestar_140x45.gif">

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 60

Er, you say it doesn't charge even after a soft reset... did you try a hard reset?

And nightingales, 'there is nothing you cannot photograph with your eyemodule except for your visor'... uh, well..

ever heard of a thing called a mirror?

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Phoenix Arizona
Posts: 74

Like Tan, I'm going to drain it down and see what happens. I'm not sure the pain of a hard re-set is the answer yet - I'm thinking that this may be a battery memory problem.

The only other factor that might (and I'm very leary that this is a factor) is that I bought an Eyemodule2 yesterday -- and then I noticed this happening. But, the Eyemodule2 wasn't in the Prism when I was doing the charging.
dave

Registered: Feb 2001
Location:
Posts: 4

hard reset

Tried the hard reset, which accomplished nothing. Will Hotsync, but will not charge. Guess I'll be returning my Visor shortly, dammit.

The perils of early adoption, I suppose.

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: USA
Posts: 54

quote:

---

Originally posted by CaptainCaveman
And nightingales, 'there is nothing you cannot photograph with your eyemodule except for your visor'... uh, well..

ever heard of a thing called a mirror?

---

__________________
</font></B><BR><FONT face="verdana,arial,helvetica" size="1" >It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, a half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. - Hit it.</font>

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Phoenix Arizona
Posts: 74

Let's continue this saga. I used my Prism and ran the battery down to about 28%. I feel that I got good battery life as I was using it constantly for hours.

I placed the Prism on the cradel and the light blinked and I think it charged up in about 45 minutes.

When I took it out of the cradle and turned it on, I got the same 3 second reduction in battery %% down to about 93% -- then stable from there. This time I'm going to charge down to a complete drain and warning message and then re-charge again to see if I get the same results as a 28% charge.

Next, I'll try (I need to buy one anyway) a travel charger and see if I get any different results.

Tan, what are you seeing? This sure sounds like a battery memory issue to me. Lastly, the only thing that still may be an anomaly that I haven't yet tested is that I'm using Cruise Control (I love it) -- but haven't had / noticed any problems with it to date (except some minor beaming issues that cause me to have to turn it off briefly).

dave

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Kuala Lumpur
Posts: 247

Well, I have to say that my batteries never showed 100% when fully charged, even when I bought it. I understand that is normal.

Normally, my batteries drop down to about 80% after a long day of HotSynching many times (I HotSync at the office).

However, I recently noticed that my batteries would now drop down to about 70% even though I have cut down on my HotSynching.

I don't know if it was my imagination, but this happened right after I plugged in a Hadnspring 8MB Flash Module from a friend who was experiencing power problems on two successive Visor Prisms (he had it changed because of that)..

Anybody suspect it could be defective 8MB modules which somehow short-circuited or shortened the life of the Prism's battery?

__________________
Tan Kit Hoong,
Star Publications (M) Ltd
<img src="http://thestar.com.my/tech/images/thestar_140x45.gif">

Registered: Feb 2001
Location:
Posts: 3

I had many power related problems with my Prism, even on the first day. After playing Solitaire for 1 hour, I was getting LOW POWER alerts. The power would go on and off when pushing the page UP and page DOWN buttons. I would watch the power indicator go up and down before my eyes. I had one total hard reset every day.

Then I read a post from "scottp" suggesting that I open up the case and check the battery-to-board connector. I was realized that they put the phillips head screw driver in the stylus for *something*, so I opened it up and found to my disgust that the battery connector plug was not "clicked into" the receptical. I clicked it in and my Prism works like a champ now.

How totally lame for Handspring to ship units which have manufacturing defects. There's no way that the battery connection could get loose for any reason other than it was not connected properly in the first place.

I highly recommend that everyone open up their "power challenged" Prism and properly "seat" the battery connection.

Now I know why they give you the screw driver :-(

--DatHead

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 60

ERrrrrrr... does opening it void the warranty? (Or, if it does, can they tell? )

If not, I may open mine and take a look inside. I just got a replacement Prism (had to send mine back because the power LED wasn't lighting up. I didn't think that could have had anything to do with the fact that I dropped it, so I didn't mention that when I called )

Now, I got the replacement, messing with it, trying different hacks and shells, and I notice something -- the battery is dropping like crazy. Using BigClock to time 10 minute increments, I noted the battery level:

Start: 76% (then every 10 minutes. Most of the time I waited for the alarm, turned it on, checked the bat level, wrote it in WordSmith, and turned it back off. I also turned off all hacks and quit to the Palm Launcher, just to make sure those weren't running the battery down.)
10 min later: 72%
72%
68%
69%
67%
20 minutes later:
56%.
So I went from 76% to 56% in 1 hour 10 minutes. With just about no use. NOT GOOD.

I recharged it overnight in the cradle, and am trying the same thing again today. So far in 30 min of non-use, it's gone from 100% to 97%. That's about 1% every 10 minutes.

So, in 16 hours (without using it), my Prism will be completely drained? Hmmmmmmmmmmm.