Battrefresh

[Kevin Gray]

I need BattRefresh for a Sharp Mobilon PV-5000, but I can't find it on Sharp's site. My battery is doing some funky things and I think BattRefresh will fix it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[DanC]

Look for the battery refresh program at the Australian Sharp site:
http://www.sharp.net.au/download_files/index.html
It was available there for download in the recent past (as well as several other items of interest, which Sharp USA doesn't seem to think their customers are worthy of). Bear in mind, it could also be the battery pack ($100+ replacement cost), or the charging circuitry on the PV-5000's circuit board (cost to service I have never checked on, but probably at least $150 USD if even can be ordered at a Sharp service center). So all in all, weigh potential costs to repair yours against replacing it with a nice used super-light touch-screen "real" Windows unit (Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook "B-series" (B-2131 etc.) for example). But the battery refresh program WILL solve a simple charging problem sometimes, so try it first. Good luck.

[Kevin Gray]

I found the Battefreshbut it didn't resolve my issue. Rou were right they want $118 for a new battery. This Sharp was given to me so I'm not willing to put that kind of money into it. Thanks again.

Kevin

[DanC]

I have 4 PV-5000's, 2 of which have charging issues that factory-new battery packs, BattRefresh.exe, and other possible solutions have not solved. I plan to ship the 2 units to Sharp, to learn what the repair options are (if any). They would not give firm estimates over the phone, of course. I will post here again as to Sharp's estimate for the solution. I hope the cost won't be astronomical. If it's too high, they will become rather unique paperweights instead.

[Kevin Gray]

Thanks Dan. Please do let me know when you get a repair price from Sharp.

[zipde]

I would like to buy a ce-ag04 if you have one. Please respond if you do at: zipde@yahoo.com

[DanC]

I'm finally posting a follow-up on my research into fixing charging problems in my PV-5000's (2 units). None of the "official" Sharp contacts and service points were of any help whatsoever (although Sharp staff did provide me with many, many numbers to call once I got past the customer service staff to the more technical staff). Beyond that, all the places they told me to check outside of Sharp's "official" circle of support businesses were of no help either. I did finally find one source for the charging controller circuit board. This is the small board that plugs into the upper surface of the main board, that the wires leading from the battery connect to. By testing my 2 bad PV-5000's with a good board and a factory fresh, fully charged battery pack, I determined failure of this board is the source of both of my PV-5000's not being able to charge a perfectly fine battery pack. The price for a new board was well over $200. The conclusion being: a PV-5000 that will not charge a good battery pack is worthless except for spare parts. It costs more to replace the circuit board than a working PV-5000 usually sells for in eBay. Yes you could use it only with external power. But as soon as you pull the external power from a PV-5000 with an uncharged battery, it will perform a hard reset and all your data, settings and added software is lost. So I have a couple of dead parts machines in my junk pile.

[DanC]

One further comment, I have thought about bypassing the charging controller board altogether and running the PV-5000 directly from the battery pack. This would most likely eliminate any ability to recharge the batteries internally. If the wiring was modified to allow use of an external charger, maybe this would be a solution. Any ideas appreciated. Thanks.

[jwollring]

Dan, did you ever solve the problem with bypassing the charging controller board? Facing the same problem and really would like to get it alive again.

[DanC]

Hi, glad to hear from you again! I did some poking around at the wiring between the controller board and the battery pack, and realized it would not be as simple to bypass the board as I had hoped it would be. One reason is that (as far as I could tell) the voltage coming into the board from the wall charger is not the same as the voltage going out of the controller (and/or batteries), to the rest of the unit. I have kept 3 PV-5000's alive by buying a few with broken screens off ebay, and pulling the controller boards from them. I was lucky enough to get working controller boards out of non-working PV-5000's about 50% of the time. Not my preferred solution but it solved my immediate problem. I have too many projects and not enough time so I'm not sure if I will get back to looking at a bypass solution any time soon. Are you aware of the www.hpcfactor.com site? It's a great resource - maybe we should bring up this issue on their discussion board and see if someone there can help.
Dan