dead battery again?

[thursday]

As I mentioned on a previous post, I'm now on my third battery in my revo in 2 years. Now it looks like this one is dead too. I've tried re-calibrating the battery by draining, doing a hard reset and then re-charging 3 times now. But when I turned it on this morning, once again it was dead, though the battery charge must still be high.

I read that you can try draining and re-charging to 10%, 20%, 40% etc to try to get the battery going again but is this really worth it or does it sound like my battery is too far gone?

Also, on Kevin Macmillans webpage about ChaDis and Revo charging problems (http://www.millican.info/Home/RevoBats.htm), he says that "Most Revos are very reliable and only a few users experience problems with battery life. ". Given that I've gone through 3 batteries already, does this mean that a) I have a particularly duff machine, b) I use it badly, c) loads of people have problems with Revo batteries and it's a fundamentally poorly-designed machine or d) all of the above?

I've had the last 2 new batteries fitted under warranty. Am now wondering whether it's worth paying for yet another battery or should I scrap the Revo and buy something completely different?

Any thoughts welcomed!

Caroline

[netBookBabe]

Originally posted by thursday
...or should I scrap the Revo and buy something completely different?Don't buy something COMPLETELY different, Caroline - treat yourself to a nice new Psion 5mx! :D

Julie

[doogald]

caroline,

Are you restoring the files after the hard reset? I seem to recall that there was a discussion that somebody went through the same cycle that you did, with the same result, until he decided to reinstall all of his applications and files from scratch rather than from restoring a backup. Apparently this solved his battery problem.

He was postulating that perhaps there is a system file that tracks the battery charge level and that, when you restore it, you restore the same problem that you had before.

I'm not sure that I believe that, because I've never found such a file myself, but it may be worth a try, if you have been doing a restore after each hard reset.

[MikeMcC]

I'm not sure that I believe that, because I've never found such a file myself, but it may be worth a try, if you have been doing a restore after each hard reset This was discussed in the Psion newsgroups and, although I don't remember for sure, it may have been suggested by a senior member of Psion Customer Support who was participating in the groups at the time.

[thursday]

Yes I have been doing a restore from backup after each hard reset. Re-installing files from scratch sounds vaguely plausible but I'm going to loose all my agenda history and contacts data by doing that won't I? I guess I could back it up by synchronising to Outlook but I haven't been able to get PsiWin to do that yet - my partner reckons PsiWin is notoriously unreliable at this and that I would have to buy another programme to achieve it - is this true?

Thanks

Caroline

[MikeMcC]

but I'm going to loose all my agenda history and contacts data by doing that won't I? No because if you still have a backup on the PC, you can copy these two files back individually without having to do a full restore.

Alternatively, if you would feel happier, copy these two files from the Revo to a folder on the PC where you can easily locate them later to copy back. The "Contacts" file is Contacts.cdb in the path C:\System\Data\Contacts.cdb

[doogald]

Luckily for me, PsiWin is wonderfully reliable for me. Occasionally I have to end an errant wprntsvr process (I have Win2000) but it has always synced with Outlook quite well.

Anyway, Mike has answered your question. You can also find the rest of your data files in the backup location. You should be able to copy and paste them to the Revo after you connect with PsiWin.

[Zvi]

I have had 4 MAKOs (...!), on three of them the Batteries died. The most recent, a few days ago, was devastating as my back-up files are not fully updated.

There is something wrong with the design of the Psion-Mako's batteries. As an electronics engineer (years ago...), I would be very curious to examine the battery circuitry and the spec of the batteries themselves. This information however is not available to me.

There is aslo a problem with the forward left hinge/spring assembly. It breaks !!

Psion is a very well human engineered PDA, less so electronically and mechanically.

Is this the reason that Psion has not been able to catch a good share of the PDA market ?

I am so MAD (!!) at this last crash, that if I had a direct email to the CEO of Psion, I would have dropped him a note in this regard...

Zvi

[naileshgandhi]

I have the same problem except I am not knowing how to change batteries?And if someone has to do then where in uSA?Can u give address and phone number?I am fade up with the revo which I likeed very much.do help.

NKG