Palm IIIc battery life

[europa1057]

I've had my IIIc for about a year and a half with no problems Except that I would like the graffiti recognition to be better at times - my husband's handspring is MUCH better at it, but I digress.

My real question is about the battery life expectancy of the IIIc. I'm not talking about how much use it can sustain on one charge, I'm talking about how long before the battery is completely kaput and needs to be replaced.

As I said, I've had mine for about a year and a half, and this morning it wouldn't turn on. Freaked out for a while because I charged it last night, so the battery couldn't be dead, right? I put it in the charger and watched the little red light turn on, but I still couldn't turn on the IIIc. I let it sit for about 15 minutes while I searched the forum, and then I was finally able to turn it on.

It seems to be workuing just fine now, and the battery says it is charged to 82%. Does anyone know why it crapped out on me? Should I take this as a signal from my Palm that I should replace the battery?

Thanks for the help.

[janjan]

Hi.

Try a battery reset first by placing your powered ON palm in the cradle and doing a soft reset. Then leave it for awhile to see if the battery charges up to 100%. If it does then your battery is probably ok.

I've had my IIIc for 2.5 years and its still alright, but that depends on how often you use/ recharge it.

If you need a new battery, try gethightech.com and they have instructions on how to DIY own battery replacement too.

Hope this helps.

[iiicRules]

Hi, I've had my iiic for 1.5 years now and have only ever let it completely run out twice (to the point where it wouldn't turn on). Both these times it needed a good half hour charge before it started to work again. My palm is fine. Battery life still fantastic. (up to 20 Hours with brightness on minimum!) The warnings to recharge your palm come up ages before it needs it (over an hours if brigtness is on minimum) but it's best to charge it when the battery extremely low warning starts coming up. Although that came up about 10 times before my palm actually went off and wouldn't come back on.
Anyway, I'm 99.99999999999% certain that your palm is fine. Just if it completely runs out, it makes you give it a decent charge before it will come back on again.
iiicRules

[vollie]

hey IIIcRules, ever looked at the type of battery you're carrying around in your IIIc? It's (at least i hope for you) a LITHIUM cell, meaning the whole "try not to start charging before it completely empty" is crap. A lithium cell should be completely emtyd and charged at the beginning, after that it shouldn't matter how often and when you charge. as a matter of fact it is sayd to try to charge it when still in higher levels!!! the type of battery you're talking about is for instance the NICD (nickel-cadmium) cell. in which case you're completely correct.

By the way1 a Lithium cell should hold 3 years easily if it isn't abused (processor enhancer can couse higher drain levels and thus less battery live - kinda resambles a car :p).

By the way2 a IIIc graffity can be enhanced by using less brightness, sharper objects (whatch for scratches), slower writing and ,believe it or not, less pressure.:

[europa1057]

Thanks. For some reason it has been behaving just fine again, not that I'm complaining. Almost thought I had an opportunity to check out the new color devices, but to tell you the truth, I am happy with the IIIc and have no reason to 'upgrade' to another one.

I always leave it on the lowest brightness possible for graffiti recognition, but it's been getting worse with time. It's still usable, just frustrating sometimes since I primarily use the palm for information management (okay, and an occasional game of bejeweled. ;) )

[iiicRules]

vollie, I agree that the Don't charge before it's flat thing is rubbish. I didn't say that atall! What I said was, if you read my message properly, that I have only ever left my palm to go flat before charging it twice in my palms entire life! Meaning the exact opposite- the same as what you said. I know the palm has a li-ion battery in it and I know exactly what the means in comparison to other battery types. Thanks anyway!! Check out your browser, I'm not sure if it's working properly- must be displaying messages wrong...
p.s- when i said Best to charge it when the battery extremely low warning comes up- I didn't mean run it down then charge it when flat- I meant best not to let it go completely flat. Sure- charge when its half full or what ever but don't run it down till its completely flat or your palm will go off and not come on till its had a half hour charge.
Sorry if i didn't make sense.

[vollie]

ok iiicRules i get it, my apologies;). still like more people here you might try to be a little bit more clear about what you meen if you post. the point is (as you said) that it could be interpreted in two ways. just wanted to make sure it would be the right one. once again: sorry.

[little-man]

I know that this thread is about battery life, but about europa's comment on graffiti recognition, I found that to be a problem also until I upgraded my palm to OS 4.1. This helped immensely. If you don't feel like dishing out the cash for 4.1, consider using some third-party software such as TealScript. I haven't experimented much with this program since upgrading my OS, but it sounds like a good concept that is worth a try. Just don't register until you know it works. you can live with a nag screen for a while.