e740 problem?

[e740]

My Toshiba e740 just started flashing the battery lite ALL THE TIME. it will not stop. It is charged 100% but it is just flashing forever.
I have let it charge forever and it will never turn to a green light. All it does is flash orange.

Can anyone let me know if they can help me with this. I don't know what the deal is?

thanks
clayton

[warganizer.com]

I think maybe a reminder or alarm is "stuck"...

I fixed mine by setting an alarm to go off (pick a relatively close time so your not waiting for ever) Click on the Bell icon and make sure Flash light is checked... then when it goes on, just close the reminder and turn off the alarm, you should be all set

[e740]

hey thanks, that was it.
That corrected it.
no more flashing thanks again.

[bshlewiet]

I would advice you and ALL Toshiba users to check the TOshiba.com website. There are 20,000 units for recall, apparently there is some probelem with the Backup battery, which causes loss of all data, if the battery was fully charged. So unfortunate becuase my 2 days old E740 is included in that recall. Certain serial numbers are posted on the website. Check it out... yours might be one of them
Basem



Originally posted by e740
My Toshiba e740 just started flashing the battery lite ALL THE TIME. it will not stop. It is charged 100% but it is just flashing forever.
I have let it charge forever and it will never turn to a green light. All it does is flash orange.

Can anyone let me know if they can help me with this. I don't know what the deal is?

thanks
clayton

[warganizer.com]

Yeah, i had gotten one and then encountered problems, Then i brought it back to best buy and got a new one, THEN encountered problems with that one so i got another (replacement, i didnt buy a new one each time ;)). Now i see that this one is still in the recall, so i guess i wont have a stable pda for a bit longer :(

[pcorbett]

I may never buy a Toshiba product again, I’m trying to figure out how I can get rid of this e740 without losing the $600 I paid for it!

I purchased my Pocket PC 9/20/02. I used it successfully for about 3 weeks with only minor problems (see below), then weird stuff started happening regarding the charging of the battery. The first major problem was after charging it overnight (at least 8 hours), I drove to work with it (not in use or turned on for about 45 minutes). I turned it on when I got to work and got this warning:

"Main Battery Very Low
To prevent possible data loss, replace or recharge your battery according to the owner's manual."

When I looked in the power settings, it showed 1% battery remaining... After quickly putting it on the charger, it went to 90+% after about 5 minutes. I called Toshiba this time and they didn't know anything. Then I think it worked trouble free for a few days, and then this whole thing happened again, only now it wouldn't charge at all. Tried hard resetting which did nothing to improve the situation. Called Toshiba again, gee they didn't know but I might have to send it in. I lamented about that for close to a week, talked to the store where I bought it (CompUSA) to see about exchanging it there - no luck so far. Finally, I called Toshiba back and low and behold, now they have a recall about a problem that sounds related (since they're giving us such vague information about the problem). They said I would have to send it in. I asked them what they would be doing, they said a software upgrade and replacing the battery - I got this answer from two techs that day. So, 11/2/02 about a week later (did I mention that they don't do any pre-shipping of a replacement secured by a credit card, like most other computer related companies?) I got my e740 back. I had been rather diligent about writing down information such as my serial numbers, part/model numbers (battery and pocket pc). I also noted some Windows information such as the number that it shows when you do a reset (I'm guessing this is the ROM version), version/build of Pocket PC, MAC address and version information for the wireless NIC, etc.

When I got the e740 back, it was the exact same battery; the ROM version was changed (new: 1.0618.0409,old: 1.0203.0409), the wireless utility version (new: 1.0.14, old: 1.0.11) was changed as well as the MAC address. The next day, after I charged it for over 12 hours (before using it), I started trying to use it (fully charged). After about 2 to 3 minutes, I got the infamous warning above and it showed 1% battery. I put it back on the charger and it wouldn’t charge (yellow light I believe, that indicates the temperature is not right and it won’t charge – the temperature where it charges is always 69-70). I was furious and called Toshiba. The first person (customer service recall people) was sorry but he couldn’t do anything, he transferred me to technical support to troubleshoot the problem. Tech support finally (after about 40 minutes) agreed to send a battery, I even convinced them that maybe they should ship it overnight instead of the ‘ground’ they were insisting on. He also created a second case number and escalated that to the ATS group, for whatever that’s worth – nothing so far. I received a new battery 11/5. It worked fine until today 11/9. After it charged all night, I turned it on and before I even selected the application I was going to use, I got the battery warning. I called Toshiba, the ATS group apparently doesn’t work on Saturday and the regular guy in technical support said “I don’t know what I can do for you until Monday”, I asked to speak to a supervisor and got voicemail (not even a name, just an extension). I’ll be calling back soon after I post this on as many bulletin boards as possible.


Minor problems referenced above:
Constant soft resets necessary, action buttons work almost never. Strange power button action, like it won't turn off, sometimes it will just turn off the backlight when you hit the power button, etc.

[bnobles]

I tried this but had one problem. I don't see a bell icon.

Here's how I fixed it (for the moment).
I reset the e740 so the dang light would quit flashing.

I set an appointment for 2 minutes out with a "0 minute" reminder. When the reminder popped up the light flashed. I "dismissed" the appointment.

The light quit flashing.

Standing by to see if the problem starts again...

FWIW, my e740 is very new and the serial number does not fall within the parameters of the recall.

Originally posted by warganizer.com
I think maybe a reminder or alarm is "stuck"...

I fixed mine by setting an alarm to go off (pick a relatively close time so your not waiting for ever) Click on the Bell icon and make sure Flash light is checked... then when it goes on, just close the reminder and turn off the alarm, you should be all set

[apostolic]

The problems listed in this thread (and most problems in general with the e740) were fixed with the new ROM update avaliable from their site.

My unit was in the recall so I have been running the update for some time now with none of the problems others have described (however they were present prior to the recall loading the latest ROM)

[bshlewiet]

Hey Look at my post here on the Board
http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=6200

Now 1 week later I got my E740 from the Service. Hoping they fixed it but Shame on Toshiba. It is still with the same shyty problem, it is doing a HARD RESET, whenever it likes to.
I called them and the guy told me that "he never heard of this probelm before" and suggested that I send it back again for them to take a look at it. Oh pls... not again, I really dont have time for sht any more. How much should I tolerate from Toshiba anymore. How many times do I have to send it for them. How much time should I stay without my PPC. this to me is no more than a worthless peice of metal.
I am waiting for a Supervisor to call me now. I am DEMANDING a new full working unit. If not I have made up my mind to take Toshiba to court, I promise.
So they'd better be descent about it.

Dr. S


Originally posted by pcorbett
I may never buy a Toshiba product again, I’m trying to figure out how I can get rid of this e740 without losing the $600 I paid for it!

I purchased my Pocket PC 9/20/02. I used it successfully for about 3 weeks with only minor problems (see below), then weird stuff started happening regarding the charging of the battery. The first major problem was after charging it overnight (at least 8 hours), I drove to work with it (not in use or turned on for about 45 minutes). I turned it on when I got to work and got this warning:

"Main Battery Very Low
To prevent possible data loss, replace or recharge your battery according to the owner's manual."

When I looked in the power settings, it showed 1% battery remaining... After quickly putting it on the charger, it went to 90+% after about 5 minutes. I called Toshiba this time and they didn't know anything. Then I think it worked trouble free for a few days, and then this whole thing happened again, only now it wouldn't charge at all. Tried hard resetting which did nothing to improve the situation. Called Toshiba again, gee they didn't know but I might have to send it in. I lamented about that for close to a week, talked to the store where I bought it (CompUSA) to see about exchanging it there - no luck so far. Finally, I called Toshiba back and low and behold, now they have a recall about a problem that sounds related (since they're giving us such vague information about the problem). They said I would have to send it in. I asked them what they would be doing, they said a software upgrade and replacing the battery - I got this answer from two techs that day. So, 11/2/02 about a week later (did I mention that they don't do any pre-shipping of a replacement secured by a credit card, like most other computer related companies?) I got my e740 back. I had been rather diligent about writing down information such as my serial numbers, part/model numbers (battery and pocket pc). I also noted some Windows information such as the number that it shows when you do a reset (I'm guessing this is the ROM version), version/build of Pocket PC, MAC address and version information for the wireless NIC, etc.

When I got the e740 back, it was the exact same battery; the ROM version was changed (new: 1.0618.0409,old: 1.0203.0409), the wireless utility version (new: 1.0.14, old: 1.0.11) was changed as well as the MAC address. The next day, after I charged it for over 12 hours (before using it), I started trying to use it (fully charged). After about 2 to 3 minutes, I got the infamous warning above and it showed 1% battery. I put it back on the charger and it wouldn’t charge (yellow light I believe, that indicates the temperature is not right and it won’t charge – the temperature where it charges is always 69-70). I was furious and called Toshiba. The first person (customer service recall people) was sorry but he couldn’t do anything, he transferred me to technical support to troubleshoot the problem. Tech support finally (after about 40 minutes) agreed to send a battery, I even convinced them that maybe they should ship it overnight instead of the ‘ground’ they were insisting on. He also created a second case number and escalated that to the ATS group, for whatever that’s worth – nothing so far. I received a new battery 11/5. It worked fine until today 11/9. After it charged all night, I turned it on and before I even selected the application I was going to use, I got the battery warning. I called Toshiba, the ATS group apparently doesn’t work on Saturday and the regular guy in technical support said “I don’t know what I can do for you until Monday”, I asked to speak to a supervisor and got voicemail (not even a name, just an extension). I’ll be calling back soon after I post this on as many bulletin boards as possible.


Minor problems referenced above:
Constant soft resets necessary, action buttons work almost never. Strange power button action, like it won't turn off, sometimes it will just turn off the backlight when you hit the power button, etc.