Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : iPAQ hx4700 loses memory on battery change


Frodo
06-24-2007, 12:02 PM
I do a lot of backpacking and I like to take my iPAQ hx4700 with me. It’s much lighter than carrying a book, address book, notebooks etc.

On a recent trip the battery died before I could get to somewhere I could charge it and I lost all the internal memory with all the applications.

So for future trips I decided to carry a couple of spare fully charged batteries. On receiving the new batteries I put the first one in, switched on the iPAQ and found it was completely dead - I suppose because the new battery had not been charged. I then put the iPAQ in the charging cradle and it booted up. But once again it had lost all its internal memory, and I had to reload everything from scratch from my computer.

Obviously changing batteries when I’m out in the woods is a waste of time if this is going to happen every time! But I can’t believe it’s supposed to be like this. Am I doing something wrong, or is there something wrong with my iPAQ?

The internal NiMH backup battery was showing fully charged both before and after I changed the main battery, and new battery was showing a 35% charge as soon as I could get a reading on it (after I'd put it in the charging cradle). And I only took a minute or two to make the change.

If it's just a question of making sure the battery is fully charged before you put it in the iPAQ, is there anywhere I can buy a charging unit for the battery alone?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

AnswerDude
06-25-2007, 09:31 AM
One issue i can think of is that the backup battery is dead or defective even though it showed fully charged status. If removing the fully charged main battery and put it back within a few seconds still causes hard reset then it's more than likely that the backup battery is bad.
Make sure to backup the contents of the iPAQ regularly. You should have backup program builit-in that let you backup everything to storage card. Even with hard reset you should be able to restore everything within a few minutes without the need for desktop.
And i think this cradle can charge an extra battery at the same time.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/store/product/product_detail/FA260B%2523AC3/1?jumpid=in_r329_personalization/browse1/home_PDP

dfoi
06-25-2007, 05:06 PM
"And i think this cradle can charge an extra battery at the same time"

I can confirm that this charger can be used to charge a spare battery at the same time.
It has been a while since I have needed to do this but if memory serves me correct you need the spare battery charger to accomplish this. The ac power connects to the unit and then the cradle is pluged into the charger.
Hope this information helps.

Frodo
06-25-2007, 05:54 PM
Thankyou for your replies. I will look into getting a separate charger for my battery.

I'm very interested in the software which would allow me to back up and restore my system with a data card. I never even knew that was possible. Would you let me know where to get hold of that software.

Thanks

AnswerDude
06-25-2007, 06:30 PM
If your iPAQ is running wm2003SE then you should already have iPAQ backup built-in to the unit. If your iPAQ is running WM5.0 then take a look at Sprite Backup;
http://www.spritesoftware.com/sprite-backup

mondu
06-26-2007, 06:27 AM
my back-up battery shows fully charged but the pop up window (red) comes up and says that the NiMH battery is almost dead. How does one get a new back-up battery? Its not module and is not incorporated in the main removeable battery.

peter

AnswerDude
06-26-2007, 08:02 AM
http://www.pocketpctechs.com/main~unit~HP_Compaq_iPAQ_hx4700-265~area~repairs-hp%2Fcompaq+ipaq+hx4700+parts+only~item~I47%2DBUBA T01.htm

mondu
06-26-2007, 11:21 AM
how does one put the backup battery into the device? please.

AnswerDude
06-26-2007, 11:51 AM
This may give you some idea, you can see the little battery on the main board
http://pdasmart.zftp.com/instructions/hx47xx_disassembly_06.pdf