dkimak

Originally Posted by David Hettel

You might try this with the new battery driver loaded, wait until the 4400 mAh battery is about 40% or less charged. Then using Resco File Explorer do a search for battdrvr.dll Resco should find one file at \Windows tap | Menu | Feed to listbox | you should see battdrvr.dll 26K 4/29/08 rename this file to battdrvr.dll.old. Now do a soft reset. After your iPAQ reboots again do the search and we should now find two files. There should now be a battdrvr.dll with a date of 1/8/08 showing this is the original driver with the new registry settings. Charge your iPAQ for at least 10 hours. Also check what your iPAQ is showing as the current charge level, it should be about half of the previous level.

Are you suggesting that this is another example of HP being sloppy and not removing the old driver when they install an update?

David Hettel

Originally Posted by dkimak

Are you suggesting that this is another example of HP being sloppy and not removing the old driver when they install an update?

A number of people have expressed an opinion that the old driver gives longer life than the new driver. HP says that the registry needs to be changed to use the extended battery. This is a compromise, you would keep the new registry settings and use the old battery driver.

I think that HP knows this device better than anyone, if the 4400 mAh battery doesn't work correctly with the current driver, then IMHO the maker of the 4400 mAh battery needs to fix their battery. And by fixing it I don't mean use the old battery driver.

phmurphy

Thanks David.

BATTDRVR.dll - that was it along with the SP

Dang, that worked great!

I didn't have a completely normal work day today (got rained out at about 1:00), but based on what I can tell, I will get 9.5 - 10 hours instead of 6! That's what I was looking for in the first place.

Also to the Dear Muggen Rep. You should send this info to everyone who bought your battery. They may be happy with 6 hours, but wouldn't they be even happier with 10. I sure am.

I will now try to figure out what I will get with the 3650. I guess I have to delete the old battdrvr.dll whenever I but in a different type of battery, but I will try it first without changing it. Unless you can tell me what will happen, or some reason not to.

HP needs to know about this too of course since they are the ones responsible for this poor design and faulty SP.

Thanks again,
Pat

David Hettel

Putting in a different battery will not effect the driver. At least not in the sense that it will reload the driver. Unless you reinstall the so call ROM update or reload the battery drive if you have it stored on your computer you will be using the old driver.

HP seems to think we need a different battery driver, and if they release a real ROM update their would be little chance of going back to this driver. It **appears** to me that the 4400 mAh battery is not reporting it's state correctly. I've seen where one user who purchased a battery in I believe late May or June is having great luck with the new driver. And a few reports that the new driver shortens life by about half.

.

phmurphy

So what exactly just happened then? I thought I installed the Sp36920 that was supposed to include the new battery driver. Did the SP36920 fail to copy the new driver over the old, and I had to delete it to allow the overwrite to happen? Or did causing the new driver to be regenerated cause the battery to properly report its state - whatever that means.

Just curious.

Thanks,
Pat

phmurphy

Or am I missunderstanding everything. Is this what happened?
When I installed Sp36920 it changed the registry and changed the driver. By deleting the driver, I regenerated the OLD driver but kept the new registry settings?

Pat

MEF38

Originally Posted by phmurphy

Also to the Dear Muggen Rep. You should send this info to everyone who bought your battery. They may be happy with 6 hours, but wouldn't they be even happier with 10. I sure am.

Pat,

We're glad to hear that it is working so well. We are following this thread closely to make certain others too have the same experience. If they do, we will post this on our web site AND include a copy with every 4400mAh battery we sell.

We're listening....:approve:



Mark

dkimak

Originally Posted by David Hettel

Putting in a different battery will not effect the driver. At least not in the sense that it will reload the driver. Unless you reinstall the so call ROM update or reload the battery drive if you have it stored on your computer you will be using the old driver. HP seems to think we need a different battery driver, and if they release a real ROM update their would be little chance of going back to this driver. It **appears** to me that the 4400 mAh battery is not reporting it's state correctly. I've seen where one user who purchased a battery in I believe late May or June is having great luck with the new driver. And a few reports that the new driver shortens life by about half. .

I've removed the driver update. The battery level indicators seem much more reasonable again (I also saw the new driver shortening battery life by about half). Not sure who is at fault but as it was HP that issued the update, my fingers are pointing at them...

phmurphy

Well I can confirm that I went from 6 hours to 10+ hours of time on the 211 with the 4400 mAh battery from Muggen. I had a full day of work (8 hours) and the battery still shows 2 hours left.

To recap what I did thanks to advice received here. I installed the new Sp36920 from HP that is supposed to allow the use of extended batteries. It didn't work until I deleted (renamed) the file BATTDRVR.dll then did a soft reset. This regenerated the old version of the .dll . So I got the changes to the registry of the sp but used the old driver. Stupid, but it works.

Pat

Hikoki

Hi everyone. Just a very banal question: How much bulkier does the device get once you start using the extended batterry with its cover ? Can u live with that ? The 214 is not exactly very pocketable as it it, anyway, is it ?
Ivan