JamieR

An old employer forced me to replace my Axim with their Palm so I gave the X3 to my wife. She promptly broke the connector on the bottom so when I changed jobs I didn't go back to the Axim. Just for fun I pulled it out a few weeks ago and it had the battery error so I was going to follow Alicialovejoy's jump start suggestion but I got lazy. Instead I removed the BUB wires from the main board then I took two pins from my wife's sewing box and cut the plastic heads off (unnecessary). I then shoved the pins into the back of the connector where the wires exit, the holes on the connection side are too small for normal sewing pins. Once the pins were secure I held the charging wires onto them and after a few seconds the multi-meter showed 1.43V. I reassembled the case and have been using it without issue since last weekend. Too bad replacing the charging connector won't be that easy.

Jamie

bilyth

Originally Posted by JamieR

An old employer forced me to replace my Axim with their Palm so I gave the X3 to my wife. She promptly broke the connector on the bottom so when I changed jobs I didn't go back to the Axim. Just for fun I pulled it out a few weeks ago and it had the battery error so I was going to follow Alicialovejoy's jump start suggestion but I got lazy. Instead I removed the BUB wires from the main board then I took two pins from my wife's sewing box and cut the plastic heads off (unnecessary). I then shoved the pins into the back of the connector where the wires exit, the holes on the connection side are too small for normal sewing pins. Once the pins were secure I held the charging wires onto them and after a few seconds the multi-meter showed 1.43V. I reassembled the case and have been using it without issue since last weekend. Too bad replacing the charging connector won't be that easy. Jamie

can you describe in a little more detail what it is you did..it's not completely clear. thansk.

razor1982

Make sure you try charging the device overnight with no main battery inserted. My backup was dead and it's back to normal.
If this doesn't work either then go for the manual exchange...

JamieR

Bilyth,
look at the picture in Kar98's post (#17 and reposted at #50). You will see a red and a black wire twisted together with a white connector plugged into the main board near the bottom right circled in red. I disconnected the those wires from the main board to isolate the battery from the rest of the PDA. Then I inserted metal pins into the back of the connector one on the positive side and one on the negative side. By back I mean the part where the red and black wires go in not the side with the two tiny holes. Then following the suggestion from Alicialovejoy in post 44 I "jump started" the battery from a zero charge state to 1.43 volts using 2 AAA batteries taped together with wire leads taped to the positive and negative ends of the pair. I did this because I didn't want to hassle with or break the ribbon cables mentioned in Slurgin's post.

I had already tried charging it with out the main battery, with the main battery, on, off and upside down (not really but I tried all the other suggestions) before I did this. I didn't want to trash the machine but since I hadn't used it in so long I was willing to take a bigger risk than if this was a brand new pda or one with lots of critical data on it.

Regards,
Jamie

01 400EXer

To the guy that the touch screen does not work, the small ribbon in between the battery back up plug and that large ribbon is the connection for the touch screen. I found this is very sensative and it needs to be in all the way for it to operate the touch screen.

If you have already figured it out then ignore this post.

bilyth

hi,
ok, i finally bought a voltmeter & followed the instructions on taking apart & jump starting the bub. i then let it charge overnight with removeable battery out...& tested- still couldn't manage to change batteries without it going to "memory error".

so, i thought perhaps i didn't re-assemble quick enough & the bub lost the charge i gave. so i dis-assembled again..thinking i'd repeat the procedure..but i checked the bub with the voltmeter & it was giving off a reading (before i jump started it was absolutely dead).

so, i put it back together again & let it charge overnight again. tested it this morning & again; not able to change batteries.

is there hope, since it holds a charge overnight? or is it hopeless since i've charged it overnight now for 2 nights with the replaceable battery out?

should i just keep charging it? or should i just go and buy a battery?

thanks.

ps, with the replaceable battery out & charging - is the orange "power button" supposed to show? (similar to when the battery is in? because right now, with the batt out..the lights' not on...i assume it is charging the bub...but not sure.

slurgin

Originally Posted by 01 400EXer

To the guy that the touch screen does not work, the small ribbon in between the battery back up plug and that large ribbon is the connection for the touch screen. I found this is very sensative and it needs to be in all the way for it to operate the touch screen. If you have already figured it out then ignore this post.

Do you think it's possible that the ribbon is broken? I did grab onto it with needle nose pliers to try to press it back into place, since it's hard to do with fingers. The ribbon seems pretty sturdy, but if I gripped it hard enough maybe the wire under the coating broke? I pressed the ribbon cable in as hard as I could. Any advice on tools to use when connecting it?

daibko

Originally Posted by JamieR

An old employer forced me to replace my Axim with their Palm so I gave the X3 to my wife. She promptly broke the connector on the bottom so when I changed jobs I didn't go back to the Axim. Just for fun I pulled it out a few weeks ago and it had the battery error so I was going to follow Alicialovejoy's jump start suggestion but I got lazy. Instead I removed the BUB wires from the main board then I took two pins from my wife's sewing box and cut the plastic heads off (unnecessary). I then shoved the pins into the back of the connector where the wires exit, the holes on the connection side are too small for normal sewing pins. Once the pins were secure I held the charging wires onto them and after a few seconds the multi-meter showed 1.43V. I reassembled the case and have been using it without issue since last weekend. Too bad replacing the charging connector won't be that easy. Jamie

You have no idea how much money you and alicialovejoy saved the community with this trick. Cheers to her for the concept and to you for the "well, duh!" to make it soooooooooo easy! 10 seconds of juice and no problems since with an old beat up x3 backup battery.

DJM1450

Fantastic! Thanks to Alicialovejoy and everyone. I only removed the bub white plastic connector from the motherboard and placed very small needles in the small holes. Checked the volts and it had no reading. Placed a 10 sec charge, using the 2 battery holder, and the reading was 1.3 volts. I also took Alicialovejoy's advice and hooked-up the charger prior to re-connecting the bub. Re-assembled the unit quickly and charged for 24 hours. The bub in normal and the unit works like new. I had given up on this unit two years ago. Thanks Again for the Post! PS: Shame on Dell!