Microdrive, Battery drain and the Axim

NeoAxim · 01-03-03, 01:06 PM

Just a quick question for you guys. Has anyone else experienced severe battery drain while using a microdrive to listen to MP3's on the Axim. I have a 340 MB Microdrive (the DMDM-1340 version) and was listening to MP3's on the way to work this morning while surfing some web pages I downloaded from avantgo on Pocket IE. The brightness level on the screen was two notches from the highest level, which is how I normally keep it. Now for most functions I think the battery life of the Axim is great, but this morning after just an hour of continuous MP3 playing off the 340 MD I was at 54% of battery strength. That’s down from the 99% it was at when I first turned it on this morning. Has anyone else had this experience with the microdrive?
I have read in other forums and various threads similar accounts, especially with the 340 MB model as it apparently drains more battery life than the 1 gig. But what alarms me is under on of the Casio threads a poster reported that a Casio rep informed him against using Microdrives both due to its battery drain and its ability to harm internal memory. Is this the case with the Axim as well? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

01-03-03, 01:20 PM

When you have a MicroDrive (with its moving parts),
AND using other programs like IE,
AND listening to music,
AND having the backlight on,
it will drain your battery pretty quickly.
Consider yourself lucky for losing only 45% in an hour. :D

TZimpfer · 01-03-03, 01:31 PM

surfing IE while driving, man oh man, i hope i never have to drive next to you. :D I too feel that you are lucky for only losing 45%. That is a lot of stuff going on at a time. Umm, is it good though to be using a microdrive (with it's moving parts) in a car that is moving, isn't that bad for the heads, won't they crash at some point? <_< Food for thought, i just know it is true with a hard drive.

NeoAxim · 01-03-03, 01:44 PM

Ok sorry about that guys, let me re-word that. I wasn't actually doing the driving. I should have stated I was on a bus on my way to work (didn't even realize I said I was driving to work)

The impression that I have been getting through a number of threads in various forums is that the Microdrives, with their moving parts much like a hard drive, will drain a significant amount of power when being accessed constantly for any periods of time (such as listening to MP3's), especially while using the device for other functionality at the same time. This apparently is especially true of the older MD's such as my 340 MB card which drain more power than the newer 1 gig Microdrives.

The reasoning for this post is more that I wanted to confirm my suspicion that this sudden appearance in battery drain had more to do with me listening to MP3's off a microdrive then had I been listening to them off a Secure Digital card or standard CF card, as well as eliminating the possibility that my Axim was defective.

Like I said I have been more than happy with the batteries performance otherwise. This morning, while on the bus (not driving of course ;) ) I was again reading web pages from the avantgo service off of Pocket IE and in an hours time I was still at 94%. This sounds more like it. I think the Microdrive has got to go to make way for a SD or CF card.

BTW my SD card is on the way. Viking 128 MB (Stay away from Sandisk, I have not heard good things, even though with its pricing it is very tempting)

TZimpfer · 01-03-03, 01:50 PM

Thanks for the restate, makes a lot more sense. I am positive it is from your Microdrive, it does seem to use a lot of juice! I have a SD card from PNY, pretty pleased with it so far.

01-09-03, 11:05 PM

I don't own a microdrive myself but after a little research, it looks like the new generation microdrives (1GB and up) are much easier on the battery.

jb2001 · 08-21-03, 07:33 PM

I've got a 1Gb Microdrive, I'll do a test for you boys on battery life.....

jb2001 · 08-21-03, 08:27 PM

OK here we go, 1Gb Microdrive:

1hr MP3 continuos playback
Volume MAX "internal Speaker"
Screen Brightness medium

Battery droped from Full charge 100% to 76%

Make of that what you like !!

DestroLennox · 08-21-03, 10:35 PM

I hear people complain all the time about scandisk but I have a 256meg and a 64meg and they both work fine. Maybe I got lucky but I saved some money and they work perfectly!

darkmind · 08-22-03, 09:23 AM

Try turning up the caching on your mp3 software so it only turns on the drive to preload upcoming songs.

The drive should not be spinning constantly - if it is, you need to rethink your mp3 software and finds one that caches.

If you've ever had a HD based mp3 player, they all do the same -- spin up to preload songs, spin down and stop. With 32 megs of cache, most will allow you to play 3-4 songs before having to turn on again.