Hello everyone,

Here's the situation, I left for Mexico a little over a week ago for a much needed vacation. Since I wasn't going to be in the most Axim friendly environments, I decided to leave it home, where I knew it would be safe. However, when I got home on Sunday and tried to turn it on, nothing. I then charged it only to find that both the main and backup battery were completely drained causing me to lose everything. Before I left, the Axim was off, and I don't use alarms or anything that would cause the Axim to 'wake up'.

Is this normal? I thought the backup battery was supposed to keep the storage memory. Shouldn't it last longer than a week? Is this a defect in my device? Any help/info/opinions/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Nick

I wouldn't think the main battery should drain at all with the power turned off. As far as the backup battery goes, it doesn't laast very long. I know my Axim used to turn on by itself during the night. I keep it plugged in now just to be safe and avoid a dead battery in the morning.

So, do you think there is something wrong with my Axim? I would think that eventually the main battery would die even with it turned off, but I would expect it to be more than a week!

The Axim is never completely "off", unless you take out both batteries. It uses power from the main battery when it is asleep. The backup battery is there only to maintain memory while you swap main batteries.

So this would fall under the category of operator error and not manufacturing defect?

It's true. The Axim never sleeps. Remember that everything runs in memory unless you have a storage card. So the memory is always draining power. You guys should check out this new gadget called the PortaCharge. Should resolve all your Woes!!


http://evizzo.com

So, does anyone know how long the Axim should last with the power "off"?

Since there is no harm to keeping in the cradle all the time, it seems to be the prudent thing to do. I haven't had mine just sitting without use long enough to test this, My wife has had hers sitting unused for 3 days without difficulty.

While it’s true the Axim is never off, I’d be surprised that it would drain the battery completely in just a week while in ‘sleep’ mode. There are a lot of threads where people have dead batteries just by leaving their Axims unplugged over night (do a search for battery – you’ll get plenty of hits). My suggestion for the next time you do this is simply leave the Axim plugged in to the power adapter (or the cradle if you have the adapter plugged into it) while you are away. The Lithium batteries will be much happier and last longer than allowing them to drain when the Axim is not in use. Frankly, ecagadoc’s PortaCharge might be worthwhile if you are going on an extended trip with the Axim when you may be away from a 120 outlet, but IMHO, it would be a waste in the situation papajackow described. If you are leaving it home, plug it into the wall, not some disposable batteries that will likely end up in a landfill when they are dead.

[P.S. In another thread, someone has accused ecagadoc of having some official involvement with PortaCharge. I don’t know if it’s true but he hasn’t bothered to deny it. If it is true, he should be up front. Again, IMHO, it’s unethical to hawk a product on these forums in the guise of a fellow user.]

-Ike-

     

Also my experience is that the more programs you leave running in memory, the more battery power it needs to retain it as you turn it back on. I always try to end all programs with the switcher before i set it aside.