Noob Cautionary tale - What not to do to your x50v
It had to happen.
Yesterday morning, setting up for a meeting, i discovered my x50v turned into a brick. luckily i had a laptop so everything proceeded. i just keeping looking over to the ax, it's little red light glowing, but no other signs of life, for the next 5 hours. there was no green light, no response to any buttons. clearly it was on life support.
it would not hard reset, after 5 hours of charging through the usb port - nothing. when i was finally able to but in the back up battery, there was no spontaneous reset, again nothing. (still don't know why). I put it in the cradle for about a half hour and then turned it on. yes a reset, but it did turn on. Sprite back-up (I keep mine on an sd card but BIS is good) turned a neonate x50v into my beloved Corbu.
What happened? i think that when powering down the night before, i did not turn off wifi and/or bluetooth. Because i had an early meeting and everything was packed to go, it was not charging over night. the bt and/or wifi drained everything dry. (7 hours)
Lesson 1: Make sure you have a working BACKUP!
Lesson 2: turn off all radios - BT and wifi before shutting down using either the button or a powerdown utility. the power button does turn off the wifi, but not bt. do it manually. make it a habit. the ax is never off, just asleep.
Lesson 3: The usb port does not supply enough power for both backup power and main battery recharge. Cradle your baby when you can.
Lesson 4: Backup battery takes a long time to charge. I'm beginning to understand the 8 hour initial charge.
Lesson 5: Don't Panic.
Corbu is now fully charged and seems happy. He's still under warranty, so i'm testing it by turning off properly, turning off autoupdates, but leaving alarms set, and leaving it off overnight. I want to find out now if there is some faulty system drain incase he does have to be returned. sorry for the long tale, but i hope it helps some new owners. and it does have a happy ending.
back up! back up! back up! back up! and Don't Panic!
Lesson 2: turn off all radios - BT and wifi before shutting down using either the button or a powerdown utility. the power button does turn off the wifi, but not bt. do it manually. make it a habit. the ax is never off, just asleep.
This is an excellent point especially in light of the fact that Axims will wake themselves up at around midnight to do maintenance, etc. If anything is left running, it will keep the Axim on and drain the battery.
And good point about doing the backup too of course! :approve:
This is an excellent point especially in light of the fact that Axims will wake themselves up at around midnight to do maintenance, etc. If anything is left running, it will keep the Axim on and drain the battery.
And good point about doing the backup too of course! :approve:
thanks. just had to to say, i love your holiday avatar
:approve: :approve: :approve:
1) Great post... Full of good advice and very nicely put :approve:
And
2) Corbu ??????? I'm sure there's a story there... :hint hint hint:
__________________
You'd have thought that someone would have put a sig here To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
This is an excellent point especially in light of the fact that Axims will wake themselves up at around midnight to do maintenance, etc. If anything is left running, it will keep the Axim on and drain the battery.
And good point about doing the backup too of course! :approve:
? "They wake themselves up at night to do maintenance", please explain.
__________________ "Who is Rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody" - Ben Franklin
"Why is it that children can't read a Bible in school, but they can in prison?" - Me
Yesterday morning, setting up for a meeting, i discovered my x50v turned into a brick. luckily i had a laptop so everything proceeded. i just keeping looking over to the ax, it's little red light glowing, but no other signs of life, for the next 5 hours. there was no green light, no response to any buttons. clearly it was on life support.
it would not hard reset, after 5 hours of charging through the usb port - nothing. when i was finally able to but in the back up battery, there was no spontaneous reset, again nothing. (still don't know why). I put it in the cradle for about a half hour and then turned it on. yes a reset, but it did turn on. Sprite back-up (I keep mine on an sd card but BIS is good) turned a neonate x50v into my beloved Corbu.
What happened? i think that when powering down the night before, i did not turn off wifi and/or bluetooth. Because i had an early meeting and everything was packed to go, it was not charging over night. the bt and/or wifi drained everything dry. (7 hours)
Lesson 1: Make sure you have a working BACKUP!
Lesson 2: turn off all radios - BT and wifi before shutting down using either the button or a powerdown utility. the power button does turn off the wifi, but not bt. do it manually. make it a habit. the ax is never off, just asleep.
Lesson 3: The usb port does not supply enough power for both backup power and main battery recharge. Cradle your baby when you can.
Lesson 4: Backup battery takes a long time to charge. I'm beginning to understand the 8 hour initial charge.
Lesson 5: Don't Panic.
Corbu is now fully charged and seems happy. He's still under warranty, so i'm testing it by turning off properly, turning off autoupdates, but leaving alarms set, and leaving it off overnight. I want to find out now if there is some faulty system drain incase he does have to be returned. sorry for the long tale, but i hope it helps some new owners. and it does have a happy ending.
back up! back up! back up! back up! and Don't Panic!
a couple of clarificatioins: the power button does turn off both of the radios but sometimes it gets messed up and won't turn off either or both of them but you should be able to see this as the lights keep blinking. but you are right about turning them off manually, that always works.
USB will charge both the backup and main battery but it only works when the pda is turned off. So, if you left the radio on then at midnight when the pda wakes itself up to do its daily maintenance routine it will try to connect and then it won't turn off no matter what you have the auto power off set to so if you are only connected by USB then it also won't charge anymore until the battery dies and it turns itself off.
? "They wake themselves up at night to do maintenance", please explain.
yes...please...do explain...what does that mean?
Also, as a newbie (I've had my ax a couple of weeks), I've read the horrid cradle stories, so I've been keeping my ax clear of the cradle, syncing by infrared and charging only the extra battery in the cradle, and then switching the two.
Question is, does this mean the back up battery will go down? It only always says "normal". Does the ax have to be in the cradle to charge the back up? Or can it charge itself while on?
a couple of clarificatioins: the power button does turn off both of the radios but sometimes it gets messed up and won't turn off either or both of them but you should be able to see this as the lights keep blinking. but you are right about turning them off manually, that always works.
I didn't think the lights were still blinking, but i confess it was after midnight when i turned it off!
Originally Posted by bigdave240
USB will charge both the backup and main battery but it only works when the pda is turned off. So, if you left the radio on then at midnight when the pda wakes itself up to do its daily maintenance routine it will try to connect and then it won't turn off no matter what you have the auto power off set to so if you are only connected by USB then it also won't charge anymore until the battery dies and it turns itself off.
The ax is never fully powered off. At midnight it powers on, not sure exactly what it does, but i know it checks for alarms and as people say does maintenance (ax phone home????). the settings to turn off after so many minutes usually protect against total power failure. but if wifi or bt is on (at least for wm2003se and lower) these can keep the ax "on" thus draining the battery.
Originally Posted by stardust
Also, as a newbie (I've had my ax a couple of weeks), I've read the horrid cradle stories, so I've been keeping my ax clear of the cradle, syncing by infrared and charging only the extra battery in the cradle, and then switching the two.
Question is, does this mean the back up battery will go down? It only always says "normal". Does the ax have to be in the cradle to charge the back up? Or can it charge itself while on? Thanks. :)
I have a relatively new x50v, and i have not had any problems with the cradle. When i'm in the office i keep it and my 2nd battery in the charger. backup battery is charged automatically, as bigDave said, although when totally discharged it does take a long time to come back to 100%.
When everything hasn't drained, it can charge while in the cradle and plugged directly into a usb port. It will not charge while on, plugged into a non-pwered usb hub.
Follow Us
RSS Feed
Follow on Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
Noob Cautionary tale - What not to do to your x50v
