Recently my Axim X51v ended up in the laundry by accident. Needless to say spending 40 minutes in water and soap didn't help it very much.
Miraculously, after drying out it works again, even the screen is completely fine. The only thing that doesn't appear to work is charging the battery.
When I plug it in, the LCD screen brightness increases (and doesn't turn off automatically anymore), so obviously the device is aware it's plugged in. But the battery charging light (and icon in Windows Mobile) appear for only a second and then go out again. The battery does not charge.
What would be more likely to be the problem here: the battery itself, or the device's ability to charge it? I'm hoping the battery of course, as getting a new battery would be considerably easier than fixing the Axim.
My vote is that the devices ability to charge any battery has been damaged. Water and any device do not mix. Even if they do after drying out there most often are issues that occur later on.
40 minutes in water, in a machine wash cycle? and you are asking why it wont charge. You could try a new battery, there may be corrosion on the axims connector that needs to be cleaned off. Have you had the device apart since it was washed?
I'm not asking why it won't charge, that seems rather obvious. :o But since both the battery and the device were in the washer, both could have been damaged.
However I am asking how to fix it. I don't like the idea of opening it up myself; hardly ever has a device gotten out better after being opened by me.
If it is indeed your suggestion that the device, and not the battery, is at fault here, I will need to take it in for repair.
The problem with that (which is why I was kind of hoping you guys would point at the battery) is that the warranty has already expired. Moreoever, I bought my Axim in the Netherlands, and I am currently living in Japan.
water damage is tricky, it can well start a corrosion process that will not be apparent for weeks or months.
A battery is a simple fix, but may not be the problem.
If you are dead set on trying to rescue it, send it to PPCTechs for a review.
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Sorry for being flip, there are a lot of threads here about various types of liquid immersion from orange juice to salt water, I can't point you at any thing that is obvious, but if you search "water Damage" there's plenty to read for Ideas, but as Rad said, if your not confident to take it apart send it to a good tech for asessment
Do you have a cradle? If so what happens if you take the battery out and put it in the charge slot on the cradle without the pda? Also, have you at least taken the battery out and wiped the pins clean? use a soft cloth to wipe both the battery and the pda connectors off.
I would take the battery off and clean the contacts on the Ax and battery.
Use a cloth, then a pencil eraser.
Try that.
If still no good, plug the power cord directly into your Axim, not through the cradle.
Does the x51v have a separate connection for the power cord or does it use the connector that the cradle uses? (I have an x5 and it has a separate plug in for the power cord). The problem could be the connector on the bottom - see if you can clean it, although it is a difficult thing to clean.
I just realized something: I'd completely forgotten that the cradle can be used to charge the battery without it being in the device (by inserting the battery int he back of the cradle). Since I've never used that before it's perhaps not strange that I didn't think of this.
In any case, the battery appears to charge normally using this method, so it appears the Axim itself is at fault. But, since I don't really fancy sending it across the pacific and have it checked out for $100 or more, or replacing it for $500 or more, I'm content using the cradle to charge the battery and then syncing to get my data back. I'm living off a government scholarship in a very expensive country to live in, so I'm not exactly swimming in cash right now.
If any further defects show up, I can decide what to do then. I may still contact Dell support in Japan to ask what they can do, and what it would cost.
EDIT:
Since the device loses its time/date data every time I remove the battery, clearly the backup battery is also not working. I've seen a thread here about replacing it, but like I said, I'm very reluctant to open it. For one thing, I moved to Japan only three months ago, and I don't have any tools here. I don't have torx head screw drivers and I don't have a soldering iron, and in the latter case I haven't used one since grade school. I'm just afraid I'll only damage it further.
I'm fine with regular computers, I can build those from scratch no problem, but for that you don't need anything besides a screwdriver and there's very little that can go wrong. With small things like this I'm just afraid I'll break it.
Last edited by Unforgiven; 06-28-07 at 01:30 AM.
Reason: additional information
I would be very wary of that battery. If it had any charge before going into the wash it would quickly have discharged all the cells in the battery and doing that would heat it up very quickly and may have damaged something inside it. It may seem perfectly fine, but I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.
Though it could be that your Axim cannot charge the battery because it has undergone a very deep discharge and the Axim cannot force the power into it, maybe the cradle can. It could also be that after the first charge the battery will be okay to charge in your Axim, or it could be that your cradle is now a ticking timebomb...
As to the backup battery, the X51 doesn't have one, it has a supercap which holds power to the clock for a few minutes and is soldered to the board. Sounds like that is damaged.
As stated before, *any* kind of water ingress can start a progressive corrosion of the components and board. Personally, because I work with electronics, I'd have taken it apart and cleaned it thoroughly using proper PCB cleaning chemicals and let it dry for as long as I could.
Hope you have some luck with your unit. Have fun.
How's Japan? I've always wanted to go...
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Actually, the battery still had charge after coming out of the washer, around 80%. That's how I found out the thing still worked. I put the battery back in it after about a day (I had taken it out after it came out of the washer), and it booted. I hadn't charged or done anything with the battery at all in between.
Then I removed the battery again and left it to dry for two more days (because there was still water behind the LCD screen), putting it in dry rice (at someone else's recommendation) to help absorb the water. Now it seems fine, except for the charging thing.
It may be important to note that it was washed in cold water, not warm. Warm water is rarely used for clothes washing in Japan, and my washer doesn't even have that ability.
Water temp doesn't matter in this case, only matters for setting stains lol. It is the chemicals in the soap that will kill it. There is also the minerals in the water itself that can eventually cause corrosion.
This is one of the most optimistic threads, I've ever seen, look your ax has been submerged, ?, all the evidence points to the fact that you will have major troubles. Get it checked out and don't leave it to supposition, or hope , or the wish not to spend money, all the conjecture here is not going to fix it, if you are not able to physiccally able to fix it yourself, or even check it out you may need to pay for a cleanout/refurb
Quite frankly you are incredibly lucky it still works.
Secondly, if there has been water damage, the oxidation will carry on long after the submersion... think of it as rust and corrosion that might not kill it today, but in a week or 2 or more.
If you have ANY desire to keep that thing, send it to get cleaned and serviced... otherwise save your money until it dies and buy another one
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