Re: z50 battery oddity

der Mouse <[email protected]> Sun, 30 Mar 2008 01:32:02 -0400 (EDT)
Newsgroups gmane.os.netbsd.ports.hpcmips
Message-ID <[email protected]>
>> [...z50...battery looks dead...]
> What does the battery monitor software in Windows CE say?  (I think
> there's a graphical battery meter in RapidAccess, if I'm not
> mistaken).

You're not.  I wasn't aware of that; I knew of only the "Power" item in
the control panel and the battery calibration app under Start,
Programs, WorkPad, Battery Calibration.

The Rapid Access battery meter shows 0%.  The Power control panel (also
available by double-clicking the battery in Rapid Access) says External
and Good.  (I suspect External means it's running off mains power.  The
battery is dead enough I can't try running it off battery power.)  The
battery calibration app starts and is willing to start a calibration
run, but I haven't let it finish.  (I suspect it might not finish
unattended; when I tried it, it kept popping up a modal alert box about
the backup battery being "very low or missing" - which has been normal;
I replaced the backup batteries and that popup went away for maybe all
of a couple of weeks.)  I've started another battery calibration run;
I'll see what it does.

> Failing that, I do have a couple of spare batteries lying around, in
> addition to a spare AA battery holder.  I could possibly lend you one
> of these for testing purposes.

Well, I've been considering ordering a new battery from a place I found
that sells (or says they sell, at least) z50-compatible new batteries
with longer run time than the originals.  Perhaps I should just order
one, though I rather hesitate to do that without being sure the fault
is in the battery pack rather than the charging circuit in the z50.
Maybe a loaner is a good idea - where are you geographically?

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