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View Full Version : Battery/power problem with h1945

ucacjbs
10-10-2003, 02:24 PM
Hello all,

I've had my 1945 for a little less than 3 weeks and have run into a power problem; has anyone else seen the following behaviour?

When connected to the mains power adapter, all is well (the power indicator LED glows a constant orange, supposedly indicating a fully-charged battery). When I unplug it, it works for at most a couple of minutes before the screen fades to black. A couple of seconds later, the device revives itself, but has hard reset, and all my data is gone. It will do this a couple of times before completely giving up the ghost. I re-attach it to the mains supply, and the device boots, but has again hard reset.

I spoke to HP, who are shipping me a new battery to try out, but I guess that I don't understand the loss of data that I'm seeing. Isn't the backup battery meant to preserve data for short periods when the main battery dies? If that's the case, then perhaps I have a deeper problem.

Has anyone else seen anything like this? I'm hoping that this is a rarity because an unreliable PDA is not much use. Other than this problem, I've been very pleased with the device overall, but obviously this is a real show-stopper.

Thanks very much,

ben
dcharles18
10-10-2003, 04:27 PM
Sounds like the entire unit is defective, not just the battery. My 1945 is two weeks old, I really hope that this isn't something I have to look forward to.
Jolard
10-10-2003, 11:41 PM
It sounds like a defective unit to me also, much more than just a bad battery. Even if your main battery is totally dead, the unit is supposed to be able to run for up to 30 minutes on the backup battery.

So it almost sounds as if both the backup and the main battery are either not charging correctly, or there is a major system electrical problem.

As for the hard reset, this will happen if you have no power to the unit at all, as the flash memory requires power to maintain data.

I would suggest waiting for the battery and trying it, but don't be suprised if it doesn't work. If it was me and the store you bought it at allows returns for as long as you have had it, I would simply return it to them as defective and get a new one. Much less hassle for you.
ucacjbs
10-20-2003, 05:06 PM
Just a quick update this thread; it seems that the unit is defective (as suspected), so it's gone off for repair. On the plus side, so far, I have found HP/Compaq support to be most helpful and very responsive.

I guess that those who are thinking about buying a 1940/1945 can take heart at the lack of other reports of power problems; it looks like I got a rare bad one. As I mentioned in the original post, other than this (admittedly very bad) problem, I liked the 1945 very much, and am looking forward to the return of my repaired unit.
ucacjbs
10-23-2003, 04:55 PM
Hello,

I guess this looks like I'm having a conversation with myself, but I thought I'd update the status. My iPaq returned from repair yesterday and appears to be happy again. HP's service was excellent - the 1945 was picked up Monday afternoon, and was delivered in working order to my home by Wednesday lunchtime. They say they've replaced the motherboard, an auxiliary PCB, screen and backup battery, so I more or less have a new device, which is comforting.

Anyway, that's all for now on this (I hope).
Thinkingmandavid
10-23-2003, 05:05 PM
Now that is good service :)
Good for you. sounds to me like the unit is new and you are happy..... :clap: for hp :wink:
PoweriPaq
10-23-2003, 05:05 PM
One reason why I bought my iPaq... for their support and service. Glad you got it back and everything is fine.