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Dazbot
11-05-2003, 11:45 PM
I have had my 2210 for a few months, I have noticed the battery discharges faster than my 3850 did.

While listening to music today I found that the battery would drop about 20% in an hour! with the screen off, bluetooth off, IrDA off etc. The music is stored on a CF card and played using Media Player.

Does this seem right?

Also when fully charged Pocket Plus estimates about 5 1/2 hours runtime.

Godsongz
11-06-2003, 12:44 AM
The 2200s only have a 900mah battery, and I believe the 3800 series have a 1400mah battery. So its not really draining faster, theres just not as much to drain.

Keeping in mind the difference in the size of the batteries, my 2215 seems to be more efficient than my 3835 ever was.

AhuhX
11-06-2003, 12:50 AM
No, it's not right. My 2210 discharges 10% per hour exactly when listening to music with the screen off.

Maybe a bad battery?

ctmagnus
11-06-2003, 05:22 AM
I get around 7% drain after an hour with WMAs playing off a SD card, screen off and volume at the lowest audible setting. This is with a 1400mAh battery (made in Denmark) in an iPaq 5550. However, my 3670 loses around 15% battery per hour when it's disconnected from AC and not in use. ;)

sumfunny
11-06-2003, 06:43 AM
you seem way to fast, is it CF or microdrive cause those eatup batteries too

droppedd
11-07-2003, 10:43 AM
yeah that is pretty fast... i can watch a DivX movie fullscreen for like an hour and a half, and listen to some mp3s, all off CF/SD cards, and still not kill my battery. sounds like you may have a bad one - or check the contacts on it, maybe they're just dirty/not lined up right... you can check Jason's original 2210 review for some battery tests; they certainly weren't anything to write home about (although pretty good for 900 mAh)... but not unusably bad...

Dazbot
11-07-2003, 09:55 PM
Its a DaneElec 256MB Type 1 CF card. Which I know can't drain battery life that much.

Using Spb Benchmark, I found the following:

Maximum backlight, looping WMV video playback: 3 hours, 57 minutes

Display off, looping MP3 audio file: 8 hours 35 minutes

Maximum backlight, standard use test: 5 hours 39 minutes

Maximum backlight, Bluetooth active, no use: 5 hours 54 minutes

According to that it should use about 12% every hour! :cry:

I had also had battery life problems with the CF Plus Pack slim battery as well :cry:

delfuhd
11-08-2003, 03:34 PM
Well all I know ist hat my 3850 is MUCH better with battery life than my 2200, but that's fine, because I never get my 2200 below 50% any day...

Mitchybums
11-08-2003, 05:14 PM
Your battery is probably lazy.
I suggest you charge it full and drain it all the way a couple of times.
Batterys turn lazy (weaker) when you put them back on the charger after only a little use (or even half way)

I'm draining mine at least twice a week and i'm on about a 4% battery usage per hour when listening to mp3's

moaske
11-09-2003, 09:55 PM
Your battery is probably lazy.
I suggest you charge it full and drain it all the way a couple of times.
Batterys turn lazy (weaker) when you put them back on the charger after only a little use (or even half way)
That is actually not true ! Li-Ion batteries actually perform best if you charge them regularly. Discharging them to 0 is even harmfull for these batteries. There is however another issue with Li-Ion battries, and that's the fact that their lifetime ends at approximately 600 to 800 charge cycles. And the problem there lies in the fact that even if you just sync the device for a quick minute with the AC hooked up to the cradle, the battery will count that as another charge cycle 8O
So charge it only when necessary, but don't let it run out all the way (also to prevent reinstalling everything again ;) )

droppedd
11-10-2003, 07:00 AM
And the problem there lies in the fact that even if you just sync the device for a quick minute with the AC hooked up to the cradle, the battery will count that as another charge cycle

i was reasonably certain that this was not the case with li-ions... just like you shouldn't discharge them the whole way. As i recall, discharging and charging by, say, 5%, counts as 5% of a charge cycle. at least for li-ions. though maybe i'm totally off there. I know for older batteries - the ones you are supposed to discharge completely - that this sometimes is the case.

Janak Parekh
11-10-2003, 07:02 AM
droppedd, I believe you're right.

In any case, consult this (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9063) if you want detailed answers on how to care for Li-Ion batteries.

--janak

moaske
11-10-2003, 11:46 AM
That's a very interesting read... :D I've not been able to read the whoile article yet, but it seems that i was right about Li-Ion best performing when not completely discharged all the time. Best storage-charge would be 40% (at 15'C). I read in the article that your battery lives longest when you give it short charge-cycles. That is; charge it again as soon as you hit -lets say- 50%.
But i stand corrected on the cycle counting i explained before. It seems that Li-Ion is not really affected by that. However it is affected by aging ! So the author warns about buying old stock for dicount prices !! 8O