New to PPC. Horrible Battery life!

[isaiah_la]

Howdy folks! I have been lurking around here for a while. I just inherited an Ipaq 38xx and the battery doesn't last for more than 24 hours. Is this usual, or am I nuts?

Thanks for the help!

Isaiah!

[rob_ocelot]

Howdy folks! I have been lurking around here for a while. I just inherited an Ipaq 38xx and the battery doesn't last for more than 24 hours. Is this usual, or am I nuts?

Thanks for the help!

Isaiah!

24 hours of constant use, or does the battery go flat 24 hours after you fully recharge it? Or does it appear to charge but then is basically dead when you try to use it.

Average battery life on the 38xx pocket PC's was about 4-5 hours constant use.

Note that the Ipaq 38xx series are about two years old now -- by this point the Li-polymer battery inside is basically finished. You'll probably need to get a replacement. A good place to start is:

www.pocketpctechs.com

They offer battery replacement services. There are also DIY kits that are cheaper but you do run the risk of damaging your IPAQ -- you have to make sure that no parts of the battery are pressing against the back of the screen or you'll get some strange looking artefacts on the screen.

Most of the newer PocketPC models (IPAQ's included) have use-swappable Li-ion batteries.

Regards,
Rob S.

[Janak Parekh]

Rob's right on the money. One other possibility is that you're running a program, in the background, that's preventing the iPAQ from sleeping. Go either into iTask (the last button of the four) or into Start => Settings => System => Memory => Running Programs and make sure you don't have something like Windows Media Player running in the background; it interferes with the power management of the Pocket PC, especially when it "wakes up" at midnight to rotate the calendar.

--janak

[isaiah_la]

I have checked out the programs running, and nothing is running. Basically, if I use it on Saturday, and don't use it on Sunday, on Monday, the thing needs to be restored (Which BTW, is a royal pain compared to the Palm, but that's another story :wink: )

So I will contact the guys that you mentioned. But when I checked them before, they only did stuff for the 36/37xx. I will keep looking!

Thanks for the help!

Isaiah!

[PetiteFlower]

Yeah that sounds like you need a new battery :)

[Godsongz]

PocketPCTechs will do it for $99 (price of battery with installation), heres the direct link (http://www.pocketpctechs.com/detail.asp?Product_ID=I38-LIBAT01)[/url]