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View Full Version : Breathe life into your iPAQ with a new battery


Jason Dunn
08-27-2002, 07:00 PM
<a href="http://www.pocketpctechs.com/pgf.asp">http://www.pocketpctechs.com/pgf.asp</a><br /><br />If you've been doing this "Pocket PC thing" for a couple of years now like me, you'll probably have a 1st generation iPAQ. And if you recharged it a lot, you're probably noticing that you're just not getting the battery life you used to - or perhaps your iPAQ won't hold a charge at all? I had an iPAQ that would only work when plugged in to AC power - it held zero charge. So what do you do? Contact the Pocket PC Techs of course!<br /><br />If you're looking for a straight battery replacement for your 3600 or 3700 series iPAQ, $99 will get you a 1000 mAH battery virtually identical to the standard iPAQ battery (50 mAH more). For $149, you can get the massive 2100 mAH battery. So how does the big battery perform in real-life tests? Very well indeed! A standard 3650 will last for two hours with the backlight on low. After the 2100 mAH battery upgrade, it lasts 5.2 hours - more than double the power. I know some people who use the PCMCIA sleeve just for the extra battery - shed the sleeve brothers, and get the bigger battery! This is one of the best upgrades you can do for your iPAQ.<br /><br />If you're interested in getting this upgrade, when you're checking out use the coupon code "thoughts" and you'll save $10 off the high-capacity battery option, or $5 off the regular battery. This isn't an affiliate code - we make no money off of this. I just want you to have a strong battery! <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif" />

iPaqDude
08-27-2002, 07:14 PM
Jason,

I went with the 2100 mAh battery along with a 64meg upgrade for my iPaq H3630. Very impressed with the product and the service from Pocket PC Techs. Breathed life back into an otherwise ailing machine.

I decided to get the upgrade while waiting for the PDA - phone thing to mature a little more. I am more in the camp of wanting a PDA that can act as a phone, not the other way around. Bluetooth may be the answer, but - 'till it all gets sorted out and gets a little more maturity under it's belt, I have a well-functioning PDA to get me by a little bit longer.

denivan
08-27-2002, 11:24 PM
any ideas on what turn around is like if i ship from europe ? How much time would this take, how much would it cost me for shipping costs, isn't it dangerous to ship an ipaq from europe to usa ? etc. etc.

fundmgr90210
08-27-2002, 11:39 PM
Sad though that this should ever be a topic. It's a $500-$700 PDA, the battery should last longer than these have. Now you've got to turn around and pay for a new one? Shame on you Compaq :oops:

Jason Dunn
08-27-2002, 11:54 PM
any ideas on what turn around is like if i ship from europe ? How much time would this take, how much would it cost me for shipping costs, isn't it dangerous to ship an ipaq from europe to usa ? etc. etc.

Your best bet is to ask them directly I think. :)

55Kevy
08-28-2002, 12:16 AM
I've been using a J548 since late June, 2000, and haven't noticed any deterioration of battery life or performance. I'm not a hard core user, and the device is cradled an charged most of the time during the weekdays. In fact, I can only remember about 3 times when I've received the "charge this puppy now or lose your data" warning. Nevertheless, this may be yet another example of where Jornada shines.

Kevin

Jason Dunn
08-28-2002, 12:32 AM
The Jornada uses a Lithium Ion battery while the iPAQ uses a Lithium Polymer battery - the latter being more susecptible to this loss of battery functionality, especially since in the 3600 and 3700 series units there wasn't a controller for the battery that would stop it from being damaged when it was drained too much...

danielalvers
08-28-2002, 01:03 AM
Has anyone just purchased a standard replacment battery from the new HP Store and replaced it themselves.

I would be interested in hearing what peoples impression of the service is.

fireflyrsmr
08-28-2002, 04:10 PM
general tuneup questions for the iPAQ. - how long was the turnaround on the battery replacement?

can the 16 megs or ROM get upgraded? i think that's a chip change so i'm expecting no but .... what are the advantages of the 32 meg rom. i get this out of memory error every once in awhile. is it that rom memory that is consummed? because everything else that i can see on the meter bars is in fine shape.

when is it time to think about a new digitizer screen? i get these random spikes like i did on my newton 120. it's happened since the beginning and is not terrible but it's also not "right". i also notice that different applications that use "ink" seem to have different levels of trouble with this spiking and with a line being jagged. the speed i make the line seems to be a variable too. so would new hardware (screen) help or is it a software issue? :?: thanks.

Sanjay Srikonda
08-28-2002, 05:52 PM
Here's what I wrote:

hi,

what are your plans for the kingrex upgrade for the ipaq 3800 series?

thank you,

This was my response from Leonard Wesson at PocketPCTechs:

Hi Sanjay,

We are working on it. ETA 4th qtr.

Thanks,

leonard


That's promising enough to make me want to sign up as soon as it's released.

Sunnyone
08-28-2002, 08:47 PM
I opted for the 2100 replacement and a 64meg upgrade as well. I love my iPAQ again. I honestly thought about replacing my device with one of the Xscales, but now I've put off upgrading until the next (?) generation of devices.

Len Egan
08-29-2002, 03:51 AM
I'd love to hear how long your batteries have been lasting. I'm wondering if the life is 1-2 years or worse :cry:

hahn
11-27-2002, 05:42 PM
Jason,

I went with the 2100 mAh battery along with a 64meg upgrade for my iPaq H3630. Very impressed with the product and the service from Pocket PC Techs. Breathed life back into an otherwise ailing machine.

I decided to get the upgrade while waiting for the PDA - phone thing to mature a little more. I am more in the camp of wanting a PDA that can act as a phone, not the other way around. Bluetooth may be the answer, but - 'till it all gets sorted out and gets a little more maturity under it's belt, I have a well-functioning PDA to get me by a little bit longer.

Hi Jason,

I have the same upgrade done too, but unfortunately right after i go it back about 10 minutes of switching my ipaq on, it went dead, it just went black out. Nothing works, I tried the hard reset, plug in the charger and switch on/off the battery, everything i could think of but nothing works, it just stay dead. One thing though I notice the unit is getting hot after i left the reset switch at the "on" position. When I switch it to "off" it cools down. Could it be the battery upgrade was bad?

Does anyone here have the same problem? I am trying to contact Time2tech for resending back to them, still no reply yet. Bad luck huh!!! Anyone out there knows what is the problem? I am getting desperate.

Fishie
11-27-2002, 07:30 PM
those in europe check this out : http://www.wolfsoft.de/cshop/csc_articles.php?VID=idTvXjoZZIucoG3K&saSearch[category]=Compaq+iPAQ

They do ROM and RAM upgrades as well as the battery and give a full year of warranty.
Ive used them for modding my videogameconsoles before and they consist of a bunch of dedicated tech nerds who just love tinkering with electronic gadgets.

compaqipaq
12-07-2002, 02:10 AM
For those of you who have upgraded to the large capacity battery. I had one question: Does this larger battery make the iPAQ feel noticeably heavier?

Jason Dunn
12-07-2002, 06:28 AM
For those of you who have upgraded to the large capacity battery. I had one question: Does this larger battery make the iPAQ feel noticeably heavier?

A little bit. I don't have a digital scale to weigh, but I'd say it's maybe 1 to 1.5 ounces heavier? I'm just guessing here...

JoeMoon
12-25-2002, 06:14 AM
i get these random spikes like i did on my newton 120. it's happened since the beginning and is not terrible but it's also not "right". i also notice that different applications that use "ink" seem to have different levels of trouble with this spiking and with a line being jagged. the speed i make the line seems to be a variable too.

I shipped 2 Ipaq's back to Compaq when I started... One of them was due to the spiking issue. They never did say what was wrong, they simply ran through some tests on the phone and finally said - "Yep, you've got a defective unit - send it back" The nice part was that I had a new one the next morning via DHL.

Although, after 18 months I am forced to replace the battery. I am sick of major corporations deliverying such faulty crap to the market and making us poor technophiles pony up for their poor R&D. I understand Compaq is offering a replacement battery for $200.

Hey Compaq, get a clue! $200 to fix your piece of junk, problem prone IPAQ - or $200 bucks for the kid across the street (DELL) for a brand new PPC with more features? Hmmm... Take some notes Compaq - your about to lose your installation base to the new kid on the block!

Joe...

JoeMoon
12-25-2002, 06:17 AM
For those of you who have upgraded to the large capacity battery. I had one question: Does this larger battery make the iPAQ feel noticeably heavier?

A little bit. I don't have a digital scale to weigh, but I'd say it's maybe 1 to 1.5 ounces heavier? I'm just guessing here...

What if you have a case by Vaja... Will this new battery create some demension changes that will cause the IPAQ not to fit into a tight form fitting case like the Vaja?

Joe...

Janak Parekh
12-25-2002, 08:01 AM
Although, after 18 months I am forced to replace the battery. I am sick of major corporations deliverying such faulty crap to the market and making us poor technophiles pony up for their poor R&D.
Umm, batteries don't last forever. 18 months of heavy use sounds about right - at that point the capacity starts diminishing. In any case, HP has listened to customers, and there are now removable batteries on their new models.

If you want, PPCTechs sells a do-it-yourself kit for much less than $200 for your older iPaq.

What if you have a case by Vaja... Will this new battery create some demension changes that will cause the IPAQ not to fit into a tight form fitting case like the Vaja?
Nope. They couldn't do that as it would render it incompatible with all sleeves, which have very a small tolerance for size changes.

--janak

hahn
01-04-2003, 09:10 PM
[quote=iPaqDude]Jason,
I have the same upgrade done too, but unfortunately right after i go it back about 10 minutes of switching my ipaq on, it went dead, it just went black out. Nothing works, I tried the hard reset, plug in the charger and switch on/off the battery, everything i could think of but nothing works, it just stay dead. One thing though I notice the unit is getting hot after i left the reset switch at the "on" position. When I switch it to "off" it cools down. Could it be the battery upgrade was bad?

Does anyone here have the same problem? I am trying to contact Time2tech for resending back to them, still no reply yet. Bad luck huh!!! Anyone out there knows what is the problem? I am getting desperate.

Finally I got back my ipaq from PocketPCTech. According to them the unit became unstable, they did not explain why but eventually they have to change the motherboard. Anyway they tested it for about 2 weeks and today i got it back. TEsted it myself and everything works well. 64MB, new batttery wt higher capacity, I am happy.

I am glad the upgrade is done my POcketPCtech. They are responsible, even though I am living on the other side of the world, and things went wrong, they are responsible enough to stand by their work. Great!

To all those people who live in Southeast Asia or Europe, who has an old ipaq 3630 and considering to upgrade but dont know where to go as the service is not availalbe especially in SouthEas Asia. You guys can rest assure and trust Leonard PPCTech that they can do it and make sure it works.

Thank you!

JoeMoon
01-04-2003, 10:57 PM
Although, after 18 months I am forced to replace the battery. I am sick of major corporations deliverying such faulty crap to the market and making us poor technophiles pony up for their poor R&D.
Umm, batteries don't last forever. 18 months of heavy use sounds about right - at that point the capacity starts diminishing. In any case, HP has listened to customers, and there are now removable batteries on their new models.

If you want, PPCTechs sells a do-it-yourself kit for much less than $200 for your older iPaq.

--janak


First off, nothing personal, but if you think 18 months is acceptable you've been decieved by the corporate giants who are apparently engineering devices that are designed to fail within 18 - 36 months. Its seems every electronic gadget, computer, TV, DVD Player, laptop, fax machine - you name it - I have purchased within the last ten years ends up in the trash within 3 years.

I am sick of it. You mean that we were able to put someone on the moon nearly 40 years ago, and yet we have a electronic device that can not keep a charge after a couple of hundred hours of use?! PLEASE! Don't take me as a fool - but unless we the consumers begin to let the engineers and corporate giants know that we will not stand for it, they will continue to shovel this crap into the market, lacking proper R&D, knowing full well that we will believe their deceptive lies that will cause us to buy their "upgraded model" when released.

Have you seen the problem list surrounding the IPAQs? Here it is years later, and yet they continue to manufacture units that have all "new features" ... I mean (being sacrastic) "all new shortcomings" that will cause you to remain in the vicous cycle of buying their "new release" in the next few years.

Now, I am sick of it. I have a $30,000 entertainment system in my house that is no more than 2 years old. HDTV, DVD, VCR... The works... I could give you a list of issues that surround this high end technology that would want to make you run for the bathroom and puke. On top of that, I must be one of a hundred people that got sucker into the HDTV hype, and yet I can not get a sigle person on the phone at Mitsubishi who even knows what freakin' day it is, much less how to address the problem.

Yeah, I am hot right now... sorry for dumping this on the boards, but I am one comsumer that has spent THOUSANDS of dollars on hardware, software and gadgets over the years and don't even get to hear an "I'm sorry Joe Consumer, but our products due lack the advertised features, and our products don't seem to perform as advertised, and our products don't seem to last as long as we advertised..."

Now, tell me, why would I want to spend $200 to fix the battery issue on an old IPAQ, when for another $100, I can get the new Dell Axim? BTW: The Dell Axim is a nice little unit, feels nice, looks nice, and from my 2 hours of playing with it - plays nice too!

Joe...

Janak Parekh
01-04-2003, 11:21 PM
First off, nothing personal, but if you think 18 months is acceptable you've been decieved by the corporate giants who are apparently engineering devices that are designed to fail within 18 - 36 months. Its seems every electronic gadget, computer, TV, DVD Player, laptop, fax machine - you name it - I have purchased within the last ten years ends up in the trash within 3 years.
OK, I'm not taking it personally, but you're lumping many different categories and problems together. A lot of people do believe electronics QA has declined, and failure rates have increased. Such is the price for lower-priced consumer products. There's no easy answer to this one, unless you buy things like extended warranties for devices that fail. If people are willing to put up with lower quality for lower pricing, that's market forces at work. If you don't agree with the way the market works, well, that's another problem entirely that's outside the scope of this site.

I also don't know about you, but at home we still have 4-5 year old laptops and desktops working fine. We tend to throw them out because the technology is outdated for more than any other reason. We still have a 10+ year old 20" TV, and although it's slowly wearing out it is still functional.

In any case, I don't want to get offtopic, so I'm going to stick to the battery issue. Most rechargeable batteries survive between 500 and 1,000 charge cycles. This is not due to some attempt by corporates to force you to buy new units; it's rather that battery technology is astoundingly hard to improve (see Ed's post (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=60530) on Friday). 500 charge cycles is less than 1.5 years for me.

I am sick of it. You mean that we were able to put someone on the moon nearly 40 years ago, and yet we have a electronic device that can not keep a charge after a couple of hundred hours of use?!
Apples and oranges. If you think that the equipment that put men on the moon was (a) perfect, or (b) would survive even 10 trips, I don't know what to say.

Have you seen the problem list surrounding the IPAQs?
Yes, and I don't apologize for it. Compaq has had issues with a lot of their iPaq units, but yet, they've been innovative enough that people are willing to overlook failure. It's not easy to build a perfect device. Certain companies do a better job than others. I had to send my iPaq back 3 times in a row earlier this year, but it works near-perfect now and I still love the device.

Now, tell me, why would I want to spend $200 to fix the battery issue on an old IPAQ, when for another $100, I can get the new Dell Axim? BTW: The Dell Axim is a nice little unit, feels nice, looks nice, and from my 2 hours of playing with it - plays nice too!
By all means, buy the Axim. It is a very nice unit and I wouldn't dissuade you from doing so. But please don't keep insisting a new battery (which, by the way, is $79 from PPCTechs) is ridiculously expensive and there's something wrong with it. Batteries are consumable technologies. They are replaceable in iPaqs if you want.

--janak

ruffas
01-06-2003, 03:17 PM
I saw batteries for iPAQs on that http://www.pda-store.co.uk. There place where those 'Slick keyboards' are.

They look like a bit strange to me 8O

It looks like a plastic bag and a screw driver!

Janak Parekh
01-06-2003, 04:43 PM
It looks like a plastic bag and a screw driver!
That's because they're Lithium Polymer, which makes it flexible. I assume the screwdriver is bundled because of the type of screws on the back of the iPaq.

--janak

atv
01-10-2004, 09:38 PM
So.. can i upgrade my battery on my 3630 with a new one or is this not possible?

Janak Parekh
01-10-2004, 10:25 PM
So.. can i upgrade my battery on my 3630 with a new one or is this not possible?
In short: yes, you can. That was the whole point of this thread. Do realize that replacing it will require you to disassemble your iPAQ a little bit; fortunately, these kits come with detailed instructions to help.

--janak