2.5 hour usage on a 8 hour battery

[ECOslin]

With delivery confirmation, $300 insurance and Priority post, Thursday I consigned my Maestro to the mail for it to seek rest and repair at the Audiovox maintenance depot.

I finally got fed up over the battery only charging up to less than 3 hours usage.

I hit the web site with a how can I get this fixed message, and was told to call the warranty repair number. The lady there said I should send it to the following 'recorded' address. With trepidation I packed my Maestro in many layers of bubblewrap and let fly to the winds of the USPS.

I'm just wondering, once it gets there, will I get a phone call saying I need a new battery for $200, it's up to their discretion as to what is under warranty.

I'm still looking for repair documentation for the Toshiba E570/Maestro.

Edward

[Malacandra]

Umm, I hate to tell you: 3 hours IS the normal charge for a Maestro. In fact, I would be surprised if you got three straight hours; 2.5 is more likely, perhaps two depending on how heavily you are using it.

When they say 8 hours, they mean turned on a few times to check a phone number and sitting around the rest of the time.

I hate to burst your bubble, but there is nothing wrong with your Maestro; it's normal and you sent it back for no reason.

NEVER go with the manufacturer's battery specs.

Instead, go to www.semsons.com and pick up some extra charging supplies to keep it tip top charged.

[ECOslin]

When I got it, little more than a couple of months ago, it was doing 4.25+ hours. I can't accept that the internal battery won't put out something just short of manufacturers specs. My IBM z50 is rated for 8 hours and I normally get 6 hours plus and this is without the extended (double) battery. If I can get Audiovox to look at it, well that's a good thing.

At worst the next step, if Audiovox can't do anything, I'll crack the case myself and check around for a suitable substitution battery that will put out.

I already own the battery extender. Nothing else on the Semsons site really impresses me, thanks, though.

If it won't last a work day, what good is it?

Edward

[Gallivant]

It *does* put out at manufacturer's specs - *If* you don't use it for very much. The Maestro has crappy battery life; it's a well-known fact and one of the main reasons I didn't buy one.

[ECOslin]

I do not have to accept what limitations others say exist. My head is hard and I'm very willing to continue to batter away the very thin stone and brick walls that would limit my ops.

Edward

[pixelator]

I hate to add some bricks to that wall, but the guy is right. With the backlight on full, you'd be lucky to get 3 hours out of a Maestro. More like 2, if you're actually using it like playing games or MP3 files.

If you got 4+ before, no doubt you had the screen light on minimal or off and weren't doing much with it. I think the absolute longest runtime anyone's gotten out of a Maestro *IS* in the 8 hour ballpark, but with the frontlight off completely. If you were getting 3-4 hours with the light off, then maybe you have reason to complain. But with that light on, 3 hours is all you can expect from the thing. Audiovox and Toshiba get away with saying 8 because they never say that's with the light on.

I had a Maestro for a couple of months. Great design, great price, great specs, but the battery is its downfall.

b

[ECOslin]

The Maestro has two or three different backlighting settings, which I use the lowest(dimmest), just before 'off'.

I'm just going to hear what Audiovox says. If I don't like what I hear, I'll start taking it apart to either change the battery for something more substantial or modify the case to accomodate a standardized(cell phone - Motorola Star-tac or like) battery pack.

The light on my Maestro actually turns green for a completed charge, when the battery meter say's 2.75 hours remaining. That's why I sent it in. The low battery warning comes on at one hour remaining.

Edward

[spursdude]

the maestro has 5 brightness settings, first of all.

the battery will last a very long time with backlight on either low or off if you simply let it sit there and do nothing.

as for the low battery warning coming on early, i think it's because the low battery warning comes on at 40%.

and what battery meter are you using? i've always doubted the accuracy of battery meters...and more importantly, is it free? :D

everybody here is definitely right in that the battery life of the maestro is poor. i can live with it, though, seeing as i can just charge it every night and i don't use it too much during the school day.

ecoslin - i honestly don't believe that your model is defective. to me, you seem to be getting average results that all of us maestro users get. but please let us know what audiovox does.

[TIKI]

I own a E740 and never have reacherd a battery life of more than 2 hours. It seems that in these two machines there is a SW/HW bug on the powermanagement. Toshiba has provided in the Singapore area a ROM update which seems to help a little. Perhaps Audivox comes with anything similar in the near future. Otherwise try the IPAQ.
I have bought an additional USBsynchCharger from BELKIN (19,99) which I connect either to my car or to a USB Ports on any PC whenever possible, this allows for surviving the working day.

[ECOslin]

I'm using Powerpack 2002, the program on the top ten of PocketPC software.

If I can't rely on a piece of hardware working when I need it, I might as well just sell it and buy a dozen pack of spiral notepads with optional pencil attachment.

2 hours is not a good thing.

I don't need the stun-gun CF card or any other unusual attachments, just a device compatible with my PC files on occasion. I'm also using an 8mb USB disk-on-key to good effect.

Edward

[ECOslin]

Well it came back today 10/22/2002, Checked good, Cust.Complaint N/F (likely not found).

Hmm, some point soon I'll be doin' some disectin'.

Edward

[Newsboy]

Unfortunately I have to agree with the concensus on Maestro battery life. I too get 2-3 hours, depending on what I'm doing, backlight or not, etc etc. If I use my Ambicom CF WiFi card, I can get about 30-45 minutes before it's totally unusable.

Pathetic. This is the one big hurdle I think current Pocket PCs need to overcome for broader acceptance. Am seriously thinking of selling the Maestro and getting an Ipaq, then sending it out for the KingREX Battery upgrade.

Btw, how do you like the Z50? Currently in grad school, have the Maestro and a powerful (!) desktop PC. I was thinking of a laptop, but the 2-3 hour battery life deters me, and I only need it for email, lite web surfing, and Office applications.

Oh, and having a 2 GB Toshiba hard drive w/ my MP3s on it wouldn't hurt either. :D

[ECOslin]

The z50 keyboard is slightly undersized but usable, try to get the 16 hour battery, I've also got the alkaline battery shell but I never use it.

The 640 by 480 screen is smaller than most web sites are geared to, you'd have to scroll lots.

The modem 33.6 works does the job.

It will take a 128mb CF card, and it will play MP3s with the earlier version of CE media player, the speaker isn't that great, I have impressed people by leaving it in an empty classroom, where I was setting up for the next day's class, belting out tunes. It is supposed to be able to take a 1 gig CF IBM hdd, haven't tried.

I use mine for minor stuff, excel and reading ebook text files by bedside.

Edward

[Newsboy]

The things I really need -

Full screen PDF viewer to review my class notes.
Full screen .DOC editor.
Basic web browser (I only use Google and AvantGo 95% of the time).
Keyboard.
LONG battery life. (I do alot of traveling and work out of home, no office.)
Portable Hard Drive capable (i.e. Toshiba PC Card HD).
Wireless networking capable.

I like the PPC format, my Maestro is great, but the battery life sucks, and once you make it useful for the above requirements, you're up to the weight and bulk of the Z50 anyway. I'd need the expansion battery pack, keyboard, screen is still too small...

I think the ideal solution for me is a Z50 and a Toshiba e310/e330. Small PPC for data management and mobile multimedia, mini-note format for everything else.

[ECOslin]

Adobe doesn't seem to have a PDF viewer for this Mips based machine. You'd have to use a converter.

It has the earlier version of CE Office Suite with Pocket Word 3.0

Web browsing is fine, no incompatabilities with non enhanced framed pages.

16 hour battery life with extended battery, 8 hours with the OEM battery. Can use practically any 19v 2.4amp center + notebook power supply.

Will take either Pcmcia or Compact Flash cards including ATA support for hard drives. Can likely do wireless networking, I've never needed it. My notebook is set up for regular networking, and I have'nt used that for a couple of years.

z50 keyboard is fine for anything, I just have large non-nimble crushing fingers that can only type, now, 35 words at most a minute. I liked my laptop's touchpad, the z50 comes with a single fingerpoint mouse control in the center of the keyboard and two buttons at the bottom center for left and right mouse buttons.

And you can't beat the price on Ebay, $150 or less with accessories.
Most are used, I jumped in when Ibm literally dumped them for $300 or less to clear warehouse space a three years back.

Edward

[Newsboy]

Adobe doesn't seem to have a PDF viewer for this Mips based machine. You'd have to use a converter.

Ansyr makes the "Primer PDF Viewer" for the Mips platform. Expensive, $80, but I'd need it. http://www.ansyr.com

It has the earlier version of CE Office Suite with Pocket Word 3.0

I try to do most of my editing in RTF format anyway. Makes compatibility easier when exchanging documents with other people. Also, I have been with PPC since WinCE 1.0 and 1.1. My first HPC was a Compaq C140, with a whopping 4 megs (!) of ram/rom. The powerpoint presenter and VGA out would be useful to me as well, however basic.

16 hour battery life with extended battery, 8 hours with the OEM battery. Can use practically any 19v 2.4amp center + notebook power supply.

The battery life continues to leave me flabbergasted. Will be interesting to do some battery tests on the extended version, see how long the MP3 player lasts. Next on my list of things to buy: Targus universal AC adaptor/PS. My father just got one, that thing is great.

Going to give this idea a couple of days, make sure I'm not crazy, but this seems like an incredibly comprehensive, and CHEAP solution to my needs! With the money I save on a laptop, I can justify getting one of those fancy new super-thin transflective LCD PPCs coming on the market! All right!!! :twisted:

I love being a second adopter sometimes. :)