Leather Silver Silder II causing iPaq 3800 Battery to Drain Rapidly

[dacs29]

Well, I have a big problem here. I've owned a 3800 series iPaq for over a year now and in November I decided to purchase a Leather Silver Slider II along with a Socket Wireless LAN card. I used the SSII mostly as a case keeping the 802.11b card in the credit card slot in the lid. After having the iPaq in the case a few nights, I would wake up to find the battery completely drained and most of the time the data lost. At first I thought it was my iPaq so I called HP and they had me send in the PDA so they could replace the invertor board, but when it returned a few days later, the same problem was still present.

So I called HP again and they said they would fix it this time and when I got my iPaq back, it was a brand new unit. The problem continued on so I called PDAMotion in CA and had them replace my SSII. Well, now I have a brand new iPaq and Silver Slider II and the battery still drains rapidly when the PDA is sitting in the case! I don't know what to do. I really would like to keep in the iPaq in the case, but if it's going to drain my battery very rapidly, it's not worth it.

Another thing I would like to point out, it doesn't do this EVERY time...but most of the time. Also, I do NOT keep the wireless LAN card in the CF slot at night.

Anyone have the same problems? or know how to solve then? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

David

[Janak Parekh]

Hmm, that's very weird. I've had a SS2 (not the leather version, but rather an original GM version), and had no battery drain with it.

Do you know if the unit goes on at midnight, and if so, does it stay on? It's supposed to flash for a moment...

--janak

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Hmm, that's very weird. I've had a SS2 (not the leather version, but rather an original GM version), and had no battery drain with it.

Do you know if the unit goes on at midnight, and if so, does it stay on? It's supposed to flash for a moment...
Good question. You could change the clock to 11:55pm, turn the unit off and then observe it's behavior when it hits 12midnight. Once the unit turns on, watch to see if it turns itself back off (don't interact with it).

You may also want to experiment with your iPaq during the day. Completely charge the unit before you start the day. Leave the unit OFF during the day and turn it on each hour only to check the current battery status. Is it draining at consistent rate? Do this test both with and without the SS. Narrow down what's causing the problem.

...and don't use your WiFi during this testing ...it just complicates things.

BTW, I've got a PDAMotion SS2 myself with a 3870 with no such issues.

[dacs29]

Do you know if the unit goes on at midnight, and if so, does it stay on? It's supposed to flash for a moment...
Well, I just checked on my iPaq (it's 12:39; after midnight) and low and behold the screen of the PDA is on and the backlight is on. Now, is there a way I can stop the iPaq from turning on automatically at midnight? or a way I can have the iPaq turn itself off automatically?

David

[Janak Parekh]

OK. We're getting somewhere now. Make sure, first off, you're not running any programs or that your power settings are correct. Maybe you have a program that hangs whenever a CF slot is present, although that's weird. :?

And, importantly, leave the CF sleeve out tomorrow night and see what happens. Exactly around midnight, the unit should turn on, and then power management should shut it off within the 3-5 minutes you've set it up to go to sleep within.

You can't stop it from turning on at midnight; it rotates appointments at that time. The key is to make sure it goes off within the couple of minutes. I've been in bed a couple of times when the iPaq goes on, and my room gets flooded with light :D - but only for a few moments.

--janak

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

OK. We're getting somewhere now. Make sure, first off, you're not running any programs or that your power settings are correct. Maybe you have a program that hangs whenever a CF slot is present, although that's weird. :?
Definitely close all of your running programs (especially Windows Media Player).

I'm discovering that the screensaver program, PocketCandy (when enabled), prevents my iPaq from shutting down while running on battery. So be aware of any programs that you installed that run from the toolbar. Those won't show as running programs but they are active (they're normally triggered from the \Windows\StartUp menu which means you may have to move the shortcut from that directory and then do a soft reset).

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Oh, again you don't have to wait until midnight... You can fudge your clock to about 11:50pm, shut off the unit, and then wait (don't set it too close to midnight).

If you can't find any programs that are keeping it on and you still see the problem then soft-reset w/o the sleeve on and then reperform the same experiment.

[dacs29]

The problem seems to come from the fact that the iPaq is staying on after midnight when it is supposed to turn on briefly. I performed the same experiment without the CF sleeve and the iPaq turns off again as it should. I looked into my \Startup folder and there are five shortcuts:

HH_DM
cFlashman
aFlashman
poutlook
ARI_ENG

Could any of those five things cause the CF slot to lock up the iPaq when it's supposed to turn off?

Also, I tried doing a soft reset and the problem persists.

David

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

The problem seems to come from the fact that the iPaq is staying on after midnight when it is supposed to turn on briefly. I performed the same experiment without the CF sleeve and the iPaq turns off again as it should.
Hmmm... the five programs you list are normal and shouldn't be causing these problems (I have them in my unit as well). I'm assuming you have nothing inserted into the CF sleeve when you have it attached?

There's a few things you can try. You can list all the apps you've installed, perhaps someone on this board knows of an issue with one of them. You can also try the CF sleeve with someone else's iPaq and see if their iPaq shows the same issue OR if you have access to another CF sleeve that you can test on your iPaq, that would be a good test as well.

What I would probably do at this point is perform a hard reset. It's a little extreme, so be certain your comfortable doing that (I've done it many times, so I don't worry about it). After the hard reset, install NOTHING onto your PPC and perform the same test with your sleeves. If you don't see the problem, then I would install your apps one-by-one and after each install, reperform the test.

[dacs29]

I've decided to return my Silver Slider and try something else. Now I'm not sure what, since I want some sort of leather case but also be able to have the CF WiFi card with me at all times (like the SSII). I'll probably post another thread in a few minutes, asking for suggestions.

David

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I've decided to return my Silver Slider and try something else. Now I'm not sure what, since I want some sort of leather case but also be able to have the CF WiFi card with me at all times (like the SSII). I'll probably post another thread in a few minutes, asking for suggestions.
...not sure if you can do this in Germany, but you could also go to a local store and purchase the Compaq CF sleeve. If you still have the same issues, return it (if that's allowed)...

[dacs29]

...not sure if you can do this in Germany, but you could also go to a local store and purchase the Compaq CF sleeve. If you still have the same issues, return it (if that's allowed)...

Actually, I'm in in the United States currently. I spend about eight months of the year in the United States while the other four months I'm in Germany. I've already written PDAMotion and they said go ahead and mail the SSII back and I could get my money back.

David