Overnight battery drain to zero - hx2490b

[Lex]

Anyone know what might have drained my battery to zero overnight when the device had 78% battery at bedtime and wifi + bluetooth were off? I had AlarmToday set to soft reset at 6AM but the AT developer says that app couldn't have caused a battery drain.

[ctmagnus]

I would presume something that woke it up but didn't let it go back to sleep. ;) Fortunately it's a WM5 device so a dead battery is only a minor headache.

What other software is installed?

[Lex]

WM5 is code for 'migraine headache'. What was MS thinking? I have the following software installed: Batti, AlarmToday, MemMaid, Wisbar Advance2, CalcNote, Resco Explorer & its Today plugin, TapText, SuperCalendar, Sprite Backup, Pocket e-Sword, MS SQLCE 2.0, ListPro, eWallet, Haali Reader. Thanks.

[ctmagnus]

From that list, I would guess (but I may very well be mistaken) either Batti or AlarmToday.

Did you have a scheduled backup set to run in Sprite Backup?

[mr-bear]

Odds are you are either leaving an SD card in the 2490 afted shutoff, or you have ActiveSync set to run on a timed schedule, which will wake the 2490 up at all hours to sync up. Setting ActiveSync to Manual solves this problem for most people.

For details, check out the following from "Prof. Julie" at HP's iPAQ Forum: http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/categoryhome.do?lang=en&cc=us&prodSeriesId=421399&admit=-682735245+1148293448353+28353475&prodTypeId=215348&categoryId=273

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There could be some automatic processes running that are causing your battery to become depleted. And if you have enabled HP Protect, this could be the culpret.

Here are some things to check:

Check POP3 or IMAP4 messaging accounts you've set up to make sure they are not attempting to automatically check and download messages:

Open up the messaging application. Tap Menu > Tools > Options > select an email account you've set up. Tap Next > Next > Next > Options. Make sure there is no checkmark in the box next to "Connect and check for messages every xxx"

Make sure you've set ActiveSync up to only synch manually:

Open Activesync on your PDA. To gain access to the feature that will allow you to set it to a manual schedule you need to first set up a dummy server - if you tap Menu, you'll see the second item is "Schedule" but it is grayed out and you can't access it. Setting up a dummy server simply lets you gain access to this option (you will never use this dummy server and will delete it after you change ActiveSync to a manual schedule).

From the Menu popup menu, tap Add Server Source. Type in 1.1.1.1 in the server address box, then tap Next. Type any kind of foolishness in the username, password and domain boxes. Tap Next > Finish.

Now tap Menu > Schedule. Tap the down arrow on "Peak times" and change to "Manual". Tap the down arrow on "Off-peak times" and change to "Manual." Tap OK at the top right-hand side of screen.

Now delete the dummy server settings you just set up:

Tap Menu > Options > Delete button > Tap Yes to delete the server settings. You are done. Now ActiveSync should only come on when you turn it on. Whenever you use ActiveSync, it is a good idea to turn it off when you are done using it. You can tap the memory icon on your Start page, then tap the Running Programs tab. Tap ActiveSync (if it shows in the Running Programs List) and Stop.


Turn off the Today Time out setting:

Tap Start > Settings > Today icon > Items tab > remove checkmark in box next to "Today timeout"

Check notifications to make sure they are not set to go off continuously:

Start > Settings > Personal tab > Sounds & Notifications icon > Notifications tab. Select the down arrow next to the Event: dialogue box. Navigate to REMINDERS. Make sure "Repeat" is not checked and check setting for "Flash light for xxxx minutes"

Check HP Protect Tools: Check the Manage Security > Lock page to make sure the 'Log off . . . after ___ minutes' option is not checked.

Make sure Windows Media Player, WIFI and/or Bluetooth connections are not running in the background.

In regards to HP Protect, here's a link to another thread that discusses this problem in quite a lot of detail:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=1
041877

[Lex]

Thanks for that great detail. I leave an SD card in its slot full time; is that supposed to be a problem? I keep wifi & Bluetooth off, have never set up email and do not use HP Protect. I'll keep an eye on things and may fiddle with Active Stink settings. The problem has not recurred since my report. Alarm Today developer said no other user has ever reported battery drain and that AT does nothing to cause this problem. I can't mess with Notification settings as AT handles those for alarm and notification improvements. Batti is simply a battery bar across the top 2-3 pixels. Device stays disconnected from desktop PC & charger overnight. Thanks again.

[JesterMania]

I think it could be something to do with the storage card (SD or CF) like what mr-bear mentioned. Like Lex, I don't use HP Protect Tools, always keep WiFi/BT off, etc. and those fixes stated above I have already done before. Yet, I still do get the battery drain problem on my hx2790 once in a while. That ActiveSync manual-syncing tweak seemed to decrease the probability of the battery drain happening significantly, but does not guarantee that the problem does not reoccur (which it has).

One thing is that I've noticed that sometimes, the storage cards seem inaccessible or freeze up the device when I attempt to access them after powering up from suspension. Also, in another thread I stated that a problem I seem to be getting is that copying to SD Card via ActiveSync seems to "timeout" the ActiveSync connection at random times making copying large files virtually impossible. This has led me to believe that the hx-series has buggy flash memory slots (at least on the SD side).

I guess the only real solution would be to leave out all storage cards and perform a soft-reset before going to sleep. But that's pretty troublesome and HP should fix this problem.

[Lex]

FWIW my 2790 'forgets' the CF card is in the slot almost daily and the current OS update at HP's site is supposed to fix that problem and a few others. It did not. I went to all the trouble of the OS upgrade and I ended up with the same OS version # and date when I finished. The OS date on their support site is incorrect.