z50 battery oddity

I got out my z50 today, and it wouldn't turn on.  So I
plugged in the
mains brick/charger and it then would, but it was acting
odd: the
battery light (normally off when on battery, orange when
charging,
green when charged) was blinking between green and orange
(rough
estimate: .5 sec orange, 1 sec green, repeat).  Listening
closely in a
quiet environment, I can hear a soft click when it switches
from green
to orange and a very slight high-frequency noise while it's
orange.
The click sounds like incidental mechanical stress from an
electrical
change, not a mechanical switch.

It booted apparently normally and I was able to do what I
wanted to do
(see if a PCMCIA card I dug out of an old box-o'-stuff did
anythiing
useful).  While I had it up, it seemed to flip between
battery state
critical and battery state high randomly (according to the
kernel
messages), and, no, I'm not running any kind of non-kernel
power
management software.  (The kernel in question is 3.1.)

I tried removing and replacing the battery; this made no
apparent
difference.  Pulling the AC power plug produces an
ungraceful shutdown
which produces a cold boot when I next wake it up.

Any ideas?  Is my battery toast?  It was fine last time I
used the
machine (I put something like 30-60 minutes of run time on
it; it
normally has given me about two hours of run time on a full
charge).

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Hi there!

What does the battery monitor software in Windows CE say? (I
think there's a graphical battery meter in RapidAccess, if
I'm not mistaken). Failing that, I do have a couple of spare
batteries lying around, in addition to a spare AA battery
holder. I could possibly lend you one of these for testing
purposes.


~k


> Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 01:24:58 -0400
> From: mouseRodents.Montreal.QC.CA
> To: port-hpcmipsnetbsd.org
> Subject: z50 battery oddity
>
> I got out my z50 today, and it wouldn't turn on. So I
plugged in the
> mains brick/charger and it then would, but it was
acting odd: the
> battery light (normally off when on battery, orange
when charging,
> green when charged) was blinking between green and
orange (rough
> estimate: .5 sec orange, 1 sec green, repeat).
Listening closely in a
> quiet environment, I can hear a soft click when it
switches from green
> to orange and a very slight high-frequency noise while
it's orange.
> The click sounds like incidental mechanical stress from
an electrical
> change, not a mechanical switch.
>
> It booted apparently normally and I was able to do what
I wanted to do
> (see if a PCMCIA card I dug out of an old box-o'-stuff
did anythiing
> useful). While I had it up, it seemed to flip between
battery state
> critical and battery state high randomly (according to
the kernel
> messages), and, no, I'm not running any kind of
non-kernel power
> management software. (The kernel in question is 3.1.)
>
> I tried removing and replacing the battery; this made
no apparent
> difference. Pulling the AC power plug produces an
ungraceful shutdown
> which produces a cold boot when I next wake it up.
>
> Any ideas? Is my battery toast? It was fine last time I
used the
> machine (I put something like 30-60 minutes of run time
on it; it
> normally has given me about two hours of run time on a
full charge).
>
> /~ The ASCII der Mouse
>  / Ribbon Campaign
> X Against HTML mouserodents.montreal.qc.ca
> /  Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27
4B

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>> [...z50...battery looks dead...]
> What does the battery monitor software in Windows CE
say?  (I think
> there's a graphical battery meter in RapidAccess, if
I'm not
> mistaken).

You're not.  I wasn't aware of that; I knew of only the
"Power" item in
the control panel and the battery calibration app under
Start,
Programs, WorkPad, Battery Calibration.

The Rapid Access battery meter shows 0%.  The Power control
panel (also
available by double-clicking the battery in Rapid Access)
says External
and Good.  (I suspect External means it's running off mains
power.  The
battery is dead enough I can't try running it off battery
power.)  The
battery calibration app starts and is willing to start a
calibration
run, but I haven't let it finish.  (I suspect it might not
finish
unattended; when I tried it, it kept popping up a modal
alert box about
the backup battery being "very low or missing" -
which has been normal;
I replaced the backup batteries and that popup went away for
maybe all
of a couple of weeks.)  I've started another battery
calibration run;
I'll see what it does.

> Failing that, I do have a couple of spare batteries
lying around, in
> addition to a spare AA battery holder.  I could
possibly lend you one
> of these for testing purposes.

Well, I've been considering ordering a new battery from a
place I found
that sells (or says they sell, at least) z50-compatible new
batteries
with longer run time than the originals.  Perhaps I should
just order
one, though I rather hesitate to do that without being sure
the fault
is in the battery pack rather than the charging circuit in
the z50.
Maybe a loaner is a good idea - where are you
geographically?

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