13852 S1/Forum Business 15-Jul-91 09:55:50 Sb: excessive battery drain? Fm: Reina Pennington 73040,307 To: All Is there anything that could cause my Port to drain a new set of batteries within just a few days? I installed three new Kodak Superlife Alkaline batteries on July 4th. I used the Port just a few times (less than an hour total) through July 9th. All the use was with built-in programs (nothing involving a serial or parallel port). The next time I tried to boot it up, on July 13th, it was dead -- no screen display at all, no low battery warning. But it booted fine from the power supply, and again after I swapped in another set of batteries (from the same 8-pack as the previous set). I'm careful to always turn the Port off after I use it. Is there any way something could be running that could cause new batteries to drain so quickly? Also, has anyone found brands of batteries that are consistently longer-lived than others? I had been told that these Kodaks were the best! 13853 S1/Forum Business 15-Jul-91 10:10:04 Sb: #13852-#excessive battery drain? Fm: John Feagans 75300,703 To: Reina Pennington 73040,307 (X) Yes there is a way that something could be running to drain the batteries quickly. If you are not running a built-in application, the program you have downloaded may never go into a wait for key state so it can power down the Portfolio. The way to solve this is to take execution out to the command line so the Port can power down. Second, the serial port is a power hog. This is also true with my HP 95lx. Disconnect the module when it is not in use. Even when the POrt is asleep it is using battery power. Every two minutes it wakes up to check appointments, alarms, and update the clock. At that time if the serial port is plugged in, extra current is consumed. Yes, some batteries are lemons. They are not all perfect. They have a shelf life though not extreme, does degrade performance after a year. I have also had batteries such as Duracell and Everready which were defective out of the box. It is something that we all take for granted but bateries do not always work. Finally, it is also possible that your Portfolio has a hardware problem which causes it to consume more power when it is asleep. If you purchased yourPortfolio recently I would discount that theory. 13856 S1/Forum Business 15-Jul-91 11:55:09 Sb: #13853-#excessive battery drain? Fm: Reina Pennington 73040,307 To: John Feagans 75300,703 (X) Thanks for the quick answer, John. But as far as I know, I didn't run anything other than the built-in programs, and I did *not* have any ports plugged in. Whenever I hook up the serial port to download to my Mac, I always run the Port off the adaptor. I bought my Port used from someone here on forum, and it was supposed to be only a few months old at the time. I ran off the batteries that came with it when I received it in mid-May until the swap where I had problems, so I'm assuming that if it's a hardware problem, it's one that developed quite recently. Guess I'll just have to wait and see if it happens again! 13858 S1/Forum Business 15-Jul-91 12:55:48 Sb: #13856-#excessive battery drain? Fm: John Feagans 75300,703 To: Reina Pennington 73040,307 (X) If you ran that long before the battery change, the one hardware glitch I know of would not be a problem. Sounds like you just got a bad batch of batteries. Write a letter to kodak and complain that you paid a premium for their batteries and they work like the Long's Drug house brand. 13878 S1/Forum Business 16-Jul-91 09:35:12 Sb: #13852-excessive battery drain? Fm: Sysop*Marty Mankins 75300,1770 To: Reina Pennington 73040,307 (X) Reina, That seems strange. If it only happens this one time or if it happens again from the same pack of batteries, it could be that you got a bum set of batteries. I bought a set of Kodak's for my walkman and they seem to be ok. I usually use Duracell. I can usually go almost 2 months on a set (useage: 1-2 hrs. a day, no serial or parallel port action, except when hooked up to ac adapter) Marty 13919 S1/Forum Business 17-Jul-91 21:13:54 Sb: #13858-#excessive battery drain? Fm: Steve Schlanger 70303,541 To: John Feagans 75300,703 (X) We run at least one Port constantly doing tests 24 hrs per day, often on batteries. The Duracell's seem to do slightly better for us, but there is a lot more variation than you might think. I can't think of a failure mode on the Port which would cause excessive power consumwould not show any other symptoms. Good Luck 13922 S1/Forum Business 17-Jul-91 22:59:29 Sb: #13919-#excessive battery drain? Fm: John Feagans 75300,703 To: Steve Schlanger 70303,541 You got me confused with the Portfolio user who had a problem with batteries! You are right about the variability in batteries. In consumer items like flashlights and radios you can tolerate different discharge curves--but Portfolios like to extract the most power between 3 and 4.5 volts. Incidently, I have switched totally to nicads. I kept tallies on each cell and have completely paid back the investment. 13926 S1/Forum Business 18-Jul-91 00:50:02 Sb: #13922-excessive battery drain? Fm: Myles Conley 75300,1634 To: John Feagans 75300,703 How are you doing with nicads? I have been trying to use nicads in my poqet, but am not satisfied. Probably because I get about 5 seconds between the low battery alarm and battery failure. I have found that Toshiba alkalines are as good duracells, and they can be purchased in extreme bulk lots. Before I do so, I want to make sure that nicads wont work. What brand are you using. Do you do additional discharge after removing them from your port? etc etc... Myles Conley -Taiwan 13929 S1/Forum Business 18-Jul-91 10:04:15 Sb: #13926-#excessive battery drain? Fm: John Feagans 75300,703 To: Myles Conley 75300,1634 (X) I use Milleniums and Safts. They were purchased from Price Club for approximately $1 each. The technical specs show that they are about 250 mah at 1.25 volts. The Portfolio uses three batteries. Normal new voltage is 4.5 but with nicalds is 3.75. Low battery is at 3 volts. Then it goes fast! I have never predischarged before recharging. One would have to use nicads 6 times to get the theoretical capacity back. Also 2.5 times to get the price of nicads back (alkalines at price club are approximately 40 cents each) So at 15 times is the break even. I have exceeded that number of cycles. My experience with low battery alert has been good. Probably because I use my Port more frequently, it is more likely to be open and in use when the low battery alert comes up giving me time to change without loosing a beat. Low battery has been a problem for many POrtfolio owners because it is closed and sitting on the shelf when it comes up and the data is long gone when the batteries give out. HP has a nice alternative in their 95lx-they have a seperate battery for backup of the RAM. There are some new nicads with twice the mah that are coming onto the market now. 14012 S0/SYSOPs [P]vt. Sect. 20-Jul-91 23:50:58 Sb: #14004-Palmtop Forum Fm: John Feagans 75300,703 To: Judy Hamner 72257,271 Here is a note for the collection: some batteries have a small positive terminal. An example are the house brand alkalines done for Thrifty Drug here in California. Sometimes the metal battery clip on the Portfolio gets pushed back and trapped behind the plastic. These little batteries won't touch it and exhibit all the qualities of death. 13994 S1/Forum Business 20-Jul-91 15:36:21 Sb: #13929-excessive battery drain? Fm: Steve Schlanger 70303,541 To: John Feagans 75300,703 We use a new high-capacity battery type from Sanyo Energy. It's a standard AA size cell, but it delivers 700 mah. Cost is approx $1.50. I've never tried using one in the Port but I sure will now! If you want to try a set let me know...Steve 14011 S1/Forum Business 20-Jul-91 23:50:52 Sb: #13994-excessive battery drain? Fm: John Feagans 75300,703 To: Steve Schlanger 70303,541 That sounds great--3 times the mah at 50% more price. I'd like to see the discharge curve to compare against the alkaline, but that is sitting at half the mah of standard alkaline. When I went around CES looking at batteries, this new technology was going to be offered by several manuafacturers. They aren't at Price Club yet. 13974 S1/Forum Business 19-Jul-91 23:19:41 Sb: SHORT BATTERY LIFE Fm: Roger L 72457,2030 To: ALL I just started using a 128K card with my Port. Concurrently, I greatly increased my use of the Port-20 to 30 accesses a day. I am using the AC adaptor duing file xfer, but only at that time. Problem is-- my batteries are now lasting only about 48 hours. I'm using Duracell or Eveready alkalines. Is this battery life typical, or do I have a problem? 13981 S1/Forum Business 20-Jul-91 09:53:54 Sb: #13974-#SHORT BATTERY LIFE Fm: Sysop*Marty Mankins 75300,1770 To: Roger L 72457,2030 This is not normal. The first place to check would be to see if you have Tracked setup as a screen in Setup, Display. If that is the case, then make sure it says normal. I find that makes the battereis go weak fast. 13981 S1/Forum Business 20-Jul-91 09:53:54 Sb: #13974-#SHORT BATTERY LIFE Fm: Sysop*Marty Mankins 75300,1770 To: Roger L 72457,2030 This is not normal. The first place to check would be to see if you have Tracked setup as a screen in Setup, Display. If that is the case, then make sure it says normal. I find that makes the battereis go weak fast. Also, if you leave the parallel or serial interface plugged into the Port, that drains power. Even if you are not using it, you should remove it. The last thing to check will be your batteries. Try a different package. Some batteries are duds (like fireworks). 13986 S1/Forum Business 20-Jul-91 11:04:37 Sb: #13981-SHORT BATTERY LIFE Fm: John Feagans 75300,703 To: Sysop*Marty Mankins 75300,1770 Marty, don't you mean check the DISPLAY, REFRESH fast or slow? Fast refresh is the thing that burns batteries and doesn't help the internal apps anyway.