Axim Backup Battery Problem

[macweststeel.com]

Hello. Just bought an Axim X5 400 Mhz. The unit told me to replace the backup battery and I did so three days ago. It is now telling me to replace the backup battery again?!

Have I incorrectly configured the unit? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

D.

[JOBLEMG]

Have you tried a soft reset?

[macweststeel.com]

Have done the soft reset as suggested. The backup battery is now showing as 100%. Perhaps this was a one-time glitch. Will let you know. Thanks for the help. D.

[straight_up]

I had a similar problem once or twice. It told me that my battery was at 0%. I never tried a soft reset but it went away whenever I opened up the backup battery door and made sure it was correctly seated. It jumped back up to 100%. Go figure. Actually that's a little scary b/c what if your battery died or was taken out and your backup battery decided to be seated incorrectly? You'd lose your data (though you should be able to recover most of it from your desktop computer).

[tms538]

I'm having the same problem. It seems that when the b/u battery shows 40% or less (and this is the second new one in less than a month) I either recharge the unit or put in a charged battery, do a soft reset and the b/u battery shows 100%. After about 4-6 times of turning the unit on and off, it is back to the reminder about backing up the unit, and the b/u batter being 40% or less. This is something new within the last month or so.

[Rich]

I purchased the X5 in Feb 03 and also have experienced the backup battery problem since about November. Backup fluctuates from 0% to 100% but usually is at 40 to 60%. It resets sometimes to 100% after recharging or re-positiioning the battery.

It's hard to know if this is a real problem or a glitch. How do fix it? Or do we ignore it?

[Rich]

Backup Low Battery Warnings. Suggested fixes:

 The X5 DOES have a removable backup battery. It is NOT rechargable. (Howard2k, 12/16/03)

 Recommend charging your main battery, then doing a soft reset to get a reliable back up battery reading (uzziah0, 11/6/03)

 Recommend a replacement on the one-year anniversary (kind of like replacing the battery in you smoke alarm at home). (uzziah0, 11/6/03)

 … bad contact in the battery compartment. Wedge a little piece of cardboard in there to keep the contacts on the battery solid. (Suemccartin, 11/7/03)

 Keep your skin oils off the batter. (Suemccartin, 11/7/03)

 The backup doesn't recharge and will run down with time - maybe just because of the metering done by the Axim. (ikehiker, 11/4/03)

 The battery meter is not as accurate as perhaps it should be. (Howard2k, 10/16/03)

 The voltage reported from a battery is also affected by environmental conditions such as temperature etc. (Howard2k, 10/16/03)

 Try another battery. (Suemccartin, 11/27/03)

 Try bending the contacts up a bit and be sure to clean your skin oils off the battery before you put it back in. (Suemccartin, 11/27/03)

 Sounds like a poor battery compartment design or just a flukey voltage detecting circuit (Suemccartin, 11/27/03)

 Apparantly it was a software problem and they (Dell) made me upgrade my rom and it's worked fine from there on. (3X10^8, 11/29/03)

 Bending the battery prongs restored the reading from low to 100%. I've had to do this twice in a 6 month period. (JIM GRAY, 12/2/03)

 The Dell circuit is notoriously inaccurate. It is very sensitive to voltages below 3.00. (JakeRich, 12/16/03)

 Try a soft reset to see if that doesn't pop the backup battery report back to 100%.(JakeRich, 12/16/03)

 Until the backup gets down to about 40% and stays there it's not something to worry about (JakeRich, 12/16/03)