Problem with third party hi-capacity battery

Alf · #1 (**permalink**) 07-21-2006, 06:07 AM

I've got a Cameron Sino hi-capacity battery (2250mAh). It has been working perfectly. It gave me excellent performance with long running time on my X51v. However, my X51v was replaced by Dell because of a fault and now the battery no longer works. I assumed this was because of some fault with the battery so I got a new replacement from my supplier. That fails too! The X51v simply will not power up, although it works perfectly using the standard Dell-supplied battery.

One thing that has changed is the Axim ROM which is now at Version A12 (whereas the previous was A06). The new ROM seems to have brought with it a lot of changes (eg it did not accept backups made under Version 06). Has this ROM introduced a change to prevent my third party battery working? My battery supplier says he has seen cases in the past where other manufacturers introduced software or firmware updates that interrogated the battery and, if it was OEM, it was rejected. Is this what Dell has done?

Emrol Ed · #2 (**permalink**) 07-22-2006, 08:58 AM

I installed the A12 update and the Axim still works with a Mugen Power 2200mAh battery.

Alf · #3 (**permalink**) 07-23-2006, 06:30 AM

After surfing www.aximsite.com I discovered that it's apparently a battery cover problem with the latch. It might not be a bad idea to give this problem more prominence on this site.

Mahstah · #4 (**permalink**) 07-24-2006, 10:52 AM

It's right here if you perform a search...

Battery Latch Open Error

Alf · #5 (**permalink**) 07-24-2006, 11:14 AM

Unfortunately I did not get a Battery Latch Open Error message. The Axim simply wouldn't power up at all when I had the high capacity battery fitted. On the other hand it powered up fine with the standard Dell battery.

From this it was not at all obvious (since there was no error message or other indication), that it was anything to do with the battery latch. Particularly, I had previously been using the same hi-capacity battery without the slightest problem for a couple of months on an Axim. Dell swapped my Axim for a new one and the only difference I could see betwen the two was the upgraded A12 ROM.

It will be useful to give more prominence here to the fact that the wider cover on a hi-capacity battery may give a symptom of total battery failure without any indication to the user.

Mahstah · #6 (**permalink**) 07-24-2006, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alf

It will be useful to give more prominence here to the fact that the wider cover on a hi-capacity battery may give a symptom of total battery failure without any indication to the user.

I don't think I've heard of that specific problem before, but thanks for posting a good description and solution. Your contributions are appreciated.