Axim X51v Hi Capacity Battery Won't Work

[Donald Wareham]

Okay, so I picked up one of these 2300maH batteries with the cover over the internet. I put it in the charger today and tonight the green light is on. Fully Charged.

I put it in the Axim and it won't power up. So I take the battery out and put in my old 1100 maH battery and it works. So I check the terminals and compare the voltages between the two batteries, thinking maybe one terminal on the new battery is bad. Nope. They all check out perfectly.

So I put the new battery in and still no power on or boot. So now I'm back to my original 1100 maH battery.

Am I missing something? Is there some secret handshake that I have to give this new battery to be recognized by the Axim?

Any words of advice will be appreciated.

Thanks

[blue_93_jeep_yj]

More than likely it's not the battery, but the battery cover that is the problem. The AX won't power up if the switch for the latch on the battery cover is not made. Examine the latch on the original cover and compare it to the new cover. It's been mentioned in other post that some tinkering had to be done to make the larger battery cover fit right. Good luck.

dahawthorne
Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Brighton, UK
Posts: 107

I bought one too about 18 months ago. It came with the special backplate that is essential because of the additional thickness - about double the 1100mah battery thickness. I found that the backplate needed a bit of tweaking to make it work ( the absurdly over-engineered and unnecessary electrical switch that one of the hooks presses), but the battery life is amazing. I can watch TV for 2-3 hours on an 1100 battery, but the 2300 seems to go for days (well... 6-7 hours, maybe).
The extra thickness isn't a problem unless you have an after-market case - the standard slip case with the elastic sides accommodates it easily.

[dahawthorne]

Donald,
Also see Battery Latch Open Error
where Mahstah has put a picture, and I added this comment :

"Can I add a bit to help prevent others spending the uncomfortable half hour I've just spent? I started with a piece of hard foam. It disappeared inside the machine. Oh dear. I tried making a wedge with a matchstick. Same thing. With the aid of sharp needles and tweezers I managed to get them both out again, and then started again, looking properly at what I was doing instead of guessing (duh...).
I thought that the switch mechanism was at the end of the left bay. Well, technically it is, but in practice it's the entire floor of the left bay which forms the mechanism - like a diving board, left end fixed, right end pressing the contact. So my solution was not to try again to wedge anything in the right-hand side of the bay, but to put the same tiny wad of hard sponge (cut from the rings you get holding down CDs in 25-packs) on the "diving board", then setting the catch on top of the wad and closing the catch. Result - the wad presses properly on the spring mech and holds it shut."

In fact my final solution was to glue the piece of foam to the hook on the cover so that it can't slip or get lost. It still plays up a bit, and occasionally takes a bit of wiggling to make it work, but when it does the results are worth it.
Good luck.

[Donald Wareham]

Thanks guys for turning me onto the solution.

I did something a bit different. I took some airplane glue and made the little latch prongs a bit longer to depress the lock switch. I had to later the taps at the top too to make it a more snug fit.

Then I had to shave the radius of the curves at the bottom of the cover a little as it was made to large. Now it fits perfectly and the new battery works great.

With the glue extensions on the prongs, no worry of foam coming loose or anything falling inside.

Thanks again for all the help. I really was going nuts with this and ready to accuse the supplier or a poor product, but I see most of us have the same problem.