Batteries not charging
 

I bought a used 3635 on EBay - supposed to be in perfect woking condition! Well as it turns out, the batteries won't charge at all! I bought an AC adaptor and have let it charge overnight, during the day while at work - still the batteries wont hold a charge. Now for the question, the Battery meter show the batteries at 100% but yet the charge bar is strobing from 0% up to 100% and then starting over! It never stops, just keeps going over and over. I have upgraded the ROM to Version 2.20 - even took it apart - batteries don't appear damaged physically! Is this thing a paperweight? Has anyone else experienced this? Any Ideas? I have heard of people 'making' External battery packs - any thoughts on that? HELP!!!! :confused:

If you are comfortable enough to open it up it is very easy to change the battery and get a bigger one at the same time. you might try that. External packs are you there but I put a new battery inmy 3635 a 1600 ma one. Original is 950 ma. It works great.

Thank you, but what about the stobing effect of the battery bars - any ideas??

I have never heard of that one before. Let's see if someone else here has a solution for that one.

I've got the strobing effect too (3635)... I just replaced the battery, and charged for 3 hours. For a second, I thought it was working fine... but I checked the battery monitor... still strobing.

I decided it was time, and removed it from the AC adapter while it was on and... it stayed on! After about 10 seconds, I put it back on the charger, satisfied because the old batter lasted 1 second, max.

Just now, I checked it again. Battery still strobing. I Pulled it off the charger and did a soft reset. The unit powered up, and went full through set up. Everything SEEMED fine, so I plugged it back in. Checked the battery screen,; still strobing. Pulled it off the cradle while on the battery screen -- DEAD, instantly. Now that's all I get -- back to square one. As soon as it leaves the dock, it dies. I'm starting to get REALLY frustrated...

Anyone have any suggestions?

(while on the charger, it blinks amber indefinitelty)

Thanks,
Tim

update -- PLEASE advise
 

OK --
So I got a new battery -- the first one that I bought; the battery connection (actually the plastic around it) was too big for the iPAQ's plug area.

The second one I bought; they assured me that it would fit after I described my past woes to them. I received it today -- SAME FREAKIN' BATTERY! AAAHHH!!!!

So I plug it in anyway-- i figure, "what the heck..." It barely fits, and it's sort of tilting up -- i doubt it's making a complete connection.

I charge the iPAQ for ~3 hours. Turn it on, plugged in. All is the same: little icon in the lower right (blue battery with a red lightning bolt next to it), amber flashing light, and strobing charge indicator.

I unplug it, and it stays on long enough for me to get excited -- then turns off. But when I turn it back on, it goes straight to "Today" (it usually acts as if it's been hard reset).

I unplug; same behavior...

I press the battery connection down a little harder (other parts of the iPAQ are obstructing it from lying flat). I plug it back in, and the little icon is different. I shows an electrical plug (male end). I check the battery level -- it's not strobing.. in fact it shows 100%. Awesome! I unplug it, and it stays up for ~5 seconds... then dies. WTF!?

Has anyone got anything? I'm doing all of this with the back panel off... do you think it may have something to do with it?

BTW, I already tried filing down the terminal head on the battery while avoiding the "important circuit things" Didn't work.

Thanks,
Tim

I'm sorta having the same problem as Tim. I got a used ipaq 3765 with a battery that did not hold a charge, so I ordered a replacement off ebay. The plastic surrounding the connector was too big, so I carefully removed enough of the battery from the plastic so that I could clip off a bit of the plastic to make sure it fit snuggly in the plug. I charged it in the craddle for a few minutes until I got a solid amber. It worked well over the weekend, lasting 3+ hrs and the battery meter hovering around 70%. Then, yesterday, I took the ipaq off the cradle and used it for about an hour. I put the ipaq back in the cradle to charge, but now the charging light will not stop flashing. It's been like this overnight and well into the day. Has anyone every seen this before? I'm afraid off overcharging the battery, but I heard that this is not possible.

Also, is the battery meter off or it just my ipaq? Before my current flashing problem, my battery meter was at 100% after a full charge, but would drop down to 90% after 10 minutes, and then drop down to 70 or 80% after about half an hour and stay at that level for about 3 hrs. I haven't tested the life of the battery further than that. Now, no matter how long it sits charging, the level is at 70%. I have tried charging both in the cradle and directly to the AC. I have also tried soft reset, but have not tried the battery switch at the bottom yet.

Any ideas anyone?

After a couple days of playing around, I think the problem is either a bad new battery or a damaged charging circuit. I do not have another battery to test with, but it looks like the ipaq cannot charge my new battery past 0.95V. I believe the full charge should be closer to 3.7V. This is most unfortunate. My ipaq is pretty much useless unless I am plugged into an eletrical outlet.

I bought a 1600 mAh battery on ebay (item # 5747973104). Plugged it in last night after going through strange amount of lead around the battery receiving connector (seemingly indicating a personal job not a company made battery). Waking this morning, the lead indicated 0% charge. THe battery is simply not working, it won't hold charge (it did for about 20 seconds), the indicator went from 100% to 0% (when I plugged it in the charger).

Putting back my original 900 mAh battery, everything works fine, charge is normal, pda works normaly.

I suspect there might be a great deal of fraud in this particular market. Heck, I cannot even confirm for sure that the battery I bought is really a 1600 mAh battery. I'll wait for a response from my seller but you can believe that he will refund my money.

I don't think you are all having different problems, it may simply be that your battery isn't what it is suppose to be.

I did read that a new battery needs quite a few charging cycles before it will hold its normal charger but I don't even see a bismal 1% charge on my PDA with it while with my original battery, it goes through its normal charge.

yvan
I use a 3835, and my battery says that it is made for a 3800-3900 model which I have. The lead (the presence of it and also the excess of it) around both side of the connector really does look very suspicious.

Any answers yet to the battery issue on the 3635
 

I am having very similar issues with my 3635. I couldn't get it to work at all (no power even on AC). I replaced the battery and I can now use it on AC but the battery will not charge at all. It just keeps flashing the amber light. I retried the old battery and it now does the same as the new battery. I have hard and soft reset both. The battery shows charging on the Power screen. Any ideas? Could it just be a bad old battery and new battery or could it be the motherboard? Is it worth replacing the motherboard? Thanks in advance.