1. mmcplaybook's Avatar
    Please someone help me !! I tried all tips and I still couldn't start my play book. There is no red light on. It seems that the play book is dead.
    10-15-12 08:52 PM
  2. menacegh's Avatar
    This definitely saved me, mine was a new one. I have been a programmer for more than 5 years and this is the first time I'm replying a post that helped me.
    I deeply express my gr attitude for this comment.
    10-16-12 05:36 PM
  3. tamicam's Avatar
    You hit that "spot on". I am a newbie, and was wondering why my BB wasn't firing up. Thanks, bunches!
    10-16-12 11:17 PM
  4. Berry-cracked-up's Avatar
    I am having the similar issue as Lynxs posted....that the playbook works fine when plugged in, but as soon as it is inplugged the power shuts off. When charging, the red light will turn on, then I get the icon showing the fully dead battery with a lighning bolt, then the green light appears for 12 second and the reboot starts up again. However, while the playbook is on (plugged in), if I do a shutdown, and leave it plugged in, I get the flashing green light, which I was very excited about, as I believe it was finally charging properly. After leaving it like this for 12+ hours, I turned the playbook on, but when it booted up, as soon as I unplugged the charger, it shut off immediately. During reboot, it again showed a completely dead battery, so the charging didn't do anything. The odd thing is that when I am booted up, it actually shows that it has a 68% charge, which I know is not correct, which leads me to believe that the calibration is messed up. I will try what Lynxs suggested about doing 5 - 6 hard resets to try and recalibrate the software. If anyone else has any suggestions with my specific scenario, I'd love to hear it. I've also tried the plugging it in, waiting 2 minutes, unplug and replug....I've tried plugging it in, waiting for the green light to appear and as soon as it turns off (as its about to boot up), I'd unplug it and replug to try to get that charge to happen with no luck at all. I've used both the charger it came with as well as the fast charger, and it made no difference. Same scenario. Shows 68% charge when booted up, but as soon as I unplug it, it dies and has 0 charge.
    10-17-12 09:11 AM
  5. FF22's Avatar
    I am having the similar issue as Lynxs posted....that the playbook works fine when plugged in, but as soon as it is inplugged the power shuts off. When charging, the red light will turn on, then I get the icon showing the fully dead battery with a lighning bolt, then the green light appears for 12 second and the reboot starts up again. However, while the playbook is on (plugged in), if I do a shutdown, and leave it plugged in, I get the flashing green light, which I was very excited about, as I believe it was finally charging properly. After leaving it like this for 12+ hours, I turned the playbook on, but when it booted up, as soon as I unplugged the charger, it shut off immediately. During reboot, it again showed a completely dead battery, so the charging didn't do anything. The odd thing is that when I am booted up, it actually shows that it has a 68% charge, which I know is not correct, which leads me to believe that the calibration is messed up. I will try what Lynxs suggested about doing 5 - 6 hard resets to try and recalibrate the software. If anyone else has any suggestions with my specific scenario, I'd love to hear it. I've also tried the plugging it in, waiting 2 minutes, unplug and replug....I've tried plugging it in, waiting for the green light to appear and as soon as it turns off (as its about to boot up), I'd unplug it and replug to try to get that charge to happen with no luck at all. I've used both the charger it came with as well as the fast charger, and it made no difference. Same scenario. Shows 68% charge when booted up, but as soon as I unplug it, it dies and has 0 charge.
    Call support

    The PB has a one year warranty to the original purchaser. It also has 90 free Tech support. I do not know how Rim deals with "quasi-tech support v. warranty"

    Rim Support
    Tel:
    Canada Toll Free: 1-877-644-8405
    United States Toll Free: 1-877-644-8410
    Puerto Rico Toll Free: 1-855-651-4936
    Email: [email protected] (this route generally does not work and a call is necessary)

    (UK Support) 0800 096 2805

    Playbook French Support
    http://fr.blackberry.com/playbook-ta...ok-support.jsp
    Phone : 0800 914 533 (within 90 days from activation)
    10-17-12 06:44 PM
  6. mattyturner's Avatar
    There are a few solutions and some are mentioned in other threads. So try the things I am mentioning below.... Let me know if it works .

    Problem Scenario: 1. Blackberry wont boot or turn on, on pressing the power button, the red light stays for a few seconds and does not turn on 2. Sometimes you will see the red light followed by a green/ yellow light that blinks 5 times and does not turn on.

    Reason: The main reason why both of the above things happen is because the battery is completely drained out, you could call it " Flat out". The problem with playbook is that the playbook wont charge if the playbook is Flat out drained. whereas other tablets or cellphones does....Playbook has to fix that issue. Meanwhile we do have a solution to go around that problem and that requires some patience. Some of the solutions mentioned in the previous comments indicate to charge it via computer.... "It doesn`t work" not if the battery is drained out flat.... so dont even bother trying it if u see the above mentioned problem.

    Solution: try this step by step and this are 3 different solutions so one of this would definitely work. 1. Press the Power button and you will see the Playbook Logo ( chances for this are low ) 2. Press the power button and the volume together, if there is 1 % charge left there is a chance that it would boot on, when you see the logo, immediately charge the playbook ( chances are medium ) 3. This solution requires patience. plug the charger into the socket and plug the USB into the playbook, the red light stays for 8-10 secs. Remove the USb from the playbook wait for 2 to 5 sec and replug the usb back to the charger and wait till that red light comes and goes again. repeat this step atleast 20-30 times. you might be asking why? the only power that the playbook gets is when that red light is on when plugging the usb into the playbook, once that light goes the playbook is not charging.. so what you are doing here is forcing the playbook to get charged for 8 sec every time u plug it to the playbook....this way the playbook gets that power needed to boot. Once the Playbook has that power to boot. The red light stays and changes to green but this time it blinks slowly and keeps blinking. you would also see the playbook logo return.... this green light keeps blinking until there is enough charge for the playbook to stand on its own and then changes to a solid red until it gets fully charged. Hope this helps, I had to explain to you guy what the cause was and how it is overcome..... so let me know
    Hi Jay this advice sounds great however when I plug in the charger I dont even get a red light
    11-01-12 04:46 AM
  7. Kwela123's Avatar
    What sort of life should we expect from the PB battery?

    Even if Rim fails or abandons support for the Playbook, we should still be able to use it as we do now. But if and when the battery dies, what do we do if RIM is not there to repair the unit?

    Presumably there is a way to take the PB apart. If so, hopefully someone will sell a replacement battery?

    OK Found it! http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...eplace-691523/

    Won't need it anytime soon, but when we do, hopefully batteries, LCDs etc will still be available!
    11-06-12 06:54 PM
  8. Teodor Iliev's Avatar
    I haven't use my BlackBery PlayBook 3months the battery is dead when i plug in the USB red light go on for 15sec after that a green light glow 5times and go OF i have Plug and Unplug the usb cable 100 time and still noting .... im desperate
    11-12-12 01:39 PM
  9. FF22's Avatar
    I haven't use my BlackBery PlayBook 3months the battery is dead when i plug in the USB red light go on for 15sec after that a green light glow 5times and go OF i have Plug and Unplug the usb cable 100 time and still noting .... im desperate
    Are you using an ac adapter with the usb cable or just using a computer's usb port?

    Press and HOLD the PowerOn button for 20 seconds. Release. Press it again and plug in the charger.

    Leave it plugged in overnight.

    How long do you have it? You can call support?
    Teodor Iliev likes this.
    11-12-12 03:43 PM
  10. Teodor Iliev's Avatar
    im using USB cable to the computer. Whti the USB adapter nothing happens.
    i try this but didnt hellp "Press and HOLD the PowerOn button for 20 seconds. Release. Press it again and plug in the charger. "
    i try presing PowerOn button Volume - & + bottum but didnt hellp
    i have it from 1year and 4months
    i'm still plugging in and out the USB cabel 200 times mayby ... :/
    11-12-12 04:39 PM
  11. Teodor Iliev's Avatar
    Discharge behavior under 3.53V (0%):

    If the device is left to shutoff, the battery will continue to drain below 3.53V due to quiescent current draw from the motherboard and the battery fuel gauge
    With the battery between 2.7V-3.53V, pressing the power button causes the LED to flash a pattern (1 solid red light followed by 5 yellow blinks) to indicate low battery (PlayBook Tablet OS version 1.0.5, and above)
    Below 2.7V there is no activity, or LED pattern displayed
    11-12-12 05:05 PM
  12. FF22's Avatar
    A usb from the computer really does not provide enough power especially if you have the unit ON. Put it into standby and plug into the usb port. Check to make sure that the usb port has power - some of them power down or actually turn off to save power.

    Do you have any other micro-usb adapters? You could try those.
    11-12-12 05:18 PM
  13. Teodor Iliev's Avatar
    yeah i know that the USB form the Tablet to The PC does not provide enough power.
    and i cant put it on standby because tablet is shut down totally nothing is ON.
    The USB ports from my PC are working fine when i Plug it in the Red light of the tablet glow for 15 sec after that green light blinks 5 times and nothing else happens ....

    the adapter with the micro usb that goes in the electricity even does not turn on the red light.
    i think the tablet is totally drain out the battery.
    and the only thing to do is PLUG IN and OUT the USB cable and hope its going to turn ON some day .... :/
    11-13-12 04:30 AM
  14. FF22's Avatar
    Do you have Desktop software installed?

    Take the pb into a dark room and make sure it is fully dark and not a gray with the light on. If the light is on, press the Power button and make it BLACK/off. Now plug into the computer and see if you get a prompt from for Update. It might show some signs of life?
    11-13-12 09:36 AM
  15. Teodor Iliev's Avatar
    Yeah i have Desktop software and every time i plug in the usb update message show up.
    11-13-12 09:56 AM
  16. FF22's Avatar
    Well, it sounds as if the usb charging port works. You should try getting another ac charger.

    I don't know - maybe the computer usb can be used for Stack Charging but since it provides so little power, it might take hundreds of plug-in, unplug over and over.
    Teodor Iliev likes this.
    11-13-12 10:33 AM
  17. Chris Sabordo's Avatar
    i have also the same problem w/ ur playbook..i want to know if ur playbook now is working good...tnx
    11-23-12 04:25 PM
  18. FF22's Avatar
    i have also the same problem w/ ur playbook..i want to know if ur playbook now is working good...tnx
    Have you read the entire thread and checked to see if any solutions work. If not, Rim contact info is also in this thread. Good luck
    11-23-12 08:10 PM
  19. the-elf's Avatar
    Don't us a computer USB port to charge the playbook. It doesn't supply enough power to do it. Use either the supplied Mains cable or a rapid charger.
    Tha.Housewife likes this.
    11-23-12 08:42 PM
  20. mapsonburt's Avatar
    There is a lot of bad advice here because people have thrashed around looking for solutions to a hardware design problem. The problem is that the PlayBook HAS to have enough juice to run the processor to accept a charge beyond 60 seconds. The fact that the problem is in the hardware means that PlayBook OS updates are nearly irrelevant to being able to FIX the issue. They can help ensure it doesn't get triggered (by shutting down before the battery reaches critically low levels of battery but every % they shut down early to prevent this robs from useful working life which as we all know is problematic compared to the competition.

    The PlayBook OS currently shuts down at 3.5 volts. When the battery gets below 2.67V it won't show power lights or even try to start because there isn't enough juice to even power the processor to run the code on the BIOS. The BIOS is software hard coded on a chip within the PlayBook that tells it how to load the PlayBook OS and is coded such that it only recognizes signed PlayBook boot images (which is why it is so hard to root and that nobody has been able to get one to boot Android or WebOS. The BIOS software also contains some charging algorithms for when the OS is not running - ie device is powered off but plugged into a charging source. This code ONLY runs when the battery is above 2.67 volts because the processor can't run below that.

    The root of the problem is that this design issue prevents the device from accepting any charge longer than 60 seconds when the battery is too low to run the charging algorithms on the BIOS or on the OS (one runs before the device is powered on and one runs afterwards). RIM did this because Lithium Ion batteries have a nasty habit of catching fire if not charged properly so they wanted to ensure that the processor could be in control of the charging. Makes perfect sense and they probably thought they were avoiding situations like where early Li Ion batteries on laptops were catching on fire. The problem is they were a bit too aggressive in dealing with the problem at design stage. If the battery is below 2.67Volts their protective algorithms can't run but you also can't put enough charge into the battery to charge it! Hence all the reports of people having success with stack charging.

    Unfortunately there are a lot of wrong ways to do this floating around out there and getting repeated everyone someone posts a new thread on the issue. It really should be made a sticky. What is the right way?

    1) ONLY use a source that provides 1.7Amps or more of charge. The original charger provides this. The rapid chargers provide a lot more. Your phone charger only provides a fraction of this. Anything less is going to take forever to charge the battery above 2.67 volts and may not have enough juice to charge the battery AT ALL once the processor starts to run above 2.67Volts or even worse once the OS starts to run above 3.5Volts. Forget about using your computer to charge it when the OS isn't running as the computer looks for the hardware to identify itself and won't put out a full charge current unless the device indicates it can accept. Once the OS is running, you'd often CAN get enough power from the USB on the computer but that is because the OS has signaled it is OK for the computer to send it. When the OS/BIOS isn't running, the PlayBook won't take much/any charge from a computer. The rapid chargers are best as they quickly charge but more importantly do not use the (too) flimsy USB port. A lot of problems are caused by this port getting wobbly over time and the device not getting a charge at all. Everyone should have a rapid charger.

    2) Until you get your device WELL above the 3.5Volts that lets the PlayBook boot, do NOT try to start it a second time. Every attempt drags the battery down some more and that attempt sucks much more charge from the battery than you can put in in those 60 seconds before the hardware shuts down the charging. How can you tell where your battery is? Well if you are getting no lights on the playbook on your first charging attempt you are below 2.67volts. If lights go on and then it doesn't start the OS it is below 3.5Volts. If it loads the OS and then dies it is just above 3.5Volts. If the device loads the OS it is somewhere between 3.5 and 5.0 Volts. Depending upon where you start (how low the battery is) various techniques work best. They are: REAL stack charging (plug in for 60 seconds, unplug, plug in for 60 seconds, repeat until the processor starts accepting charging (the big battery symbol on the screen). Again, DO NOT try to turn the device on until then. You are just working against yourself and it will take much longer. You should get the charging symbol within 20-45 minutes of repeated REAL stack charging. Forget you ever heard of plugging in for 2 mins and then off for 2 mins and similar as those 2 mins of off time are COMPLETELY worthless. I have put a multimeter on the PlayBook in this state and it NEVER takes more than a minute of charge when under 2.67volts but will accept another minute of charge after a short (1-2 second) disconnection. Just do it right.

    3) Once you see that charging screen, you are (just) above 2.67 Volts. Leave it plugged in to the charger (stop stack charging) for at least an hour before you try to start the PlayBook. If you don't you may end up in a situation where the attempt to start drags that battery back down below 2.67V and you have start stack charging again. Be patient, you are almost there!

    4) Fully charge your Playbook after this to ensure your PlayBook gets back to 100%.

    Unfortunately, there isn't a lot RIM can do about this now. It's a hardware design issue. I'd be interested in knowing if they fixed it with the 4G versions. I don't think I've ever seen that complaint with one of those but I've "fixed" both of mine a few times (the kids keep trying to power them on after letting them shut down on low battery despite me saying time RUN not walk and put it on a rapid charger when ever it hits the flashing red battery signal (9%). I've also helped many friends and people on the web and NOBODY who has followed the instructions has failed to get their PlayBook to charge.

    I'm convinced this fault is the reason so many PlayBooks are returned to the stores and through RMA. RIM has been very good about this but it should never have happened. Happy Charging!
    Last edited by mapsonburt; 12-14-12 at 05:34 PM. Reason: Fixed editing issue.
    Angus_CB, FF22, PatrickMJS and 1 others like this.
    11-24-12 09:26 AM
  21. FF22's Avatar
    mapsonburt:

    Would you mind if most of your reply were posted in future threads on this issue, giving you credit?
    11-24-12 10:25 AM
  22. mapsonburt's Avatar
    mapsonburt:

    Would you mind if most of your reply were posted in future threads on this issue, giving you credit?
    Yeah sure, No worries about the credit even. Thanks.
    11-25-12 08:55 AM
  23. Angus_CB's Avatar
    Very good post mapsonburt.
    It should be made sticky with a couple of edits, by you if possible.
    The overview of how and why the problem occurs is interesting to some but most are looking for a quick fix answer.
    Could you add a point form list showing the steps required to get the Playbook charging again?

    I started an attempt at explaining this one time but gave up.

    The biggest problem people are having is patience. Once the Playbook starts charging past one minute leave it alone and let it charge.
    FF22 likes this.
    11-25-12 09:22 AM
  24. fabio984's Avatar
    the 3rd option worked and the playbook is on, and it made a update. but now its ON and shows a big battery red icon with a bolt and says 0%

    and says:

    critically low battery level. connect your tablet to a power source. the software update will resume when the battery level is above 20%


    first i plugged to USB and he show a message THE PLAYBOOK WILL TURN OF IN 60 SECONDS.
    then i turned on again and pluged to the wall AC... but still 0%..................... ?????
    HELP?

    EDIT: JESUS IM GOING CRAZY? i read this " it will not charge unless the OS is booted, but will not boot unless charged "
    ok! so what im gonna do. I turned off with volume + - and power (3 buttons) and power on with the 3 buttons again. now waiting!! he's turning on............
    Last edited by sgpika; 12-13-12 at 06:17 PM.
    12-13-12 06:05 PM
  25. FF22's Avatar
    the 3rd option worked and the playbook is on, and it made a update. but now its ON and shows a big battery red icon with a bolt and says 0%

    and says:

    critically low battery level. connect your tablet to a power source. the software update will resume when the battery level is above 20%


    first i plugged to USB and he show a message THE PLAYBOOK WILL TURN OF IN 60 SECONDS.
    then i turned on again and pluged to the wall AC... but still 0%..................... ?????
    HELP?

    EDIT: JESUS IM GOING CRAZY? i read this " it will not charge unless the OS is booted, but will not boot unless charged "
    ok! so what im gonna do. I turned off with volume + - and power (3 buttons) and power on with the 3 buttons again. now waiting!! he's turning on............

    The usb from any computer is a poor charging source providing very little power. Plug it into the ac adapter that came with it (not some lower power one) and leave it plugged in for a few hours. Do not keep pressing it on, as they drains its power when it has very little charge. Good luck
    12-13-12 06:28 PM
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