[clinton_white]

Hi There - just wondering what other peoples experiences are as my Playbook seems to take about 6 hours to charge fully from near about empty, well 10% ish battery left?

This seems a long time to me - maybe I am just being impatient!

Thanks
Clint

[rkennedy01]

Get the rapid charger. Under $20 at most office depot/staples and tops off the PB in 1.5-2 hours from a fully discharged state. I have both the pod and the cradle versions (one for the road and the other for home use). Best investment you can make for your PB - also saves wear and tear on the USB port.

RCK

[peter9477]

Hi There - just wondering what other peoples experiences are as my Playbook seems to take about 6 hours to charge fully from near about empty, well 10% ish battery left?

This seems a long time to me - maybe I am just being impatient!

That is a long time.

Are you charging it while using it, or while it's in Standby, or while it's turned off? (The latter two should be about the same, probably, since it doesn't really charge while off, but boots itself up into a special mode where it just charges but doesn't turn the screen on etc.)

The regular charger should be able to charge it, in Standby, from fully empty to 100% full in about 3.5h (just over that actually).

[III 4U2NV III]

Which charger are you using? I'm amazed how fast the PB charges!

[TinRobot]

Are you charging from the USB data cable? I understand that takes 6 hrs or more. I use the included rapid charger, it takes 3.5 hrs or so. I don't have the travel charger or cradle but I keep reading that they both take about 1.5 hrs.

[peter9477]

Get the rapid charger. Under $20 at most office depot/staples and tops off the PB in 1.5-2 hours from a fully discharged state.

By the way, detailed measurements with Battery Guru show that the rapid chargers still take about 3.2h to fully charge a completely discharged battery, with the tablet in standby.

The reason they are "rapid" chargers, aside from the very slightly increase in speed when charging in standby, is that they will take the same amount of time charging when the tablet is turned on and you're using it. The regular chargers can't provide enough power, so under those conditions they will take much longer than their usual 3.5h.

[clinton_white]

Hi There - thanks for the helpful and informative replies.

I am charging the Playbook using the charger that was supplied in the box and I turn the Playbook off completely when charging. The more I think about it the more I seem to think that the battery does not last for more than 2.5 - 3 hours until it needs recharging, but this is probably about right, as I was last using it to watch videoes.

Think I might give Blackberry support a ring as I had in my mind that 3 - 4 hours was the max it would take

Thanks Again

Clinton

[kennyliu]

By the way, detailed measurements with Battery Guru show that the rapid chargers still take about 3.2h to fully charge a completely discharged battery, with the tablet in standby.

The reason they are "rapid" chargers, aside from the very slightly increase in speed when charging in standby, is that they will take the same amount of time charging when the tablet is turned on and you're using it. The regular chargers can't provide enough power, so under those conditions they will take much longer than their usual 3.5h.

Peter, I always charge my battery using the standard charger when the Playbook is in standby. Is there any benefit of charging the Playbook when it's off as opposed to standby? Also, how do I know whether the Playbook is charging or when it has been fully charged when it's off. Thanks a lot.

[kennyliu]

As Peter pointed out, it looks like the rapid charger does not actually decrease charging time by much (see Charging Lithium Ion):

Not all chargers are alike

[peter9477]

I am charging the Playbook using the charger that was supplied in the box and I turn the Playbook off completely when charging. The more I think about it the more I seem to think that the battery does not last for more than 2.5 - 3 hours until it needs recharging, but this is probably about right, as I was last using it to watch videoes.

Think I might give Blackberry support a ring as I had in my mind that 3 - 4 hours was the max it would take

You should definitely get more than 3-4 hours of use. Even watching a video continuously should generally give you at least 6-7h or longer. It depends a whole lot on your brightness setting however. See PlayBook: Power Consumption

It's possible the calibration is off on your battery. To help the OS recalibrate, do a "full" discharge where you run it until it shuts itself off from low battery. Plug it in again and recharge it fully which means -- this is important -- until you no longer see the lightning bolt symbol in the status bar. Don't just recharge until you see "100%" displayed. If you're running Battery Guru, just recharge till it shows full capacity and a Power reading of 0.000W.

After you do that, you may need to use it for a day or so before it will update the calibration. (If you're running Battery Guru, that will have occurred when you see the Battery health reading change.) At that point, it may be you suddenly appear to be getting much longer battery life. It's only an apparent increase, however: if this happens it just means you were getting tricked into thinking your battery life is shorter now than it really is, because you're going by the numbers.

One thing you could do also: run my "drain test", even if you don't have Battery Guru. It will tell you how long your battery really lasts, and you could run it again later to compare. See this post: http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...6/#post6931987

[Chaddface]

Peter, I always charge my battery using the standard charger when the Playbook is in standby. Is there any benefit of charging the Playbook when it's off as opposed to standby? Also, how do I know whether the Playbook is charging or when it has been fully charged when it's off. Thanks a lot.

My name is not Peter but I think I can answer your question.
The only benefit to charging while off would be a shorter charge time.
With the PB off you should see a flashing led. I think it's green some think it's yellow. Yellow or green it will be a steady light when it's done charging.

[gladiatorofyale]

it takes 4-5 hours to fully charge . and i let it die on its own .
get around a 7 hour use then . max bright screen .

[rotorwrench]

Okay, I've been seeing varied charging times for various chargers and PB status at time of charging. So as to be able to compare each charger under close to identical conditions, I will be using a battery state of 15% to start each time. I will use each charger twice, wifi and BT on, wifi and BT off.

Tonight I started with the rapid charger:
-Ambient temp 67F
-battery state at start-15%
-wifi on
-BT on
-standby mode
- Charge time to 100% and plug icon- 2hours 9min

Tomorrow night I will charge using rapid charger with everything off and on standby.

[Trisha_S]

Okay, I've been seeing varied charging times for various chargers and PB status at time of charging. So as to be able to compare each charger under close to identical conditions, I will be using a battery state of 15% to start each time. I will use each charger twice, wifi and BT on, wifi and BT off.

Tonight I started with the rapid charger:
-Ambient temp 67F
-battery state at start-15%
-wifi on
-BT on
-standby mode
- Charge time to 100% and plug icon- 2hours 9min

Tomorrow night I will charge using rapid charger with everything off and on standby.

Hello any more results of PB charging times?

Thanks

[ffosse]

Sometimes mine seems to take a long time using the supplied charger, other times it's quite fast.

I found that restarting it seemed to fix my slow charge times somewhat.

[peter9477]

Sometimes mine seems to take a long time using the supplied charger, other times it's quite fast.

I found that restarting it seemed to fix my slow charge times somewhat.

Unlikely restarting has anything to do with it. More likely it simply depends on whether you're using it while charging, or not. The supplied charger can't provide enough power to keep the charge rate up if the screen is on etc. Normally it gets about 8W to the battery, but when you're using it that will drop to 5-6W.

You may also be getting caught by the one or two problems where something like GPS gets stuck running in the background even after all apps are closed. When that occurs only a restart fixes it. The difference in power consumption is small enough, however, that I don't think you'd notice it. Certainly wouldn't make more than about a twenty minute difference out of, say, 4 hours total charging time.

[ike58]

Does this battery have a "memory"? Should I be running it down to nothing before I recharge or is it ok to charge at whatever level it's at?

[mohamedmamdouh]

It take 2.5 up to 3 hrs with regular charger from 0 to 100% which gave me a use of browsing and streaming for a average of none continues use for about 10 hrs.

[pbnuts]

I use the Rapid Charger, and from 0% to 100% charge it takes 100 minutes.

[rotorwrench]

As Peter pointed out, it looks like the rapid charger does not actually decrease charging time by much (see Charging Lithium Ion):

Not all chargers are alike

I've found that not to be the case with my PB. I have done several charging cycles with the rapid charger, from 10 and 15%, wifi on, BT on, standby, off, wifi off, BT off, all at same ambient temperatures and conditions and timed each cycle. It has never taken longer than 2.25hrs on mine. I then did two cycles from dead battery shutdown and there was only a few minutes difference. My charging times have been consistent and I've never approached 3hrs on the rapid charger.

I've noticed different charge rates on three different 9930s at work which were all purchased together. Also, at work we have a specialty drill driver that came with three LiIon batteries and from the same discharge state two will charge to 100% about the same time, but the third takes an average 45min longer. Two of seven PBs at work, on the standard charger, also average almost an hour or so longer charge time than the other five. So I don't trust all PBs to be consistent with charge times. My experience.

[cameron.constantine]

Guys, need help here, just bought PB 32gb (preowned) yesterday update all software and so on.

PB looks well, i love it. this morning is the first time batt level reach 14% and I start charge using suplpied wall charger, it took 3hr from 14% to 40%? Any advise?

Am using blackbbery phone as well, 9800, is the charger between them are same, can i share to each other.

thanks..

[FF22]

Guys, need help here, just bought PB 32gb (preowned) yesterday update all software and so on.

PB looks well, i love it. this morning is the first time batt level reach 14% and I start charge using suplpied wall charger, it took 3hr from 14% to 40%? Any advise?

Am using blackbbery phone as well, 9800, is the charger between them are same, can i share to each other.

thanks..

Were you using the playbook while charging? I am not sure how fast it charges if the pb is in use. Is it the official pb charger?

And, the official pb charger (that came with the purchase) can be used to charge BB phones - actually, rim sells the pb charger as a "fast charger" (premium) for their bb phones.

While a bbphone charger can charge a pb, it would be very very slow.

[WilliamJH]

My Playbook has been having issues charging lately too. It actually ran down to zero and I had to go through that strange procedure (described elsewhere) of power off cycles to get it back to life. I thought it was fine because it charged back up to 83%; However, it held there and has been slowly working down from that despite using the cradle charger, the plug-in charger that came with the unit and a direct usb to computer connection.

Trying to troubleshoot this, I downloaded Battery Guru and it shows battery health to be 93% but what is weird is that when I put the Playbook in the cradle charger, it will show CHARGE = XXXX watts but then within a few seconds, it will go to zero. This happens again and again. So, for some reason it will attempt to charge but then stop. Using the supplied charger that came with the Playbook results in zero charge levels - it is as if the charger was not even connected.

I am now thinking this is not just a matter of refreshing the battery charge meter or battery software but a problem with the hardware not taking a charge. I guess it could still be confused if the battery is truly 100% and the meter still isn't working right.

Suggestions? Help?

Thanks.

[FF22]

My Playbook has been having issues charging lately too. It actually ran down to zero and I had to go through that strange procedure (described elsewhere) of power off cycles to get it back to life. I thought it was fine because it charged back up to 83%; However, it held there and has been slowly working down from that despite using the cradle charger, the plug-in charger that came with the unit and a direct usb to computer connection.

Trying to troubleshoot this, I downloaded Battery Guru and it shows battery health to be 93% but what is weird is that when I put the Playbook in the cradle charger, it will show CHARGE = XXXX watts but then within a few seconds, it will go to zero. This happens again and again. So, for some reason it will attempt to charge but then stop. Using the supplied charger that came with the Playbook results in zero charge levels - it is as if the charger was not even connected.

I am now thinking this is not just a matter of refreshing the battery charge meter or battery software but a problem with the hardware not taking a charge. I guess it could still be confused if the battery is truly 100% and the meter still isn't working right.

Suggestions? Help?

Thanks.

If you call rim, they will suggest/make you fully charge and fully discharge till it turns off, at least twice to try recalibrating the battery. So you can try that. Or call them and say you did so if you are convinced it is not working and needs repair/replacement.

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)

[knottyrope]

choose option other for warranty support as you will be charged when you call tech support after 90 days