1. kc_crackberry's Avatar
    Hi all,

    I would like to post what I experienced and potential solutions for dead batteries:

    1. Playbook suddenly wouldn't start up when I pressed the power on button. Nothing showed up on the screen; the "charging" light didn't light up; totally no reaction. Weird thing was that the battery was still 2/3 charged the last time when I used the playbook. Not sure why the battery suddenly went dead.

    2. I then connected the playbook to my laptop via the USB port. The "charging" light went red for about 15 seconds, it then became green/yellow and blinked for 5 times and then stopped. Nothing on the screen. Pressed the power button, playbook didn't turn on.

    3. I then connected the playbook to the wall trying to charge it. The red light again showed up for about 15 seconds and stopped. Nothing on the screen. Pressed the power button, playbook didn't turn on.

    4. I then tried stack charging both to the laptop and to the wall. Tried both 2-min-charging-and-2-min-off and 2-min-charging-and-8-seconds-off, both for 10x repetitions. As usual, during the 2 min of "charging", the "charging" light was only red during the first 15 seconds or so. After spending hours on stack charging, I still couldn't turn on the playbook. At this point I wasn't sure if the playbook was actually charging during those 1 min 45 seconds intervals when the red light WAS NOT on.

    5. So I tried something different. Instead of plugging the charger to the wall directly, I plugged it to a SurgeMaster(which has a Reset/off button). One end of the charger was connected to the playbook, and the other end to the SurgeMaster. Then, I did the stack charging again. This time I kept the charger attached to the playbook as well as to the SurgeMaster the whole time, but turned on and off the power supply via the Reset/Off button on the SurgeMaster - I turned on the power supply and the "charging" light became red on the playbook for about 15 seconds, I then cut the power supply and immediately turned it back on(via SurgeMaster Reset/off button), and the light on the playbook because red again. Initially during the first 5-6 repetitions, nothing showed up on the screen on the playbook. Then all of a sudden the "red battery charging icon with a lightning symbol" appeared in the middle of the playbook. The "charging" light then turned green/yellow continuously. At this point I knew the playbook was in fact charging continuously. After 10 min or so, I was able to turn on the playbook.

    6. After the playbook was back on, the battery level remained at 0% for 20min but was still charging. It then slowly moved back up to 2%, 4% etc.

    7. So my thinking is that during stack charging, unless the "charging" light is on, it's not in fact charging. To me at least, the 2min charging intervals didn't work because the light was only on for the first 15 seconds or so. Using a surgeMaster helped because I could then immediately turn on the power supply after cutting the supply. It also shortened each interval to only 15 seconds(for as long as while the charging light was red).

    Hope this helps.....
    Chaddface likes this.
    06-15-12 12:44 PM
  2. mapsonburt's Avatar
    Yes, that's been my experience as well. I don't know where the two minutes came from but I never follow that... Unplug it as soon as the lights go out and start again. It'll start within 5-10 tries. Like you, I believe the 2 minutes actually contributes to draining the battery.
    06-15-12 12:52 PM
  3. jrohland's Avatar
    This is based on conjecture as I don't know the actual design. Here is what I think is happening:

    First, lithium based batteries tend to hold voltage pretty steady until they are out of current. When they hit the cliff, the voltage drops nearly straight down.

    The charge control circuit is controlled by an operating system module run on the main CPU. For safety, the charge subsystem will run for only a short time (about 15 seconds) until it does not get a "heartbeat" from the OS. Then it shuts off.

    Understanding both of those, it may be the battery does not have enough current to run the CPU. Preventing the charge control module from running. Classic Catch-22: You need power to run the charger but there is not enough power to run the charger.

    So, how does this stack charge fix it? For the first 15 seconds, until the charge controller shuts off, the charge is getting through to the battery. If you allow enough of those 15 second bursts, the battery gets enough current to run the CPU and the OS starts. Then the charge control gets the heartbeat and stays active.

    It would be interesting to know if the 15 second window was an over site or done to solve this very problem. I'm leaning to the former because, if it was a backdoor fix for a dead battery, they should have made the window longer.
    06-15-12 01:18 PM
  4. Chaddface's Avatar
    All good information. Thanks.
    Seems more logical then the 2 on 2 off routine.
    I'm curious to see if others have better luck doing it this way.
    06-15-12 02:00 PM
  5. Zildjian71's Avatar
    That sounds about right, you're "tricking" the battery manager into passing the current to the battery while it checks the cpu for stable power signal to ok a startup.

    I've only had to do it once after contacting RIM support for help...typical charging cradle issues.

    Oh well, the enjoyment far out weighs the little annoyances.
    06-15-12 02:33 PM
  6. rotorwrench's Avatar
    We have a video borescope at work that this happens to occasionally, being left on until completely drained, it too having an li-ion battery. Our practice is similar to the 15 sec method. We put it on its OEM charger for 10 seconds, unplug, wait 5 seconds, plug back in for 15secs, etc... repeating this for about 10 to 15 times. By then there is enough charge on the battery to trigger the charging cycle. Has worked every time.
    06-15-12 03:17 PM
  7. billybobsa's Avatar
    I have this "dead" problem but I don't get the red LED at all. I have tried these stack charge methods listed, using both a normal charger and the rapid charger, all to no avail.

    Any other suggestions to at least get the red LED lit up so I can then follow the process described above?
    09-19-12 04:47 AM
  8. FF22's Avatar
    Anohter suggestion has been to hold in the power button for 20-30 seconds and while still holding it, plug in the usb (not sure about rapid charger) and then release the power button.

    ...............

    Then there's the rest of the various methods which you may have tried already:

    Okay, try any and all of the various methods, including just holding the power button in for 30-40 seconds. Also go into a dark closet and make sure the screen is really black/off and not a lit up gray.

    I was told about "stack" charging, 6 cycles of charge no charge, for 2 minutes each, charging for never more than 2 minutes.


    Plug the PB in with the factory charging cable (red light comes on for a several seconds, then goes off). Wait about 10 more seconds. Unplug PB for about 30 seconds.

    Repeat n times.

    n == 6 for me. Finally my PB light switched to green, then began to oscillate, signalling charging. After a few more minutes my PB came back to life.

    You might want to UNplug/Replug at the wall/socket end to avoid using or damaging the weaker usb port on the pb itself.


    Just talked to tech support, because i'm impatient sometimes. Here is the initial process they gave me to try.

    Plug in the charger for 2 mins, unplug for 10 sec -> Repeat 6 to 8 times

    Then while unplugged perform the Hard reset (POWER, VOL + and - at the same time) . **When the red light comes on PLUG IN THE CHARGER**

    The playbook is supposed to then start charging/boot.
    ...........................
    Along the same lines as just above, someone posted:

    FOUND A QUICK FIX HOPE IT HELPS

    WOW, i tried EVERY SINGLE Step out there and the one step that worked ... was HOLDING down the power key for 20 seconds, after 20 Seconds do not let go of the power button and plug in the wall charger, and then let go... should get a steady red light for about 10 seconds, then the battery icon with lightning bolt should appear.. the it will charge with just a flashing green..... lol wasted 4 hrs for nothing hope this works for everyone else


    .................
    Some have now found a shorter sequence works:

    Oh man I fixed it. I stack charged it! But not for 2 minutes.

    Every time my PB red signal goes off I removed the connection from the wall charger and placed it back within a second. I repeated it for almost 25-30 times and all in the sudden a big charger button showed up on the screen and a green light on the charging LED. I left th e power connection for 2 more hrs and started using it.
    ................
    And another posting that might help....

    There are a few solutions and some are mentioned above. 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.

    Knowledge Base Article

    KB27705-BlackBerry PlayBook Power - Battery charge and discharge characteristics
    09-19-12 08:23 AM
  9. 312Lorden's Avatar
    Can someone clarify the following procedure? I tried stack charging using three methods posted. The red light comes on consistently for only 15-16 seconds. I then unplug the USB connection (not at the wall outlet) to the PB, but this unplugging process takes about 10 seconds, at which time the Blackberry screen comes on with all those floating colored lights.When this happens, is it draining the battery? Should I unplug quicker so as not to let the screen come on?

    I called Blackberry Support and they said to go to a place with wi-fi so they can help. By the way, i have not set up my PB yet, just trying to get enough battery charge before setup.
    09-19-12 01:55 PM
  10. FF22's Avatar
    Can someone clarify the following procedure? I tried stack charging using three methods posted. The red light comes on consistently for only 15-16 seconds. I then unplug the USB connection (not at the wall outlet) to the PB, but this unplugging process takes about 10 seconds, at which time the Blackberry screen comes on with all those floating colored lights.When this happens, is it draining the battery? Should I unplug quicker so as not to let the screen come on?

    I called Blackberry Support and they said to go to a place with wi-fi so they can help. By the way, i have not set up my PB yet, just trying to get enough battery charge before setup.
    I suspect that it may be using a power as the screen is generally the thing that uses the most power.

    I would suggest UNplugging at the wall as that takes stress of the somewhat fragile usb port directly on the pb. You should also be able to unplug it quicker at the wall.

    Yes, the darn thing needs at least 20% (more?) power to run through the wifi setup.

    My replacement 32gig also was too low initially but I did have a rapid charger.
    09-19-12 04:02 PM
  11. 312Lorden's Avatar
    OK, tried 31 times plugging and unplugging the power cord from my PB. I tried to immediately shut down the PB by pressing on the tiny power button for 10 seconds, waited 5 secs and then replugged PB. There is still no change, as red light does not stay on.

    Time to consider a rapid charger. Where can I buy one and how much does it cost?
    09-19-12 04:18 PM
  12. Slamdunc1's Avatar
    I had this issue, drove me crazy. Playbook was working perfectly and then drained down to seriously flat. As when I plugged it in to charge, my toddler son was having some fun turning off the power switch. So when I came back - no matter what i tried it wouldn't turn on. Long story short, I got a magnetic travel charger - plugged it in and away it went, working perfectly once again. It did take about an hour of being plugged into the magnetic charger before the battery indicator started showing a charge greater than 0%.
    02-16-13 02:24 AM
  13. Slamdunc1's Avatar
    what did **** me immensely was that the blackberry service centre in Singapore wouldn't touch my playbook because it came from the UK, they said it had to go to a service centre in the UK. Which as a long time blackberry customer, pissed me off a little bit. Had a rant at the blackberry people, suggesting that perhaps the ocassional customer might actually travel or move country or something. I was tempted to import a Z10 from the UK, but knowing that if I had any problems I couldn't get it fixed in Singapore, i have to wait patiently.
    02-16-13 02:29 AM
  14. Emu the Foo's Avatar
    The rapid charger for the pb works wonders. I've heard charging issues be resolved by this. I have no input personally other than I heard this in other threads and it's worked.
    02-16-13 02:42 AM
  15. FF22's Avatar
    what did **** me immensely was that the blackberry service centre in Singapore wouldn't touch my playbook because it came from the UK, they said it had to go to a service centre in the UK. Which as a long time blackberry customer, pissed me off a little bit. Had a rant at the blackberry people, suggesting that perhaps the ocassional customer might actually travel or move country or something. I was tempted to import a Z10 from the UK, but knowing that if I had any problems I couldn't get it fixed in Singapore, i have to wait patiently.
    I truly resent when MULTI-national corporations disclaim their warranties in MULTInational situations. As you clearly note, folks now travel and move around. The user should be able to call on these multinationals no matter where and get stuff fixed under warranty.
    02-16-13 09:43 AM
  16. shaneilmiah's Avatar
    why wont it come on can i use a normal bb phone charger 9320?
    01-03-14 04:39 PM
  17. FF22's Avatar
    A phone charger would charge it slowly. The normal charger if it works would be faster.

    Here's the most recent which may repeat some of what is above:

    Locked, bricked Stack Charge Charging

    Another method to try:

    Try this....

    HOLD the power key for 20 seconds, after 20 Seconds do not let go of the power button and plug in the wall charger, and then let go... should get a steady red light for about 10 seconds, then the battery icon with lightning bolt should appear, after that the blinking green will appear and screen will go off.. now its charginggg..... lol wasted 4 hrs tyrign every other method, stack charging everything.... and this one worked for me...hope this works for everyone else

    ...............


    More Mapsonburt (a pb user) who posted this info:

    Don't keep trying if you get the Red light/5 Yellows... you'll soon drag the battery down past where you can start it again. Leave it off, plug it in and let it charge (with at least a 1.8A charger). Once you get the flashing (once every few seconds) green light, you can power it up - on the charger. If you do drag it down below the red flash/5 yellows, plug it in for 1 minute, unplug (at the wall) for a second or so, plug it back in and repeat for 20-30 minutes. You'll eventually get the red/yellows and then leave it plugged in (and off) until you get the flashing green. It's a PITA but the PlayBook has a very conservative charging algorithm when the battery is below 2.67 Volts to prevent explosions (I'm guessing). I've never been unable to start one with that method.

    Mapsonburt:


    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 let's the PlayBook boot, do NOT try to start it. 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 below 5.0Volts. 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 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 the 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!


    ........................
    The battery is likely below 2.65 volts. That happens if the PlayBook has sat for a while. Plug your charger into the playbook (make sure it's the stock charger and not a computer or other charger as you need to pump in lots of amps - more than 1.7amps - the more the better). The rapid charger is even better as it can go to 5 amps.

    LEAVE the charger plugged into your PlayBook. Unplug it from the wall (to save the fragile micro-USB port) every minute for a few seconds and plug back in. You'll see lots of references on the web to plug in for 2 minutes and unplug for 2 minutes. Ignore those. I took the PlayBook apart and put a multimeter on mine when it was doing this. If the battery is below 2.65 volts, the PlayBook charging circuit charges for about 1 minute and then shuts down. NO AMOUNT of continued charging makes any difference. As soon as you unplug it (at the wall) and power it back up, it will take charge again for another 45-60 seconds. Repeat.

    Keep doing that for as long as it takes to get the screen to show the charging display. If it is just below 2.65volts, it will take somewhere between 20-45 minutes as the battery only takes a little bit of charge each cycle and you need to get that voltage up over 2.65 volts (at which point it will show the charging display and take a full charge). It may take more... but keep at it. Every time you plug it in for 60 seconds, you are adding a bit more power to the battery.

    DO NOT try to power the device on until the device has a full charge. You will just risk getting it into a situation where it can't fully boot before it drags the charge down below 2.65 volts again and you'll have to start all over.

    This works... and saves you from having to jump start it like I did the first time I got mine into this situation.

    ----------------------

    http://btsc.webapps.blackberry.com/b...ListHelperImpl
    01-03-14 06:42 PM
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