Blackberry Playbook has a red battery with a lightening bolt through it

Hey all, My son has a playbook and, from what I have been reading the battery is prob dead and not charging. I have tried stack charging for 2+ hours a couple different times 2 min on charge and 2 min off charge, then 2 min on and 10 sec off, then just plugged in until the red light goes out and 10 sec after that the off charge for 10 sec. Nothing seems to be working.

When I plug in the playbook 3 seconds the red light comes on and stays for 16 sec and goes out, then 10 seconds later the screen flicks and a red battery with a lightening bolt comes on for another 10 sec, then the battery fades out and the green light comes on for 10 more seconds and then goes off for 5 seconds, when the sequence starts over again and after the green light the second time it shuts off and nothing else happens.

Now more than once it has acted like it is booting up with the Blackberry color sequence starting across the screen but before it gets to main screen it shuts off again.

In any of the above mentions scenarios if I unplug the power it shuts off.

I have tried the holding the power button for 15-30 sec, and the power button and the + volume for 15-30 sec, and the power button and + and - volume button for 15-30 seconds with no response.

Any help would be appreciated,

Thanks for looking
Medic

This also happened when I bought mine. The battery needs to get a decent charge. Charge it and leave it alone for about an hour(that's what i did). Then turn it on and see if that helped. It did work for me. If you get it to do a complete chatge make sure that you do a hrad reset(pwr button and minus and plus volume all at once. You may also want to get in a habit of clearing all cookies and web history. Good luck.

For that first hour DO NOT TRY AND TURN IT ON.

You are correct. The battery is dead. If the charger that came with it does not charge it up, you should try using another one like those charging docks that charge at a higher rate. Maybe your charger is the problem.

The BlackBerry PlayBook MUST be recharged using the wall charger not the USB cable in this situation. Leave the tablet in the powered off state until it is fully charged in approximately 8 hours.

Powered off? Don't do that. Maybe my PlayBook's are special but they hardly charge, if at all when powered off. Put the PlayBook in standby and let it charge.

The majority of time I charge fully off, and overnight 'cause I'm not using it at that time !

Thanks for the replies,
I have left it on the wall charger for a 24 hour period to no avail. The charger works, as it has been used to charge another playbook to charge just 3 days ago.
Medic

Hi Medic

This happened to me once and I found the answer searching for it in the forums. I'm going to look for it because it was a long time ago, but I remember that involved Desktop Manager and losing your information on your PB but it will resurrect!! ;)

The PB actually has two batteries in it. It sounds like one has gone bad or somehow disconnected. The unit tries starting but quickly runs below the minimum required voltage and shuts down. If you are capable, there are several Utube videos on dis assembling the PB or send it back to BB. Good luck.

I charge my PB battery with power off and it attains full charge (well, over 95%) within 3 hours or less.
Question for this forum: does it hurt the PB if one charges it while on "standby" mode as some have done?

I almost never turn mine off and always charge it on standby or while using it. Battery Health in Battery Guru has not changed - still around 88% (it never was in the 90's!)

Originally Posted by 312Lorden

I charge my PB battery with power off and it attains full charge (well, over 95%) within 3 hours or less.
Question for this forum: does it hurt the PB if one charges it while on "standby" mode as some have done?

I always charge on stand by with no issues. and my pb turns one yr old this christmas.

Have you tried stack charging yet? Plug it in for two minutes, then unplug for ten seconds. Repeat...........

Originally Posted by 312Lorden

I charge my PB battery with power off and it attains full charge (well, over 95%) within 3 hours or less.
Question for this forum: does it hurt the PB if one charges it while on "standby" mode as some have done?

Absolutely not. Standby really just means the screen is off and some apps are paused, but the thing is still running. It's merely a state where there's much lower power consumption, usually under 100mW compared to the normal drain with the screen on, which is more like 1.5 or 2W.

It's also entirely safe to charge it while it's "off", but note that it actually turns itself on into a mode much like standby when you do this, since it's really incapable of charging while totally off.

It's also safe to leave it on the charger indefinitely, even after the battery is full, because the device stops charging the battery at that point (and apparently runs the system entirely from energy supplied by the charger).

It's also entirely safe to charge it while it's "off", but note that it actually turns itself on into a mode much like standby when you do this, since it's really incapable of charging while totally off.
[COLOR="#800080" How can this be? I always charge mine while it is turned off][/COLOR] I believe your comment applies to PB v1.0

It's also safe to leave it on the charger indefinitely, even after the battery is full, because the device stops charging the battery at that point (and apparently runs the system entirely from energy supplied by the charger).[/QUOTE]

It's also entirely safe to charge it while it's "off", but note that it actually turns itself on into a mode much like standby when you do this, since it's really incapable of charging while totally off.
How can this be? I always charge mine when PB is turned off. And it charges all the time. I think your comment applies to an earlier version of PB.

It makes sense that some of the software has to run to control the charging process so it can't charge at all if completely off but has to wake up enough to run the necessary controls. The problem with v1.0 of the software is that this was not enabled as I understand this.

Also in stack charging of a very low battery as the idea is to charge until the PB tries to start then stop so that the PB will not use up the little bit of charge you have put in which is not enough to sustain running. You repeat trying to bump it up to the point where it will continue to charge. At that point leave it on charge for probably at least one-half hour before trying to turn it on. Many bumps are required because you can't put much energy in in twenty seconds.

Originally Posted by Medic5009

When I plug in the playbook 3 seconds the red light comes on and stays for 16 sec and goes out, then 10 seconds later the screen flicks and a red battery with a lightening bolt comes on for another 10 sec, then the battery fades out and the green light comes on for 10 more seconds and then goes off for 5 seconds, when the sequence starts over again and after the green light the second time it shuts off and nothing else happens.

Hey Medic,

Just wanted to mention that I have the same problem, exactly as you've described it.
Quite frustrated that my just-over-a-year-old 64GB Playbook that I purchased full price (AU$800) is now non-functioning.

Just to add to Medic's description, if I let the Playbook loop from red light - red empty battery in middle of screen w/ lightning bolt - pulsing green/yellow (one pulse) to red light again, the back of the Playbook does warm up, in the centre where the BB logo is located, not around the sides where the two batteries are located.

I've let it continue this loop for hours, and all it does is the same thing over and over. I did the update using Desktop Manager, and still the same loop.

It is possible to leave the unit 'off' by allowing it to enter the loop (on the charger of course), and then holding the power button. This stops the device from doing anything. However while in the off state, and on the charger, nothing seems to happen. There is also no warmth from the back of the unit.

I now have a working Blackberry playbook, thanks to support.

I was told to download Blackberry Desktop Software, and attach the blackberry to the computer and preform an update. Took about an hour, It stated it didn't finish due to communication problem but it did enough to allow it to charge. I noticed a change in the light blinking and the red light stayed on, the next morning it was asking to preform the next update.

Hopefully it works for some of you.

Good Luck
Medic

Hello Medic. Same exact prob over here. But I've tried doing the update via Desktop Software like you said, and it updated successfully, but i still have the same problem with charging.

Hi..I am having this same problem for last one month .I have tried the things you mentioned and same it didnt work for me either. Can you please help me if you were able to solve this problem. I have been listening a lot from my mother she thinks I damaged the product.

Please help.

Thank you so much.

Originally Posted by Camski63

Hey Medic,

Just wanted to mention that I have the same problem, exactly as you've described it.
Quite frustrated that my just-over-a-year-old 64GB Playbook that I purchased full price (AU$800) is now non-functioning.

Just to add to Medic's description, if I let the Playbook loop from red light - red empty battery in middle of screen w/ lightning bolt - pulsing green/yellow (one pulse) to red light again, the back of the Playbook does warm up, in the centre where the BB logo is located, not around the sides where the two batteries are located.

I've let it continue this loop for hours, and all it does is the same thing over and over. I did the update using Desktop Manager, and still the same loop.

It is possible to leave the unit 'off' by allowing it to enter the loop (on the charger of course), and then holding the power button. This stops the device from doing anything. However while in the off state, and on the charger, nothing seems to happen. There is also no warmth from the back of the unit.

Quite frustrated that my just-over-a-year-old 64GB Playbook that I purchased full price (AU$800) is now non-functioning.

Snap. This is exactly what happened to my just-over-a-year-old 64Gb. It went to the repair centre today by FedEx in response to my pleas to BB Support for help. See my thread here:

http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...all-os-862587/