[dazzleaj]

Quote Originally Posted by Aek29 View Post
I had the same problem with mine. I bought it last September and it sat unopened until a couple weeks ago (don't ask). I finally opened the box and tried to fire it up.....nothing. I only have the charger that comes with the unit so no rapid charger option for me. Tried charging it overnight....nothing. Tried stack charging as per the instructions on here for almost a full day and nothing. Tried again the following day for over an hour and still got the red followed by 5 yellow.

I then called the tech support line and told them what was going on. They had me connect it to my computer, install BB Desktop and reinstall the OS. After the OS reinstall was done I was then asked to let it charge (wall charger) for 4 hours (flashing green light when I plugged it in) and the tech support person would call me back in 4 hours and check on it's status. Sure enough they called back 4 hours later. They asked me to turn it on and it worked like a charm.

Perhaps my experience can be helpful.


Well, it was a good idea but as it turns out I must already have the latest OS installed I found an official BB USB cord as I read somewhere that there might be some BB specific wiring in it. Don't know if it is true or would be a factor but the elimination of variables never hurts.
I already have the correct BB desktop software installed for my 3 month old PB and have used it several times already so this would not be a problem. Turned the software on and then hooked in the new PB. The computer recognized the addition of the new PB with:



I got excited and hit the update button

Then;



Hot Dam its working!!!!

Then;





Failure!! Wow, thought I had it there for a second.

I have now stack charged it 3 times for an hour with each of 3 different chargers, all confirmed operational and all for the PB as well as 3 hours on the USB connected to the computer (Yes, if PB is shut off, the computer USB can/will charge the PB as per the reference to the BB Tool Kit Originally Posted by jpash549) and 24 hours from a rapid charger and 24 hours on the supplied USB micro connected charger.
I have used all the startup procedures as outlined in prior posts at every juncture, opportunity and randomly as the mood struck me.

This dog just won't hunt!

I may call BB tomorrow and see what they say. Like chicken soup "It can't hurt"

As I know that tens of thousands of loyal PB fans, well tens of fans(), are all holding their breath to see how this epic saga turns out, I will keep you posted

AJ

[jpash549]

So it said that no updates were available- does that mean it actually connected to the tablet and checked the operating system. How could that be? Did you enter an email address or just hit close? Strange beast. As Paul Harvey did let us know the rest of the story.

[Aek29]

Dang. I had high hopes that it would work for you as well. I don't know much about the playbook as it is still pretty new to me but it was my understanding that the BB tech support person was running me through a reload of the OS and not just an update, similar to the "debricking method" people have posted about . They had me update my OS after the 4 hour charge when they called me back to check on it's status and took about 20 mins to update to the v2.1.0.1526.

Perhaps someone with experience with this stuff can verify that is indeed what is being done?

Hoping that if you call them tomorrow they will run you through the same procedure and indeed reload the OS and that will do the trick. I am anxious to hear the results.

[dazzleaj]

So it said that no updates were available- does that mean it actually connected to the tablet and checked the operating system. How could that be? Did you enter an email address or just hit close? Strange beast. As Paul Harvey did let us know the rest of the story.

Yea, That is what had me so excited, it was talking to the computer even though the battery was to low to charge, thought it might just take off and fly!
Yes I did give my email, not that I think we will ever see any updates but who knows.

[dazzleaj]

Dang. I had high hopes that it would work for you as well. I don't know much about the playbook as it is still pretty new to me but it was my understanding that the BB tech support person was running me through a reload of the OS and not just an update, similar to the "debricking method" people have posted about . They had me update my OS after the 4 hour charge when they called me back to check on it's status and took about 20 mins to update to the v2.1.0.1526.

Perhaps someone with experience with this stuff can verify that is indeed what is being done?

Hoping that if you call them tomorrow they will run you through the same procedure and indeed reload the OS and that will do the trick. I am anxious to hear the results.

Hmmm, good point about the reload. I have previously had it on the chargers, and just now, on the computer charging with no apparent effect. I think because of your observation that they were RE-installing the OS, Not updating the OS I will let them lead me through it. Although, after I review the de-brick posts, I may just try the de-brick if there is enough juice for that to work. It would be a valiant last ditch effort prior to making "the call". After all, why do it the easy way when there is a hard way

[Gooseberry Falls]

Yea, That is what had me so excited, it was talking to the computer even though the battery was to low to charge, thought it might just take off and fly!
Yes I did give my email, not that I think we will ever see any updates but who knows.

If nothing else, it kinda questions the history of the device that you can pursue with Amazon. A new-in-box device will need to update as well as a security-wiped device. So that there were no updates is weird. I suppose it really never "connected" to the PB, too. I agree that you need to reinstall (debrick) the OS, not update it.

[V77]

I am following this thread with interest because my husband and I are having similar problems as dazzleaj - he purchased his playbook from amazon, it arrived on Saturday the 24th, we turned it on since that was what we were instructed to do and .... it petered out almost immediately and has barely shown any sign of life since. Now we know the battery was drained, obviously. We charged it overnight using the charger it came with. Nothing. I tried my BB phone charger since I thought why not and then the playbook turned on to tell me it was at 0% charge. After discovering this I spent the morning looking through forums and BB's videos {no help} and then I found this one so started following the steps dazzleaj took. After stack charging for two hours and letting charge overnight again to no avail, at this point we're going to return this to the seller on amazon. We really want to give the playbook a try since I've used a BB for years now and have always been happy but not sure where to get one. Don't want to go through this again, and it seems we surely would if we went back to amazon, BB doesn't sell them direct, and just not sure where to go to be assured the one we receive hasn't been sitting on a shelf and will work properly. We called tech support and were frustrated because the technician didn't know how to help using a Linux OS and our other computer is running Vista which was creating issues, too. Thanks for the vent....

[Gooseberry Falls]

Might want to compare notes with dazzleaj as to the seller. If the same seller, he might have original stock, e.g. newer stock doesn't seem to have the problem. Amazon has different sellers and you can go through one of them. At least Amazon will let you return stuff fairly painlessly.

[KermEd]

Yeah sounds a lot like a bad lot of tablets to me at this point. But F2 is probably the reigning expert.

Posted via CB from my LE

[FF22]

I am following this thread with interest because my husband and I are having similar problems as dazzleaj - he purchased his playbook from amazon, it arrived on Saturday the 24th, we turned it on since that was what we were instructed to do and .... it petered out almost immediately and has barely shown any sign of life since. Now we know the battery was drained, obviously. We charged it overnight using the charger it came with. Nothing. I tried my BB phone charger since I thought why not and then the playbook turned on to tell me it was at 0% charge. After discovering this I spent the morning looking through forums and BB's videos {no help} and then I found this one so started following the steps dazzleaj took. After stack charging for two hours and letting charge overnight again to no avail, at this point we're going to return this to the seller on amazon. We really want to give the playbook a try since I've used a BB for years now and have always been happy but not sure where to get one. Don't want to go through this again, and it seems we surely would if we went back to amazon, BB doesn't sell them direct, and just not sure where to go to be assured the one we receive hasn't been sitting on a shelf and will work properly. We called tech support and were frustrated because the technician didn't know how to help using a Linux OS and our other computer is running Vista which was creating issues, too. Thanks for the vent....

I am running Vista 64 Home Premium and have not encountered any particular problems. What types of problems were you having with the pb?

Oh, welcome to the forum, even if your reasons were problems with the new pb. And good luck

[FF22]

Yeah sounds a lot like a bad lot of tablets to me at this point. But F2 is probably the reigning expert.

Posted via CB from my LE

Far from an expert. Frankly, just spouting out a compilation of advice others have provided over the (sheesh, now) years!

I would hope that if bb survives that they never employ this rather unique charging circuit again in any products. If a battery is not physically dead, it should just charge if plugged in with the appropriate adapter.

[V77]

The BB technician wasn't able to screenshare for some reason and was frustrated. Thanks.

[nomloj]

Hey, dazzleaj... On the off chance this might be something missing... When you were "updating" the Playbook by having it plugged into the computer, did said computer have access to the Internet? I'm assuming it was connected, as mine is always connected as soon as it turns on, but just thought I'd ask to eliminate any info that might have been missed. When I resurrected my dead PlayBooks, it had to download the entire OS each time and took a while. Of course, I never got the last picture, but I did get timed out a few times.

[dazzleaj]

Hey, dazzleaj... On the off chance this might be something missing... When you were "updating" the Playbook by having it plugged into the computer, did said computer have access to the Internet? I'm assuming it was connected, as mine is always connected as soon as it turns on, but just thought I'd ask to eliminate any info that might have been missed. When I resurrected my dead PlayBooks, it had to download the entire OS each time and took a while. Of course, I never got the last picture, but I did get timed out a few times.

Thanks for asking. Yes I was online.
I didn't have much time to mess with it today but did read about debricking or reinstalling the OS. Good idea but this PB has never actually been charged enough to even do that. The desktop software does seem to be able to access the OS version information but when it confirms that it is current, it is finished.
I hope that I have time Tuesday to call BB support.
I have it on a .3 amp charger for the next 12-18 hours based upon what I read in the link to the PB help section. It seems that it will accept a small USB charge when off and below minimum voltage. I am going to be sleeping here shortly so at least I won't be wasting my time if it is worthless . But, hey, stranger things have happened!

[KermEd]

Far from an expert. Frankly, just spouting out a compilation of advice others have provided over the (sheesh, now) years!

I would hope that if bb survives that they never employ this rather unique charging circuit again in any products. If a battery is not physically dead, it should just charge if plugged in with the appropriate adapter.

You've Bene helping people fix PB's as long as I've been developing for BlackBerry .

But totally - the PB electrical work is frightening lol

Posted via CB from my LE

[FF22]

You've Bene helping people fix PB's as long as I've been developing for BlackBerry .

But totally - the PB electrical work is frightening lol

Posted via CB from my LE

Where are you now with BB? Have you looked at other Tablets? And, if so, what? They are getting older and things will start failing and ideas for replacements pops up occasionally.

[sad_old_man]

Good luck with your pb horse with horns!

[KermEd]

Where are you now with BB? Have you looked at other Tablets? And, if so, what? They are getting older and things will start failing and ideas for replacements pops up occasionally.

Good question. I moved on to a M$ Surface Pro - 128. Expensive as heck but let's me build for mobile whilr on the road.

My PB seems to have turned into a music station.

What you been doing with yours?

Posted via CB from my LE

[FF22]

Good question. I moved on to a M$ Surface Pro - 128. Expensive as heck but let's me build for mobile whilr on the road.

My PB seems to have turned into a music station.

What you been doing with yours?

Posted via CB from my LE

Mine is still as full-featured as it was but in stasis - frozen in time. I use it a lot hooked to the TV using Kalemsoft. And still cruise the web (sorry but now Origami a lot), when my 9960 alerts, I use the pb to read the mail or check the calendar. It just went to Colorado for the second time doing a good job keeping me in touch with news, email. The wifi was a bit flaky at one motel so I used Bridge. No wifi at another friends' place so used Bridge there, too.

I gave an Acer 8" Win8 Pro a shot but it had a defective sdcard slot and so did their demo so I returned it. The issue there is that many older programs in the main are not designed for the smaller screen or maybe even larger screens - in other words, they don't know to allow ZOOM and word-wrap. So while they would run, I found them quite difficult to actually use. Similarly, items like the Windows scrollbar and other controls (close window, etc at the top right of a window) were not sized larger so using a finger was quite difficult - I might not have had it long enough to look around to resize those elements. Again, I might have missed it, but the keyboard did not open automatically pb-style, if I wanted to enter text into something - again maybe Older programs not designed for the interface.

But clearly, unlike Heins, I don't think tablets are dying just yet and will remain looking for when the pb rolls belly up!

But glad to see you still here.

[KermEd]

Mine is still as full-featured as it was but in stasis - frozen in time. I use it a lot hooked to the TV using Kalemsoft. And still cruise the web (sorry but now Origami a lot), when my 9960 alerts, I use the pb to read the mail or check the calendar. It just went to Colorado for the second time doing a good job keeping me in touch with news, email. The wifi was a bit flaky at one motel so I used Bridge. No wifi at another friends' place so used Bridge there, too.

I gave an Acer 8" Win8 Pro a shot but it had a defective sdcard slot and so did their demo so I returned it...

But glad to see you still here.

That's awesome. I loved my PB and still hope to one day use it again. The only reason it got benched is because I need to be able to 'code on the fly'.

I saw the buzz around oragami browser - sounds like great work. . I've been hoping to see it come to BB10.

But yeah the win8 tablets - even my surface pro - not a great tablet experience. M$ tries but it feels pretty half interested - even on win 8.1. It just feels like m$ is confused and unsure what to do.

I did manage to get another app out supporting the PB - just a Roku remote app - but it's something. If bbry somehow adds pb support into the bb10 SDK releases my life would be much easier for it though. .

Posted via CB from my LE

[FF22]

That's awesome. I loved my PB and still hope to one day use it again. The only reason it got benched is because I need to be able to 'code on the fly'.

I saw the buzz around oragami browser - sounds like great work. . I've been hoping to see it come to BB10.

But yeah the win8 tablets - even my surface pro - not a great tablet experience. M$ tries but it feels pretty half interested - even on win 8.1. It just feels like m$ is confused and unsure what to do.

I did manage to get another app out supporting the PB - just a Roku remote app - but it's something. If bbry somehow adds pb support into the bb10 SDK releases my life would be much easier for it though. .

Posted via CB from my LE

That succinctly describes it. And then they encumbered the non-touch desktop.

You do not really expect pb support from bb do you? Or have developers heard something, well, anything?

[KermEd]

That succinctly describes it. And then they encumbered the non-touch desktop.

You do not really expect pb support from bb do you? Or have developers heard something, well, anything?

Nothing I'm pretty sure anything we get will be from inhouse developers now...

Probably not an OS update - but super simple instructions on how to backport an application using custom embedded libraries or something.

The issue for me is RIM makes us add a bunch of UI elements to ask for BFB. Those UI elements aren't in the PB, so we have a real hard time "back porting" to PB. Except for html5

Posted via CB from my LE

[beman39]

That's awesome. I loved my PB and still hope to one day use it again. The only reason it got benched is because I need to be able to 'code on the fly'.

I saw the buzz around oragami browser - sounds like great work. . I've been hoping to see it come to BB10.

But yeah the win8 tablets - even my surface pro - not a great tablet experience. M$ tries but it feels pretty half interested - even on win 8.1. It just feels like m$ is confused and unsure what to do.

I did manage to get another app out supporting the PB - just a Roku remote app - but it's something. If bbry somehow adds pb support into the bb10 SDK releases my life would be much easier for it though. .

Posted via CB from my LE

sorry but I call BS on this, I have the RT which isn't as full OS as the pro and I am 1000000X more productive on my RT than I ever was with the Playbook! also just the user interface is more smooth and robust than the Playbook, and the reason why I like the RT so much is the fact that it's sorta like a QNX OS where you have those bezel swipes and stuff! So I can't fathom your Surface PRO not being better or more productive than your Playbook or that having a FULL Windows 8 on a tablet is half interested by MS. please don't be like the other people by spreading disinformation!

[jpash549]

That RT must be a great tablet. Surprising that they had to drop the price so much. Do expect the new Windows Pro second edition to be a considerable improvement over the first model and we should see it soon. Being retired can't claim to do real work any more but would certainly have wanted a bigger monitor than a tablet or mini laptop such as the Windows Pro offer to do real work even when my eyes were better.

[beman39]

That RT must be a great tablet. Surprising that they had to drop the price so much. Do expect the new Windows Pro second edition to be a considerable improvement over the first model and we should see it soon. Being retired can't claim to do real work any more but would certainly have wanted a bigger monitor than a tablet or mini laptop such as the Windows Pro offer to do real work even when my eyes were better.

That's a whole other can of worms and I can give you many MANY reasons why MS sales didn't do so good and why they dropped their prices. But here is just 3 off the top of my head


(1) ****ty marketing. MS, your marketing sucks. Dancing people? WTF? You could take lessons from IBM and Mastercard for great, targeted marketing that makes sense and sticks with you. You should've talked to a lot of students first. You should've marketed to students first.

(2) ****ty information everywhere! I personally don't understand why people got confused that you can't install desktop applications on Windows RT, but clearly the ball was dropped in multiple places.

(3) ****ty reviews based on ****ty information or incorrect use cases

And those are just some of the reasons, but they kinda do mirror what the PB went through when it first came out...