[GLOCKshooter]

So it went dead. I got it sort of fixed by taking off the back and disconnecting the battery. Left it on the charger all night. Now when I turn it on all I get is a red LED for a few seconds, then a picture of the battery with a lightning bolt across it on the screen for about 30 seconds, then a black screen, and the LED slowly blinks green. Left it plugged in for another few hours, no change at all. It does not appear to be taking a charge at all. I tied plugging it to my computer via USB, and it said battery charge 0%, and that I needed to plug it in to a power source. I thought the USB was a power source? Anyway, it shut down on me again, so I plugged it back in to the wall, and now am back to the green blinking light. Aye yaye-yaye!

[Stephen_TX]

So it went dead. I got it sort of fixed by taking off the back and disconnecting the battery. Left it on the charger all night. Now when I turn it on all I get is a red LED for a few seconds, then a picture of the battery with a lightning bolt across it on the screen for about 30 seconds, then a black screen, and the LED slowly blinks green. Left it plugged in for another few hours, no change at all. It does not appear to be taking a charge at all. I tied plugging it to my computer via USB, and it said battery charge 0%, and that I needed to plug it in to a power source. I thought the USB was a power source? Anyway, it shut down on me again, so I plugged it back in to the wall, and now am back to the green blinking light. Aye yaye-yaye!

Others have overcome similar problems by repeatedly disconnecting as soon as the blinking green light appears, and then plugging back in. Sometimes as many as 6-8 times. I believe the goal is to get it past “unable to start" to where the PB just knows it needs re-charging. Then after being disconnected a number of times, its normal charging cycle will kick in.

[Stephen_TX]

Oh, I'd also suggest using the rapid charger or mini-USB charger. Connecting to a computer provides minimal charging power per the message you received.

[kbz1960]

Blinking green light when it is off normally means it's charging.

[VanTryumf]

When did the power off charging come into op..?

I would like to find a way to have pic slideshow as charging indicator....maybe ther's an app for that...if not I should code it up for 2.1...

[oilgeo10]

.... Anyway, it shut down on me again, so I plugged it back in to the wall, and now am back to the green blinking light. Aye yaye-yaye!

^^ Yes, when it is blinking green it is charging while powered off (turned off & not in standby mode). Let it charge like that for 8 - 12 hrs, until it shows solid green when fully charged. Then turn it on and it should work.

[dugggggg]

Sounds to me like the USB port is damaged. It senses a connection, so it thinks it's getting a charge---but the actual charge pin isn't getting any current.

Try charging it with a rapid charger or dock, which bypasses the USB port. Maybe borrow a few minutes of rapid charger time at the nearest Staples or Best Buy if you don't want to invest in a better charger.

With just a few minutes' rapid charge, you should then be able to run Battery Guru with your USB charger. If BG reports "Power" instead of "Charge", your USB is hosed---at least for charging purposes.

[GLOCKshooter]

Plugged in to wall over night, no charge. Screen says "Battery Power Critically Low, 0%, please connect to a power source." I have tried the plug, unplug thing repeatedly, no dice. If the USB is bad, what are my options? I am out of warranty, got it on release day.

[kbz1960]

You can call RIM they have done a free repair for some out of warranty. You can get a rapid charger but that doesn't help if you need to use usb port for anything other than charging.

[GLOCKshooter]

Not going for the rapid charger at this point, that is too much "good money after bad" considering I paid first day prices for the PlayBook, spending another $39-$70 to be able to charge it only at home (not office or car) doesn't make sense when I could get a new 64 gig for relatively cheap, or an Android tablet for even cheaper.

I tried more overnight charging, plugging/unplugging every 2 minutes, nothing works.

I will call Blackberry on Monday, and hope they will fix it.

[jpash549]

Battery Guru app available in app world.About $2 usd. How deep in south? Good luck but if you get another PB try to get rapid travel charger- was available on Amazon for $24 including shipping but believe is now about $36.Also advise visual inspection of the micro usb port. Since you can get the blinking green lights and have tried stack charging wouldn't seem likely that the connection is not being made. Computer ports are supposed to supply 500- 800 milliamps but have heard that some computers will not do this on all ports and it may be good to try on different ports. The lightning bolt on the BBPB simply shows that the device recognizes the insertion of a charging device. It does not show actual current flow.There are other threads on simple fixes.But maybe you know this since you took off the back and worked on the battery connection and I presume have checked the battery voltage which seems to be a good idea.Good luck with BB service. They ought to help you early adopters. I'm just an early 2012 man.

[GLOCKshooter]

How deep in south?

Palm trees, gnats, and everything is fried.

[BennyX]

I remember when my Playbook went down to 0% charge.. I got my cellphone wall wart and my Playbook wall wart mixed up, so it turned out the tablet didn't charge overnight.

I've never bounded out of bed so fast in my life, upon hearing the 'low battery' sound, lol all in a mad dash to save my Playbook before it passed the point of no return!

[EdY]

Check the charger... plug into a phone and see if the lightning bolt appears on the battery icon.

If you have the wall charger with prongs that fold, you may need to wiggle them a bit until it finds the right position. Do this while hooked up to your phone. When you see it is charging your phone, switch it to the Playbook carefully without touching the plug!



Sent from my BlackBerry 9810 using Crackberry Tapatalk Forum app

[GLOCKshooter]

Caved in and ordered the rapid travel charger for $29 shipped (Amazon Prime).

If this does the trick, I believe that means the USB is damaged? How tough is that to repair/replace?

[dugggggg]

Caved in and ordered the rapid travel charger for $29 shipped (Amazon Prime).

If this does the trick, I believe that means the USB is damaged? How tough is that to repair/replace?

No compelling reason to fix the USB port. File transfers and OS upgrades can be accomplished via WiFi.

[jonn sz]

is the little plastic part in the middle of the usb port more towards the front or back of the tablet? If towards the back then probably not the port as you said it connects. If towards front the port likely damaged.

Try holding down the power button for 20 seconds then plugging in the charger (hopefuly this will work). Is a reset procedure, I had to do recently.

If no dice, try plugging in and then holding power button for 20 seconds.

Stacked charging isn't recommended by RIM depite all the people on here telling you to do.

[kbz1960]

Well either there are a bunch of people lying on here or RIM did tell them to do that. Wouldn't surprise me if it was and just took off like things do.

[johnnyuk]

I recently revived a user's PlayBook where the battery was so dead that the indicator light had stopped blinking meaning that stack charging by repeatedly plugging the usb charger in no longer worked. There was no sign of any life left in it. I thought there was no hope but I happened to have bought myself a blackberry PlayBook rapid charging pod that uses the metal contacts to charge rather than usb and thought I'd give that a go and guess what? It started charging immediately as soon as I clicked it on to the charging stand and not long after it booted. I powered it off and left it charging overnight to get a full charge. Next day I half expected that the usb connector would be faulty after the stack charging for hours did nothing, but the very same usb charger worked fine on it once it had charged up.

This is a serious design flaw of the PlayBook on RIM's part, no wonder its reputation is, undeservedly, worse than mud in tablet land. The more the playbook's problems come to light the more I'm convinced it is secretly a very public beta test for the QNX future of Blackberry. My biggest concern with that is that retailers once burned by the number of returns they will have taken for presumed faulty batteries and the amount of unsold price-slashed stock will mean they won't touch any future RIM tablets with a barge pole, Blackberry 10 or not. I hope I'm wrong, come on RIM prove me wrong!

[monkeychild]

My PB is acting up in the charge dept. I have been trying to charge it to no avail. It's down to 4% battery and with the charger in, it's staying at that level? (been on charge for 24hours) It's really starting to annoy me as I can't use the damn thing!!
Any suggestions??

[FF22]

My PB is acting up in the charge dept. I have been trying to charge it to no avail. It's down to 4% battery and with the charger in, it's staying at that level? (been on charge for 24hours) It's really starting to annoy me as I can't use the damn thing!!
Any suggestions??

Check the connector board in the usb port - it should be level and not bent down or up. Fold and unfold the prongs on the usb adapter a few times and try again.

Get the rapid charger - I prefer the travel rapid charger to the rapid dock. Travel is more versatile.

[312Lorden]

This battery charging problem for the PB is pathetic. i have read numerous posts about people having the same problem. Why doesn't Blackberry come out with a fix, like car manufacturers do with a Technical Service Bulletin? This kind of stuff shouldn't happen for a product touted for its security and other nice features. The PB should be a seamless installation setting up, but it isn't. For those lucky owners who are enjoying their PB I hope they did not experience the same frustration new owners have.

My feeling is that Blackberry is very aware of the problem but prefers users to exhaust all avenues of a fix until there is no other recourse but for the owners to send their units in for repair, hopefully under warranty.

[FF22]

This battery charging problem for the PB is pathetic. i have read numerous posts about people having the same problem. Why doesn't Blackberry come out with a fix, like car manufacturers do with a Technical Service Bulletin? This kind of stuff shouldn't happen for a product touted for its security and other nice features. The PB should be a seamless installation setting up, but it isn't. For those lucky owners who are enjoying their PB I hope they did not experience the same frustration new owners have.

My feeling is that Blackberry is very aware of the problem but prefers users to exhaust all avenues of a fix until there is no other recourse but for the owners to send their units in for repair, hopefully under warranty.

Can't disagree. No one knows what Rim was attempting to do or prevent with this scheme.

The damn thing should just be able to be plugged in and start charging. I'm not sure if there's any software or OS changes that can fix this.

Apparently, the plan will be to allow initial use without having to get on wifi. But even that remains speculation.

[GLOCKshooter]

So the rapid charger came today. I plugged it in. Nothing. No LED, no nothing. Half an hour later I tried to turn the PB on, nothing. I have left it plugged in, hoping beyond all hope something will work out.

[dugggggg]

So the rapid charger came today. I plugged it in. Nothing. No LED, no nothing. Half an hour later I tried to turn the PB on, nothing. I have left it plugged in, hoping beyond all hope something will work out.

Just to confirm, the new rapid charger you got uses the special three-prong charge port, not the USB port, right?

If the battery is deader than a doornail (and it sounds like it might be) you may need to do several "stack charges" to jump start it: connect the rapid charger for a 10-15 seconds, then disconnect it briefly. Repeat the process a few times and you should eventually start to see signs of life.

I think you also mentioned in the OP that you had removed the back cover and disconnected the battery? Obviously, make sure it was properly reconnected.