Playbook is dead .. help !!!

My playbook is dead... I cant even turn it on. Well not entirely. If i leave it plugged in for a while, and hold the power button (while its plugged in), the playbook will boot up.

However, the moment I pull out the power cable the playbook dies. Its frustrating that I cant do anything on the playbook. Based on all the rumours on CB of the impending 2.1, I feel a bit left out.

Now before anyone mentions what I may or may not have done, please see the following.

I have wiped the playbook clear via desktop manager, with the hopes that it may remedy the situation. However, it hasn't resulted in the desired result. My playbook is basically 'wiped clean', however, the moment the power cable is unplugged it just 'dies'.

I did indeed look at all the threads on CB and have done everything expected. Unfortunately, I have not achieved the desired results. Sadly, the playbook sits on my desk as a VERY expensive ( i bought the playbook full price at launch) paper weight.

Is there anything I can do to bring it back to life? Sadly, its over a year and warranty is no longer in play. There might be an extended warranty via my credit card but am not sure.

Should i just go out and buy a new playbook? or start contemplating the competition?

any help would be appreciated.

Cheers !!!

Call the 1-800 # and explain what is going on. They may offer an exchange for a replacement unit even though you are beyond the original warranty period. They did it for me when my PB's battery died after I had it for 16 months.

First (since you did not mention) is the playbook plugged in the wall charger & for how long.

Even though you are over the one year warranty, it still would be worth giving RIM Customer Support a call. It can't hurt, and there have been many reports posted on CB about RIM covering Playbooks after the one-year period has expired.

Originally Posted by RoseBud68

First (since you did not mention) is the playbook plugged in the wall charger & for how long.

this^^
yeah I've learned over time to use the original wall charger or the rapid charging dock instead of other standard micro-USB chargers.

Also, don't use your PC to recharge the playbook... it will take a whole day to be at 100%

I posted this in another thread which I think may be applicable to your problem.

"Try this cause it worked for me fixing my friend's playbook. He didn't use his playbook for a very long time but had it continually plugged in. When he eventually tried to use it .. it wouldn't charge once the playbook was turned off (normally you'd see the continual flashing green light until it's fully charge).

His problem was ... as soon as he plugged in his stock charger, he got the red light and one or two green lights, then the red empty battery charging symbol and his playbook automatically booted

Then when the desktop appeared his battery icon cycled every 30 seconds to red battery icon 0% charging (lightning bolt), to green battery icon full (lightning icon), to green battery icon with plug symbol shown inside the icon.

His major problem was that he needed the charger plugged in in order to keep his playbook on. As soon as you pulled the plug it shut off.

This is my take on the issue with the playbook and its battery:

The playbook controls the charging using software. The calibration for that software can get screwed up. In my buddy's case, since he left it plugged in for months and never let it drain, the playbook software thought the always charged state was both empty and fully charged for its range for charging.. I believe that's why the battery states kept cycling from full empty to fully charged. I believe this is similar problem when the battery is over depleted. The charging control software becomes confused and the charging process becomes very inefficient. Due to this charging inefficiency it will take a much longer time to properly charge. But I believe there is another problem as well. Even if you get the minimum charge to boot the playbook (if your battery is fully depleted), the charging software calibration is still screwed up. To fix this you have to, for a few times after the pb has reboot, do a hard reset. This can be done 2 ways depending on the operating system: (1) 3-button hold down (power button & +volume & - volume buttons pressed and held down until the pb self boots on its own) or (2) hold down on the power button for at least 20 secs until it completely shuts down.

OK so this is what I did to fix my buddy's pb:

(1) Use on the premium rapid or stock charger that came with your pb!

(2) update the OS to the latest operating system (if you can maintain the pb being on). If not skip this step.

(3) Leave the playbook on and plugged in for at least 24 hours. When I did this, his pb battery icon stopped cycling through the different charging states and actually showed 52% and charging, however when I unplugged it .. it automatically shut off again -> remember what I said about the charging software calibration being screwed up. When the playbook rebooted the battery icon now should 9% and again turn off when I removed the plug... so I wasn't finished yet, but was making progress.

(4) The last thing I did .. and this was to address reseting the charging software calibration.. was to do a series of occasional hard resets.. I alternated between the 3-button and the single power button hold for 20 secs. What I noticed is that after doing this about 5 or 6 times the battery charging started behaving normally, holding a constant percentage and increasing charge. Eventually, I was finally able to remove the plug without the pb shutting down.

(4) It took a couple more hard resets until I was able to charge the pb while it was off (having the consecutive green blinking lights until it became solid). After that I was done -> PB fixed and operating normal again.

(5) I'm not too sure, but upgrading the OS could have helped with the charging software... I upgraded his OS to the latest beta version.

I never had the opportunity to try to bring back to life a pb that's completely depleted and won't turn, but in that case, I would still leave it plugged into the wall for a long time and occasionally try to turn it on - once the pb turns on leave it charging a long time on the charger while it's on. I know other people have had success with the stack charging. But once the unit can be turned on, even if the charger has to stay in to make sure that it stays on.. I would still follow the steps above.

I hope this helps you .. cause I did learn something from this ordeal..."

Or you can try some other possible solutions from that thread:

http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...arging-732318/

Hope it helps..

Originally Posted by goorborhn

this^^
yeah I've learned over time to use the original wall charger or the rapid charging dock instead of other standard micro-USB chargers.

Also, don't use your PC to recharge the playbook... it will take a whole day to be at 100%

sorry I forgot to clarify.

I have had my playbook plugged in to the wall charger (that it came with) for over 24 - 48 hours and I have had the same result.

Moreover, I even tried to leave the playbook plugged in to my laptop (and desktop manager) for a similar amount of time.

Sadly, I havent had any luck with either methods.


I just assumed I was SIL and thus, didnt bother contacting RIM. I guess, it cant hurt contacting them to see what they can / cannot do.

Thanks for the help peeps

do you have a blackberry? maybe your charger is broken. That's what happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Test it out on your phone and see if it charges it. I just used my phone charger for my PB for almost 2 days, never touching it or anything, just left it as is and it turned on.

Originally Posted by jimbob4321

sorry I forgot to clarify.

I have had my playbook plugged in to the wall charger (that it came with) for over 24 - 48 hours and I have had the same result.

Moreover, I even tried to leave the playbook plugged in to my laptop (and desktop manager) for a similar amount of time.

Sadly, I havent had any luck with either methods.


I just assumed I was SIL and thus, didnt bother contacting RIM. I guess, it cant hurt contacting them to see what they can / cannot do.

Thanks for the help peeps

What's your battery status saying? When you charged it for 24-48 hours was the unit on or in standby mode? Did you try any hard resets to see if it changed your battery charging status or showed any green blinking lights when turned off?

Originally Posted by crazeee4u

do you have a blackberry? maybe your charger is broken. That's what happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Test it out on your phone and see if it charges it. I just used my phone charger for my PB for almost 2 days, never touching it or anything, just left it as is and it turned on.

Fyi... You can also charge any other phones or devices with the Playbook charger. Same voltage but more amps.

If i'm not mistaken, the battery status on the playbook has 4 states:
Yellow lightning bolt over battery icon = fast recharge
Blue bolt = slow recharge
White plug = keeping it alive (no recharge)
Nothing = loosing charge

Originally Posted by crazeee4u

do you have a blackberry? maybe your charger is broken. That's what happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Test it out on your phone and see if it charges it. I just used my phone charger for my PB for almost 2 days, never touching it or anything, just left it as is and it turned on.

There does not seem to be a problem with the charger. I have been using it to charge my phone and its been working properly.

Originally Posted by lynxs_claw

What's your battery status saying? When you charged it for 24-48 hours was the unit on or in standby mode? Did you try any hard resets to see if it changed your battery charging status or showed any green blinking lights when turned off?

The battery status, when the playbook actually boots up, shows a few different things. It will show it as charging (with the bolt symbol) and on a few occasions it has reached full charge after being left plugged in for over 48 hours. However, the moment I pull out the charger the playbook just dies.

At times, while its plugged in it also shows the battery indicator shows the 'two prongs', indicating that its not getting enough power from the socket to charge. This is odd, as i only have it plugged in via the BB charger for playbook.

Lastly, the battery indicator, at times, would be red and show that the battery does not have enough juice. I would have to leave it plugged in for about 48 hours for it to be anywhere close to even 50 % 'charged'. However, the moment i would remove the cable the PB would die.

One thing i did forget to mention was that after I had completely wiped off the PB, it took me over 48 hours to set it up. I was at the set up screen and but the setup would not progress as i got an error message indicating that the battery is very low. This was after it was plugged in for a long time. It ended up taking me a few days to complete the initial setup.