[smotanka]

I have a new playbook which is fantastic but the thing shuts down without warning with about 10-15% left on the battery and when fully charged only goes to 99%
Is this common or could I have a faulty one?

[kill_9]

I recommend purchasing the Battery Guru application and running it through a few charge-discharge cycles to gather information which might aid in troubleshooting the issue. In the meantime, if then tablet shuts down prematurely, try restarting the tablet. If the problem persists, contact BlackBerry PlayBook Support.

[smotanka]

I recommend purchasing the Battery Guru application and running it through a few charge-discharge cycles to gather information which might aid in troubleshooting the issue. In the meantime, if then tablet shuts down prematurely, try restarting the tablet. If the problem persists, contact BlackBerry PlayBook Support.

Thanks
I have downloaded the app, what should I be looking for?

[stberry]

perform a security wipe....It shouldn't happen again....if it does...contact bb support

[Chaddface]

I believe the RIM suggested method of calibrating the battery meter is to drain until auto shut off then charge until you see the plug symbol. You may have to do it a few times.


When new my playbook would show the plug symbol at 99 and run for a while at 0. Over time it corrected itself. I wouldn't be too concerned just yet. Try the discharge and charge cycle to see if it helps.

[kill_9]

Thanks
I have downloaded the app, what should I be looking for?

You collect the log files and you can submit them to the developer for review. In the meantime, when the tablet power level nears 15% shut off WiFi and Bluetooth which should allow the battery to drain further. A problem with the battery is calibration so the 15% you are seeing might really be 1%. So, you will have the repeat the charge-discharge sequence several times before the battery seems to calibrate correctly. I have experienced the same issue with 3 of my BlackBerry PlayBooks and each was resolved through repeated charge-discharge cycles. There should not be any need to perform a security wipe and software re-installation suggested by someone else.

[cajualaddict]

Doesn't Really mean much.... I have one that should off at 0 and another that 15% just like yours. It is just a calibration thing and never accurate anyways. Use the battery guru, it is exact.

[smotanka]

Just this min turned it self off, should I charge while it's off or turn it back on and charge?

[peter9477]

Just this min turned it self off, should I charge while it's off or turn it back on and charge?

smotanka, even if it's off when you plug it in, it turns itself on before it really charges. You won't notice this immediately because the screen stays off the whole time.

In the end, that means it basically doesn't matter whether you turn it on or not... unless you're actively using it and don't have a rapid charger, it will take the same time whether it was off or on when you plugged it in.

[smotanka]

Today was the first charge which got to 100% and I actually got a warning at 9% that the battery was low. It turned itself off on 8% but much better.

[smotanka]

It done the usual last night, turned off at 15% without warning. Should I take it back or keep going the the cycle?

[peter9477]

Hard to say what you should do. I know of at least one fellow whose PlayBook has always shut down around 13%, even now after >100 recharge cycles and various experiments I had him run through.

On the other hand, in many cases it does eventually adjust itself, especially if you can run it repeatedly through the full range, i.e. discharging until it shuts itself off, and charging fully which means until it actually stops charging and not simply until you see 100% in the readout.

I also suspect one can improve things a bit by not actually having it using a lot of power when it's down at the point it's about to shut off. What I'd suggest you try, if you're desperate to resolve this, is when it's around 15%, leave Battery Guru running and onscreen, with the Keep Awake feature enabled, turn off WiFi and other such things, no other apps running, and screen brightness down to the minimum. Just leave it sitting.

The reason this may help is that it sort of "brings it down gently", so to speak, approaching the minimum voltage more slowly and with fewer variations in power consumption, and a lower consumption (should be around 1.5W?). If you're actively using it, you'll be consuming more like 2.5-3W or higher, and fluctuations in the power consumption may trigger it to shut down sooner than it otherwise would. It doesn't just "run out of power"... it actually monitors the voltage and when it thinks it's reached a minimum acceptable level (about 3.4V?) for a short period, it calls it quits. Large swings in power consumption when it's near that point can basically trick it, in theory, into thinking it's gone far enough.

Note that whether the above actually helps is unproven... there's too little feedback from anyone on this to say yet.

Lastly, you may not have realized but it's very likely what you're seeing is purely cosmetic, so to speak, and not an actual problem. That is, your device may claim to swing only between 15% and 100%, but it may still be giving the same battery life as anyone else's. You could run a drain test and compare your results with the rest of us to see whether this is true. If it is true, you could choose to simply live with it, and get used to knowing that 15% is basically your 0%, but that your device will appear to drop more slowly than ours do, when you measure it as percent lost per unit time. Up to you...

[sllock]

So... It's a battery issue. Just so happened that I got my new 64gb on the same day as 201 668 came out and have always thought it was a bug related to this. I have just been plugging it in when the battery indicator is no longer green.

I will get the app and see if it fixes things for me. Thanks.

[smotanka]

Still having issues with this, should I take it back?
I have battery guru but it says the battery is at the same level as it does in settings.

[peter9477]

I don't think anyone has suggested the app will show a different level than the settings shows... that's not the point. It also won't "fix things" for anyone, so please don't complain if you buy it and it doesn't magically fix something that you expected it to (that's for sllock's comment above).

Did you read my lengthy post just above? I gave some information and suggestions... without seeing a response to any of that, I don't think I have further comments, sorry.

[smotanka]

sorry Peter
I thought I actually wrote more on my last post.

I have turned eveything off when it has got to about 16% and left it run and it got to about 8%
I also tried it with a movie playing but with screen brighness down and wifi turned off and that also got down to about 8%, at least I got the low battery warning.

It's worse when wifi is turned on and surfing the net, the battery was about 17% the other day and It just shut off while surfing the net.

[peter9477]

smotanka, I didn't see any answer to the question of recharge counts. What does Battery Guru show for that?

There's a hope, if the value is still low, like maybe under 40, that over time this problem will just cure itself. The chances of that happening are possibly improved if you can do the full discharge (trying to get it to 8% or lower) a few times, but I'm speculating.

I know of only two other people for whom this problem never resolved itself...

Also, if you check my long post again, you'll see a comment about how this may be purely cosmetic, and doesn't necessarily (or even likely) represent a real reduction in capacity. Can you do the drain test and report on the actual numbers (average power, from the CSV export or from 2-3 quick checks during the drain, plus an accurate measure of the duration of the test)? That would tell you whether your battery actually had the same capacity ours do, but merely reports the level incorrectly.

There's also nothing stopping you from contacting RIM and asking if they'll issue an RMA to let you return it to have this resolved. Personally I wouldn't bother unless I'd (a) waited past 30-40 recharges, and (b) measured with the drain test and concluded it really has a lower capacity.