[IBangU]

I've seen this on old threads but with no real solution :

My Blackberry playbook battery is stuck on 0% and won't charge at all. I've left it charging for ages in wall socket but to no avail, the icon shows that it is charging but it never gets above 0%.

It was fine until very recently. I did update my Blackberry desktop manager to version 7 recently, I don't know if that could have caused a problem.

I have tried all the things suggested on here - turning it off and on several times, doing a "stack charge" of plugging and uplugging periodically but nothing seems to help.

I don't want to reload the operating system as I read that you need 20% battery to do that.

Has anyone got any solution to this problem? Help!

[jafobabe]

If you have tried all those solutions and it didn't work, you may have a corrupt USB port.. Take a close look at the port in the middle. You might have connected the cable upside down at one point.

If so you will have to call RIM Support.

[JTATL]

I had the same problem because i let it run down to zero on a trip; do a hard reset and then leave it charged. It may also be the usb charger is a slow charger. Try getting a hold of a rapid charger it charges several times faster and should charge your pb.

[PTZ]

Call RIM. They are extremely helpful and you can get back to enjoying it quicker. I have only good things to say in regards to their warranty service. I appreciate the company more because of their service toward me.

[Ben1232]

Once my PB was different from yours OP. It wouldn't turn on.

I charged it about 30 times to get some charge in it:

Plug in the wall charger until the red light comes on>unplug when it goes off>plug in again until the red light goes off. (Apparently it charges whilst the light is red). When there is a slow pulsing yellow LED its charging. At this point I put mine on my rapid charging dock to fully charge but a wall charger will, of course do.

*i know this is very similar to stack charging (seems just the amount of time left on and off charge is the difference).

Good luck

[JTATL]

In reality never let you playbook run to zero if you aren't gonna use it for a while like a few days don't use standby just shut it off. Alot of people also think the lock screen is a standby also in my experience it still continues to discharge at a high rate in lock. It has the same problem as all blackberries when battery is completely depleted they become difficult to charge.

[thecellarseller]

I had the same problem. I sent it to RIM for repair. Got it back, works fine. Only difference I see is the power button seems to be a bit more raised than I remember. I think it was more recessed now it sticks up a bit more.
I didn't get a reply back from RIM as to the cause of the charging problem, weather it was me or a software issue. Call the 1800 number and they will help. (search for my username on bb support Site for my posts and problems I had. )

[Ben1232]

I had the same problem. I sent it to RIM for repair. Got it back, works fine. Only difference I see is the power button seems to be a bit more raised than I remember. I think it was more recessed now it sticks up a bit more.
I didn't get a reply back from RIM as to the cause of the charging problem, weather it was me or a software issue. Call the 1800 number and they will help. (search for my username on bb support Site for my posts and problems I had. )

We don't know where the OP is so....

BlackBerry� Customer Support Center
Austria:0800-297-476
Belgium:800-77-980
Bulgaria: 00800-118-1115
Denmark: 802-50198
France: 800-914-533
Germany: 800-181-6530
Italy: 800-789-272
Luxembourg: 800-2-2187
Netherlands: 800-022-7316
Norway: 00-1-647-426-7058
Poland: 00-800-112-43-59
Portugal: 800-827-760
Russia: 8-800-100-9643
South Africa: 0800988892
Spain: 900-866-969
Sweden: 02-079-4448
Switzerland: 0-800-802-492
United Kingdom: 08000962805

That should cover it

[FF22]

Ben, now you've really gone and compiled a list!

[IBangU]

Sorry, I'm in England. Should have mentioned that. Thanks a lot for all the suggestions especially Ben1232.

[Ben1232]

Ben, now you've really gone and compiled a list!

LOL I think I copy and pasted them from an email I received from RIM.

I kept it in my Blackberry memo's incase someone needed them

[Andrew4life]

I've never run into this problem before. I've run the battery down to 0% before, but I guess I've never left at 0% for more than a day. I use it on a daily basis so it's never stayed at 0% for long.

Usually when it's dead and won't power on, I just leave it in the charging dock and it charges fine.

[erhan8]

I've seen this on old threads but with no real solution :

My Blackberry playbook battery is stuck on 0% and won't charge at all. I've left it charging for ages in wall socket but to no avail, the icon shows that it is charging but it never gets above 0%.

It was fine until very recently. I did update my Blackberry desktop manager to version 7 recently, I don't know if that could have caused a problem.

I have tried all the things suggested on here - turning it off and on several times, doing a "stack charge" of plugging and uplugging periodically but nothing seems to help.

I don't want to reload the operating system as I read that you need 20% battery to do that.

Has anyone got any solution to this problem? Help!

I've encountered this issue a few times recently. Turn off the PlayBook and charge it for 12-24 hrs. until the green led is lit solid. Unplug and push the power button, it should boot up and be close to full charge. I had to do this yesterday for some reason.

[Mikey_T]

Well I've got a similar problem, but my battery went dead overnight while it was on the rapid charging stand!

I took it off, put it back on, etc. Every time I put it on the stand I get the red light briefly, then 5 green flashes, then dead. I have tried 2 different rapid charging stands as well as a regular USB wall charger; nothing seemed to charge.

I just tried the rapid off-and-on the charger method (stage charging?) and now have a slow pulsing green light which I assume means it's beginning to charge (fingers crossed); but why would it have gone dead in the first place while sitting on the charger?

[FF22]

If the pb is not fully seated on the stand you can get what I call a FALSE lightning bolt. It will not charge.

Read the knowledge base article mentioned in this treatise on Stack Charging:

I was told about "stack" charging, 6 cycles of charge no charge, for 2 minutes each, charging for never more than 2 minutes.


Plug the PB in with the factory charging cable (red light comes on for a several seconds, then goes off). Wait about 10 more seconds. Unplug PB for about 30 seconds.

Repeat n times.

n == 6 for me. Finally my PB light switched to green, then began to oscillate, signalling charging. After a few more minutes my PB came back to life.

You might want to UNplug/Replug at the wall/socket end to avoid using or damaging the weaker usb port on the pb itself.


Just talked to tech support, because i'm impatient sometimes. Here is the initial process they gave me to try.

Plug in the charger for 2 mins, unplug for 10 sec -> Repeat 6 to 8 times

Then while unplugged perform the Hard reset (POWER, VOL + and - at the same time) . **When the red light comes on PLUG IN THE CHARGER**

The playbook is supposed to then start charging/boot.
...........................

Some have now found a shorter sequence works:

Oh man I fixed it. I stack charged it! But not for 2 minutes.

Every time my PB red signal goes off I removed the connection from the wall charger and placed it back within a second. I repeated it for almost 25-30 times and all in the sudden a big charger button showed up on the screen and a green light on the charging LED. I left th e power connection for 2 more hrs and started using it.
................
And another posting that might help....

There are a few solutions and some are mentioned above. SO try the things I am mentioning below.... Let me know if it works .

Problem Scenario: 1. Blackberry wont boot or turn on, on pressing the power button, the red light stays for a few seconds and does not turn on 2. Sometimes you will see the red light followed by a green/ yellow light that blinks 5 times and does not turn on.

Reason: The main reason why both of the above things happen is because the battery is completely drained out, you could call it " Flat out". The problem with playbook is that the playbook wont charge if the playbook is Flat out drained. whereas other tablets or cellphones does....Playbook has to fix that issue. Meanwhile we do have a solution to go around that problem and that requires some patience. Some of the solutions mentioned in the previous comments indicate to charge it via computer.... "It doesn`t work" not if the battery is drained out flat.... so dont even bother trying it if u see the above mentioned problem.

Solution: try this step by step and this are 3 different solutions so one of this would definitely work. 1. Press the Power button and you will see the Playbook Logo ( chances for this are low ) 2. Press the power button and the volume together, if there is 1 % charge left there is a chance that it would boot on, when you see the logo, immediately charge the playbook ( chances are medium ) 3. This solution requires patience. plug the charger into the socket and plug the USB into the playbook, the red light stays for 8-10 secs. Remove the USb from the playbook wait for 2 to 5 sec and replug the usb back to the charger and wait till that red light comes and goes again. repeat this step atleast 20-30 times. you might be asking why? the only power that the playbook gets is when that red light is on when plugging the usb into the playbook, once that light goes the playbook is not charging.. so what you are doing here is forcing the playbook to get charged for 8 sec every time u plug it to the playbook....this way the playbook gets that power needed to boot. Once the Playbook has that power to boot. The red light stays and changes to green but this time it blinks slowly and keeps blinking. you would also see the playbook logo return.... this green light keeps blinking until there is enough charge for the playbook to stand on its own and then changes to a solid red until it gets fully charged.

Knowledge Base Article

KB27705-BlackBerry PlayBook Power - Battery charge and discharge characteristics

[Mikey_T]

Yeah mine is working now after a few rounds of stack charging; no reset necessary.

[jpash549]

All these my PB wont charge problems! Anybody ever try using an auxiliary backup battery? A two amp backup is available for as low as about $35. Of course you have to have a functional mini USB port.

[Mikey_T]

Ok - woke up to the same problem today.

PB was on the rapid charger last night, lightning bolt, 100% charge, no problem.

Wake up this morning and PB is dead; no charge. Had to do 4 rounds of stack charging again before it would begin sucking juice on it's own.

WTF?

[FF22]

Ok - woke up to the same problem today.

PB was on the rapid charger last night, lightning bolt, 100% charge, no problem.

Wake up this morning and PB is dead; no charge. Had to do 4 rounds of stack charging again before it would begin sucking juice on it's own.

WTF?

Did you make any changes to email collection (manual sync has caused problems with native email).

Install any new apps?

Any background tasks left running or closed down? How are you tracking power level? Battery Guru, other?

It was FULLY charged to 100% and plunge overnight?

Sounds like defect if nothing else was running or changed.

[Mikey_T]

Antair nightstand (flip clock) was running, but this is not unusual; it pretty much always is when I have it on the stand.

No other significant changes other than updating Blaq a few days ago.

[fabio984]

my playbook died and i recovered but when i was doing it, on the USB, showed up an update, and i did the update and now its stucked, doesnt charge untill gets 20% of battery, and doesnt install the OS untill is charged! WTF?

[fabio984]

my playbook died and i recovered but when i was doing it, on the USB, showed up an update, and i did the update and now its stucked, doesnt charge untill gets 20% of battery, and doesnt install the OS untill is charged! WTF?

Got a cousin playbook with same problem now!
Doesnt turn ON and I did the "plug/unplug" thing and he turns ON but shows 0% battery, saying that will continue the setup when gets 20% battery, but doesnt charge!!??
I turned off and on, and pressed power button 2 seconds appeared the shutdown menu, "restart" and nothing...

[Jibran Khan1]

same problem, put charger in and press power button, red light for about 10 secs the yellow light with battery symbol and lighting bolt, after some time turns on at 0& help me please much appreciated!

[Dieter Herdes]

I had the same problem and bought the rapid charger, battery went to charged right away, but after the next restart went back to showing empty. Playbook is working fine, but always shoeing an empty battery. Its been for weeks like that and I am unable to find a solution.
Dieter

[Gearheadaddy]

same problem, put charger in and press power button, red light for about 10 secs the yellow light with battery symbol and lighting bolt, after some time turns on at 0& help me please much appreciated!

Don't push power button. Plug in and leave it alone for a few hours.

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