[Dave Bourque]

So as the title clearly says I got a problem. But I've read around the net that if I buy myself a playbook rapid charger (3-point magnet) I can resuscitate the battery. But I noticed that the micro usb cable doesn't fit very well in the usb port. Almost seems like the port is damaged or is it a design flaw? Any tips?

[DurdenLunarius]

Could be a design flaw or could be the USB port is damaged itself. I've come across a few friends whose PB's USB ports no longer work. Rapid Charger is the solution, since it's magnetic, but you will probably need to check around for how to do 'stack charging' to revive the battery. Don't know how it works myself, but I've heard several venerable PB experts talk about doing it to fix their battery woes.

Best of luck!

[martinbowden]

My USB port was like this so I lightly bent metal surround in a little to tighten up and know works fine.I bent mine till it was really tight before I started wouldn't charge at all

Cheers

Martin

[Chaddface]

Does it wiggle excessively in the port or not go in far enough? The wiggle is probably just because you're using a micro B cable in a micro AB port. Mine has always done it but charges fine.
If it seems like it's not going in far enough take a close look at the port. That flat plastic piece with the contacts should be closer to the bottom(back of PB) of the port. When the cable is plugged in upside down it can force that tab out of position.

[OceanSpray_Cranberry]

If it is that new, consider sending it in for warranty. Or exercise the 90 day support option:
PlayBook Support - Contact Support - US

[Carl Estes]

Did you get the ORIGINAL charger that comes with the PB? If so, you might try to "stack charge" it first, I've read here in the forums that a couple of folks had this issue
and it was suggested to stack charge. I believe you plug it in for ten minutes, unplug, wait ten minutes, plug back in for ten minutes, unplug for ten minutes etc. etc. etc.
I think you do this maybe 5/6 times and then you should see the little read light of life appear. Then just leave it plugged in overnite, and it should be revived ( you can search for details on stack charging somewhere in here). WITH the caveat that the original charger is working. The Magnetic rapid charger IS another route to getting juice ONLY into the PB. No data work.

Hopefully the USB port is not damaged and all will be fine. I've had my first 64 since launch and never had any issue. Yes it does "wiggle" a slight amount side to side, but never any issue. I do make sure I don't play ANY games with it plugged in as one may forget about it and knock it around while plugged in and I think that this is where most of the damage to this port comes from.

I also put a little dab of "Fire Engine Red" fingernail polish on the "upside" of the charger connector to id which side goes up. As stated earlier, one might be forcing it in upside down. I have done this to all of my 9850 chargers and PB chargers. Once you do this, you should not have the inverted plug in syndrome again.

You might be able to borrow a rapid charger from someone to help verify if the usb port is damaged and PB does take charge normally albeit the mag contacts.

I hope this helps and you get your PB up and running!!!

C

[Dave Bourque]

Does it wiggle excessively in the port or not go in far enough? The wiggle is probably just because you're using a micro B cable in a micro AB port. Mine has always done it but charges fine.
If it seems like it's not going in far enough take a close look at the port. That flat plastic piece with the contacts should be closer to the bottom(back of PB) of the port. When the cable is plugged in upside down it can force that tab out of position.

Doesn't seem to go in far enough.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

[Cynycl]

Doesn't seem to go in far enough.

Sounds like my ex-wife and there is no fixing that. Better get a replacement.

[Dave Bourque]

Bought it off eBay from http://payments.mobileweb.ebay.ca/se...d=its_electric
The thing that pisses me off is that if I want to return it and get a replacement , I gota pay the shipping fee for THEIR mistake(the retailer not bb)

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

[Carl Estes]

Bought it off eBay from http://payments.mobileweb.ebay.ca/se...d=its_electric
The thing that pisses me off is that if I want to return it and get a replacement , I gota pay the shipping fee for THEIR mistake(the retailer not bb)

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

That's why I always use American Express for online purchases. If it's not your fault, the shipper sent something defective/substandard, Am Ex 99.9% of the time will reverse

the charges usually within 2/3 days after contacting shipper, and give them a chance to make it right (INCLUDING the shipping charges) and you will be made whole.

And with a working unit. I did this with Dell a while back on a 3000.00 dollar XPS system. Out of the box, the power connector was loose on the mother board
and you could hear it clicking inside when plugged in and you gave it a gentle wiggle and, guess what? They sent out a tech to replace the mother board, which was i guess ok, but I noticed on the box BEFORE the tech started to work on it the the motherboard replacement was a "Reconditioned" unit!!! On a BRAND new notebook, unacceptable. He and Dell tried to give me a sond/dance about it's the same quality. Not necessarily true. It means that it did not pass the test process the first time and had to be re-worked.

Made a call to Am Ex, they had it straight in 2 days, my account credited, and then I re-ordered another unit, and when I got my 2nd new unit, I then shipped back the first broken unit.

My story for what it is worth.

Good luck and keep us posted once you get a working unit.

C

[Dave Bourque]

Guess I'll need to check on that American express card. The majority of my shopping is online and from US retailers. I live in Canada and we pay a good 20%+ for most of the same products while our dollar is almost equal.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

[FF22]

Make sure you are plugging in the usb cable the correct way. The cable plug should be the NARROW portion UP (if flat on a table and the screen is UP). The plug can go in upsidedown and it will bend the connector inside the port. Is this a NEW pb or was it used? As noted, GENTLY try straightening the connector board if it is bent or slanted.

If the battery is totally flat, plug it in for a four or five hours and do NOT try turning it on.

As for Stack charging:

Locked, bricked Stack Charge Charging

More Mapsonburt:

Don't keep trying if you get the Red light/5 Yellows... you'll soon drag the battery down past where you can start it again. Leave it off, plug it in and let it charge (with at least a 1.8A charger). Once you get the flashing (once every few seconds) green light, you can power it up - on the charger. If you do drag it down below the red flash/5 yellows, plug it in for 1 minute, unplug (at the wall) for a second or so, plug it back in and repeat for 20-30 minutes. You'll eventually get the red/yellows and then leave it plugged in (and off) until you get the flashing green. It's a PITA but the PlayBook has a very conservative charging algorithm when the battery is below 2.67 Volts to prevent explosions (I'm guessing). I've never been unable to start one with that method.

Mapsonburt:


The PlayBook OS currently shuts down at 3.5 volts. When the battery gets below 2.67V it won't show power lights or even try to start because there isn't enough juice to even power the processor to run the code on the BIOS. The BIOS is software hard coded on a chip within the PlayBook that tells it how to load the PlayBook OS and is coded such that it only recognizes signed PlayBook boot images (which is why it is so hard to root and that nobody has been able to get one to boot Android or WebOS. The BIOS software also contains some charging algorithms for when the OS is not running - ie device is powered off but plugged into a charging source. This code ONLY runs when the battery is above 2.67 volts because the processor can't run below that.

The root of the problem is that this design issue prevents the device from accepting any charge longer than 60 seconds when the battery is too low to run the charging algorithms on the BIOS or on the OS (one runs before the device is powered on and one runs afterwards). RIM did this because Lithium Ion batteries have a nasty habit of catching fire if not charged properly so they wanted to ensure that the processor could be in control of the charging. Makes perfect sense and they probably thought they were avoiding situations like where early Li Ion batteries on laptops were catching on fire. The problem is they were a bit too aggressive in dealing with the problem at design stage. If the battery is below 2.67Volts their protective algorithms can't run but you also can't put enough charge into the battery to charge it! Hence all the reports of people having success with stack charging.

Unfortunately there are a lot of wrong ways to do this floating around out there and getting repeated everyone someone posts a new thread on the issue. It really should be made a sticky. What is the right way?

1) ONLY use a source that provides 1.7Amps or more of charge. The original charger provides this. The rapid chargers provide a lot more. Your phone charger only provides a fraction of this. Anything less is going to take forever to charge the battery above 2.67 volts and may not have enough juice to charge the battery AT ALL once the processor starts to run above 2.67Volts or even worse once the OS starts to run above 3.5Volts. Forget about using your computer to charge it when the OS isn't running as the computer looks for the hardware to identify itself and won't put out a full charge current unless the device indicates it can accept. Once the OS is running, you'd often CAN get enough power from the USB on the computer but that is because the OS has signaled it is OK for the computer to send it. When the OS/BIOS isn't running, the PlayBook won't take much/any charge from a computer. The rapid chargers are best as they quickly charge but more importantly do not use the (too) flimsy USB port. A lot of problems are caused by this port getting wobbly over time and the device not getting a charge at all. Everyone should have a rapid charger.

2) Until you get your device WELL above the 3.5Volts that let's the PlayBook boot, do NOT try to start it. Every attempt drags the battery down some more and that attempt sucks much more charge from the battery than you can put in in those 60 seconds before the hardware shuts down the charging. How can you tell where your battery is? Well if you are getting no lights on the playbook on your first charging attempt you are below 2.67volts. If lights go on and then it doesn't start the OS it is below 3.5Volts. If it loads the OS and then dies it is just above 3.5Volts. If the device loads the OS it is somewhere below 5.0Volts. Depending upon where you start (how low the battery is) various techniques work best. They are: REAL stack charging (plug in for 60 seconds, unplug, plug in for 60 seconds, repeat until the processor starts accepting charging (the big battery symbol on the screen). Again, DO NOT try to turn the device on until then. You are just working against yourself and it will take much longer. You should get the charging symbol within 20-45 minutes of repeated REAL stack charging. Forget you ever heard of plugging in for 2 mins and then off for 2 mins and similar as those 2 mins of off time are COMPLETELY worthless. I have put a multimeter on the PlayBook in this state and it NEVER takes more than a minute of charge when under 2.67volts but will accept another minute of charge after a short (1-2 second) disconnection. Just do it right.

3) Once you see that charging screen leave it plugged in to the charger (stop stack charging) for at least an hour before you try to start the PlayBook. If you don't you may end up in a situation where the attempt to start drags that battery back down below 2.67V and you have start stack charging again. Be patient, you are almost there!

4) Fully charge your Playbook after this to ensure your PlayBook gets back to 100%.

Unfortunately, there isn't a lot RIM can do about this now. It's a hardware design issue. I'd be interested in knowing if the fixed it with the 4G versions. I don't think I've ever seen that complaint with one of those but I've "fixed" both of mine a few times (the kids keep trying to power them on after letting them shut down on low battery despite me saying time RUN not walk and put it on a rapid charger when ever it hits the flashing red battery signal (9%). I've also helped many friends and people on the web and NOBODY who has followed the instructions has failed to get their PlayBook to charge.

I'm convinced this fault is the reason so many PlayBooks are returned to the stores and through RMA. RIM has been very good about this but it should never have happened. Happy Charging!


........................
The battery is likely below 2.65 volts. That happens if the PlayBook has sat for a while. Plug your charger into the playbook (make sure it's the stock charger and not a computer or other charger as you need to pump in lots of amps - more than 1.7amps - the more the better). The rapid charger is even better as it can go to 5 amps.

LEAVE the charger plugged into your PlayBook. Unplug it from the wall (to save the fragile micro-USB port) every minute for a few seconds and plug back in. You'll see lots of references on the web to plug in for 2 minutes and unplug for 2 minutes. Ignore those. I took the PlayBook apart and put a multimeter on mine when it was doing this. If the battery is below 2.65 volts, the PlayBook charging circuit charges for about 1 minute and then shuts down. NO AMOUNT of continued charging makes any difference. As soon as you unplug it (at the wall) and power it back up, it will take charge again for another 45-60 seconds. Repeat.

Keep doing that for as long as it takes to get the screen to show the charging display. If it is just below 2.65volts, it will take somewhere between 20-45 minutes as the battery only takes a little bit of charge each cycle and you need to get that voltage up over 2.65 volts (at which point it will show the charging display and take a full charge). It may take more... but keep at it. Every time you plug it in for 60 seconds, you are adding a bit more power to the battery.

DO NOT try to power the device on until the device has a full charge. You will just risk getting it into a situation where it can't fully boot before it drags the charge down below 2.65 volts again and you'll have to start all over.

This works... and saves you from having to jump start it like I did the first time I got mine into this situation.

----------------------

KB27705-BlackBerry PlayBook battery power charge, discharge characteristics, and guidance on extending battery life

[Dave Bourque]

It's supposed to refurbished so it kinda looks new.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

[Dave Bourque]

I think I'll just wait for the rapid charger to arrive before I test the usb port again.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

[bambinoitaliano]

So as the title clearly says I got a problem. But I've read around the net that if I buy myself a playbook rapid charger (3-point magnet) I can resuscitate the battery. But I noticed that the micro usb cable doesn't fit very well in the usb port. Almost seems like the port is damaged or is it a design flaw? Any tips?

If you buy yours recently, might as well call up BB customer service to get it replace.

[jpash549]

If you buy yours recently, might as well call up BB customer service to get it replace.

Get a good light and look into the port and see if it looks OK and clean. Agree that the Rapid Charger preferably the Rapid Travel Charger rather than the Dock is a much better way to charge. The dock is OK and preferred by some. There are threads on the what the micro USB port is supposed to look like by Chaddface as I recall but I am on my N7 and can't bring the reference up now.


Sent from my Nexus 7 using CB Forums mobile app

[Cynycl]

Get a good light and look into the port and see if it looks OK and clean.

Once again..... I refer to my earlier post

[Carl Estes]

Guess I'll need to check on that American express card. The majority of my shopping is online and from US retailers. I live in Canada and we pay a good 20%+ for most of the same products while our dollar is almost equal.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

Am Ex will always support you. Remember that TV commercial a number of years ago where this little tike "trys to play a peanut butter sandwich" in the family VCR? Even for that they will take care of you. But can't remember for the life of meI can't remember if it was VHS or a Beta sammich.............

c

[Dave Bourque]

Am Ex will always support you. Remember that TV commercial a number of years ago where this little tike "trys to play a peanut butter sandwich" in the family VCR? Even for that they will take care of you. But can't remember for the life of meI can't remember if it was VHS or a Beta sammich.............

c

If they were using VHS I was probably to young to remember lol.

Sent from my BB10 smartphone.

[Carl Estes]

If they were using VHS I was probably to young to remember lol.

Sent from my BB10 smartphone.

Ouch! I guess I deserved that one. Yes, I guess I dated myself......

C

[Dave Bourque]

Ouch! I guess I deserved that one. Yes, I guess I dated myself......

C

I remember watching disney movies and star wars 4-6 on VHS lol. Episode 1 came when i was about 8 lol.

[Angus_CB]

Dave, does the USB port work when you are connected to a computer?
Not charging but showing that it is connected?

The rapid chargers are great, get one anyway. Staples used to have them for $9.99.

[Dave Bourque]

Nope didn't work. But here are some pics.



Sent from my BB10 smartphone.

[FF22]

Can you shoot a picture of the usb port? How's the a very thin "board" (connector) that slips into the usb cable plug. It is very close to the bottom of the pb's usb port and can get BENT or slanted downward (or maybe upward) if the usb plug in accidentally inserted upsidedown (which is easy since the port is square and not trapezoidal). If so bent/slanted, the usb plug will not make appropriate contact.

[Dave Bourque]

Sent from my BB10 smartphone.