[blackburberry]

Hey Mark, Welcome to CB. I think a few of us here have had this kind of thing happen with our PB's at one time or another and it's easily fixed as you see. Glad it's working for you now.

As an aside I read an article somewhere that cheap power bars can also diminish the power going to your computer device (phone, tablet, whatever) resulting in an insufficient charge. The take away from the article is always plug your charger in a unshared receptacle. Can't remember the source of the article though.

[annon91221]

I have had similar issue with a few playbooks from other friends and mine as well. The fix for me that works and you never have this issue again is to kina like debrick it. When it is out of charge, connect to the pc, start DM and press the power button. DM will ask you that the device is recovery mode, so you press update. It will download updates that sometimes take a while to download and will install. Once done, you're golden.

I think the battery drivers on earlier ones must have had issues, so when you download updates from pc it also downloads and loads new battery drivers. Can't say for sure though....but it fixes the problem for good and i think thats what matters...

[DC506]

I have a Bold 9900 so the PB is icing on my crackcake.....


Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

Correction: Welcome to the Playbook forum

[Chaddface]

I have drained the battery until auto shut-down 15-20 times between my two PB's and never had an issue recharging. Some of RIM's support articles recommend drain and recharge.

[Gooseberry Falls]

Wow.
Some battery life comparisons from a PlayBook review at release 2 Aprils ago. Same test conditions for each tablet:
RIM BlackBerry PlayBook 7:01
Apple iPad 2 10:26
Apple iPad 9:33
Motorola Xoom 8:20

If you need to charge at 30% to feel comfortable that you won't brick your PlayBook,

*you are accepting 5 hour battery life*!

Also, feeling the need (you are not alone here) to do stuff like switching to airplane mode every night or powering down every night just to reduce the chances of waking up to a dead device is comical.

I understand your concern and reasons since this forum is littered with threads abut dead PlayBooks after complete discharges. As you state above, "Yeah, all sorts of issues when PB gets to 0%". The question I have is why you and many others are willing to meekly accept this? I have never heard of another tablet with this problem. This is an incredible design defect. The main player in the tablet space actually recommends a complete discharge every month to calibrate the display of battery life. 10.5 hours of battery life means you can use it for 10.5 hours. A doubling of usable time is a *huge* advantage.

Another factor unique to the PlayBook is the age of the stock. RIM had a lot of these manufactured in the first months of availability. Sales never came close to RIM projections. Reasonable estimates are that PlayBook production shut down late last summer or early last fall. Lots of threads from last year on this. It is highly likely that any available units have been sitting in storage for at least a year. Lithium Ion batteries deteriorate from the time of manufacture whether they are used or not. The initial test run times would undoubtably be lower for "new" PlayBooks now. Popular devices are sold quickly after manufacture, avoiding this storage degradation problem.

As most will say here, you can't compare a 7" tablet with a 10" tablet just due to battery size. Yes, I have the Xoom. I can work tons more time on it than the PB. I am willing to accept whatever I get from the PB 'cuz I like its portability. I don't like to mess with potential debricking , wiping, and LED blinks of death, though. I am thankful to be here and be alerted to these issues. Have I got in the "red zone" before? Sure and I was concerned. I think alot of people think it is "comical" that you can't just plug it in when discharged and it charges correctly. RIM must have a reason for it but I don't know. I don't normally use airplane mode or turn it off unless I have to. It was just posed as a test to see whether the OP needed to go the return path or not. Not sure why you are so bent out of shape about this.

[Chaddface]

Lucky you. So, what do you think about the OP's experience? He said: “Are you serious? It showed a full charge last night before I turned it off and put it away. Should I take it back and ask for another unit? Or will that one do the same? Frustration level rising!”

Situation is dead in the morning after a 100% charge the night before. Unable to recharge:
-Defective unit to be returned?
-Initial use gremlins. Should be fine to completely discharge now?
-Avoid complete discharge at all costs?
-Try to avoid complete discharge but don't stress about it. If it happens, it will be OK?

Breaking news:
http://forums.crackberry.com/showthread.php?t=748878
"I know this is the hundredth post and maybe someone out there has a better solution that I have not tried."

Perhaps you can offer some advice over there.

From what I can tell, the OP was able to recharge after the PB shutdown.

[Hgouck]

OP, welcome to Crackberry and I am glad you were able to work through the problem with the help of experienced users. A lot of times when working through a problem the solution and help is there when there is enough info given. Sometimes it comes down to faulty equipment and other times user error. The user error was not using the proper charger. And with that error the PB discharged to the point that it became more complicated to fix the problem. We are dealing with electronics and with each device comes a new experiences and a new set of challenges to over come.
The playbook is a great device and I believe you made a smart decision to buy it and another smart decision to come to crackberry to find answers to your challenge.

[jpash549]

Use Battery Guru available in app world ($1.99) to manage your battery usage and check your charger operation.. Use Advanced Application Manager ,free, to check for apps running stealthily in the background and "kill" them. When you shut down at night go into standby and after a couple of minutes check Battery Guru to see that your power usage is less than 0.1 watts. Go into airplane mode if you are having trouble with a mail or other site making too many nightly calls on the system.

[dugggggg]

OP's situation was a rare shutdown glitch exacerbated by not using the correct charger. It is unusual behavior, so therefore not expected. Is it acceptable behavior? Well, if I immediately demanded my money back from every piece of technology that ever experienced a glitch at some point, I'd have a lot more money in my wallet---and a lot less technology in my home. I think I'd rather have the tech, warts and all. The PB is a terrific bargain at these price levels.

[cbvinh]

Actually, if *you* had bothered to read the thread you would have realized that the *first* problem was that he had a fully charged PlayBook in the evening. He turned it off and it was dead in the morning. Are you saying this is an expected and acceptable behavior?
Post #*3*
OP:"Are you serious? It showed a full charge last night before I turned it off and put it away."

I did read through the whole thread. He had a "fully charged" PlayBook out of the box? Plugged it in with a standard phone charger. Updated the OS and played with it some before turning it off for the evening. There's no way it was fully charged when he turned it off. The OS update and playing with it would have drained a good amount of the battery and the phone charger wouldn't have been able to charge the PlayBook.

[cbvinh]

OP:"Are you serious? It showed a full charge last night before I turned it off and put it away."

Once more slowly: IT SHOWED A FULL CHARGE LAST NIGHT BEFORE I TURNED IT OFF

Are you implying that the OP cannot look at the little battery icon and tell if it is fully charged? Pretty simple for most.
Why don't you PM him and tell him your opinion?

Given the events he described - PlayBook fresh out of the box, updating the OS, playing with it, using a phone charger - how do you explain the massive battery drain overnight? My two PlayBooks certainly don't do that. Does yours?

Regardless, I'm happy for the OP.

[mark1914]

Wow. I step away and all the anger insues. The PB is working fine now. I charged it to 100 percent. That was at 10am and now its only down to 90 percent after being put on standby around 3pm today. I played around with the bridge then put it in Stanby. All works well. I thin the charging issue was my fault.

[jpash549]

Glad things are working out- now you can start to enjoy.

[robsteve]

Wow. I step away and all the anger insues. The PB is working fine now. I charged it to 100 percent. That was at 10am and now its only down to 90 percent after being put on standby around 3pm today. I played around with the bridge then put it in Stanby. All works well. I thin the charging issue was my fault.

Trying to charge the PlayBook with a phone charger or PC USB port was a common mistake and there were plenty of similar posts when the PlayBook first came out.

[mark1914]

Yeah. My bad. I can't figure out how to get those android apps on my pb.

[jpash549]

A lot of Android apps are already in the BB app store. They aren't identified as such but after you down load you can usually tell. For example Ghost Commander is a great file manager and Appy Geek is good for tech news.Easier to get from the app store.but if you are going to "side load" review procedures before you start.
And probably redundantly be careful how you insert the USB charger because many have damaged the port by inserting it wrong side up. If you can get a rapid travel charger which uses the magnetic port.

[baolam86]

Glad you managed to bring it back to live. You can download DDPB installer to side load those android bar file you need. There should b thread about it

[Dapper37]

Kudos to all the CBers that came out to assist Mark. Welcome to CB Mark, I know you will enjoy the PB.
I was enjoying reading this post seeing all the helpfully CBers helping the OP. This was what attracted me to this forum in the first place and it's good to see its still alive. I was at Page 3 thinking we might have the first troll free post I can remember forever. Oh well it was still good to see the PB love and help.

[robsteve]

What happened was, when you thought you shut it down, the screen went dark---but it didn't shut down completely. It went into an infinite "shutdown loop", which happens rarely, usually only after an update. Then you hooked the wrong charger to it, which didn't provide enough current, so the battery was eventually depleted.

The shutdown loop is a software thing, so no need to return your PlayBook. There are two ways to tell if your PlayBook has gone into a shutdown loop: After waiting a couple of minutes, 1. Briefly press the - and + volume buttons at the same time. If it makes the "camera shutter" sound, it is looping. 2. Look at the screen in a darkened room with no charger connected. If it is glowing dimly, it is looping. In either case, the simple fix is to press AND HOLD the power button (the real button) for ten seconds.

Coincidentally, this happened to my wife's PlayBook this afternoon. Pressing and holding the power button until restart,standby,reboot menu came up allowed me to choose reboot. I have never seen it happen on mine, but my son has seen it on his. I think some app, may cause it to get into this state. In the case of my Wife's, Kobo was the last app she ran.

[Balti43]

hold down the power button for 30 seconds. wait couple minutes and reboot it. happened to me couple days after i bought mine. did this and it hasn't occurred since. i dont recommend using a phone charger to charge the playbook. stick to the one it came with, after all there is a reason it came with that one. good luck and hope you stick around with the playbook. it really is a fantastic device.

[Wasp14]

The first couple of nights I owned my Playbook the battery was draining quite a bit because I wasn't turning off the Wi-Fi before putting it in standby. Using the charger that came with the Playbook (or the magnetic rapid charger) is the way to go to make sure it's getting the proper voltage.

[mark1914]

Woke up this morning and even on Standby with wifi still on my pb was only down to 77 percent. I went to bed with it at 85 percent. Score! Question about the Bridge. It needs the bluetooth and wifi on to work?

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[Chaddface]

Glad it's working Mark. Bridge only needs bluetooth to work. It may a bit faster with wifi on if your on the same wifi network as the phone. It's something new with this last upgrade.

[mark1914]

Glad it's working Mark. Bridge only needs bluetooth to work. It may a bit faster with wifi on if your on the same wifi network as the phone. It's something new with this last upgrade.

hmm When went to work and tried the Bridge app it said I needed a tethering plan. That was with wifi off on both units. With it on it worked.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[Chaddface]

You're using AT&T I assume. You will need to delete the bridge app from the phone, restart the phone and install the bridge app from the sticky thread at the top of the forum. Visit the thread from the browser on the phone and download the version that matches your phone OS.
AT&T is the only carrier blocking Internet traffic on the Bridge app.

Follow this link with your phone browser:
http://rroyy.com/bridge/index2.php