PDA battery discharge

Robin2 · Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 12:34 am Post subject: PDA battery discharge

Can anyone tell me how to minimise battery discharge? A couple of months ago I had to leave my PDA (iPAQ 2210) unattended for 4 weeks. When I returned the battery was flat and it had done a hard reset - I had to reinstall all my software and had lost the speed camera locations which I had entered into CheckPOInt. I am sure that I had checked there were no running programs before going away.
Since then I have loaded the HP ROM upgrade to v1.10. I believe there was a discharge problem which that upgrade is supposed to have fixed.
Any info/advice would be appreciated.
Robin

lbendlin · Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 12:39 am Post subject:

not much you can do - set yourself an alarm every two weeks to remind yourself that you need to rechange the iPAQ. Or - make a full system backup onto storage card and then just live with the fact that it drains after a while.
_________________
Lutz

Report Map Errors here:
TomTom/TeleAtlas NAVTEQ

DavidW · Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 8:58 am Post subject:

I'm surprised you lost your CheckPOInt data - that goes in your map folder, which most people have on a storage card.

There's no way to leave a Pocket PC for more than a few days and get away with it unless you leave it on the charger (which won't damage it - indeed, it's encouraged to leave it on charge when it's not in use - Lithium Ion batteries are best if they're kept topped up). The main memory in a Pocket PC is RAM, which has to be kept powered at all times to retain the data - that's the main power drain. In addition, even with no applications running, the processor will wake up at intervals for housekeeping.

You will have iPAQ Backup in your ROM, which allows you to back up to a storage card at regular intervals. This makes recovering from a hard reset (whether intentional or via flat batteries) much easier - you simply restore the backup.

iPAQ Backup may allow you to backup automatically when your batteries are failing - certainly the full version of iPAQ Backup (Sprite Backup Premium Edition, which you can upgrade to for US$10 because you have iPAQ Backup in your machine) allows you to do this. Team it with a good brand (not Sandisk or rebadges thereof) of SD card (256MB is affordable these days, and makes smaller cards somewhat pointless), and you should be away.

Personally, I'd struggle if I was separated from my Pocket PC for four hours, let alone four weeks!

David

Robin2 · Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 9:27 am Post subject:

Thanks David W - I was not sure if it was safe to leave it on charge all the time. I can easily do that - problem solved!
Robin

DavidW · Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 9:37 am Post subject:

Isn't it nice when there's an easy fix?

The backup stuff is worth looking in to as well - not least because being an owner of a modern iPAQ, you can get the excellent Sprite Backup Premium Edition so cheaply. Check it out at the Sprite Software web site. (Look especially for the iPAQ owners button...).

David

	PocketGPS
	Web