1src Forums - TH55 Battery Replacement

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marcinm123

01-20-2007, 08:59 PM

Hi everybody,

First of all I must say that as a medical student I find my TH55 very useful.

TH55 and my stethoscope make without a doubt two most important accesories in a hospital :)

So seeing my TH55's battery life drop down recently made me a little bit concerned... A few times it happened that in the end of the day I was out of power to acces Memory Stick, where I have most of the apps loaded.

This is the BatteryTIME results from Dec 2006:

BatteryTIME 28. Dec 2006;12:04

DISCHARGE

Time;Battery;Voltage
00:00:02;100%;420V
[...]
T:02:34:29 B10%,375V

December last year I read 1src.com posts about battery options on the market and I decided to get the original Sony battery from servicesales.sel.sony.com.

The sad thing to see was the fact that they do not accept non-US issued credit cards and do not ship outside US.

Fortunately, DanT helped me out, he ordered the battery and resent it to me to France (I study in Poland but this year I'm on an exchange in France). The entire process took about 3 weeks.

Great Thanks DanT!! :)

Yesterday I was ready to install the battery. I decided to share my experience with you and took a few pictures :)

1. Ready to go!

http://www.1src.com/gallery/data/501/47943PICT8530.JPG

TH55/U, tri-blade screwdriver from Brando and a new battery kit.
At this point make sure you have a backup, cause battery swapping will cause hard-resetting the device :) No, no backup battery in that case :)

2. The old battery after opening the battery compartment

http://www.1src.com/gallery/data/501/47943PICT8531.JPG

Notice the black strap, we will use it to pull the old battery out. The new battery doesn't have a new one so I decided to remove it and stick it on the new battery.

Now, there's the tricky part. Some users reported that the battery became attached to the ribbon connector wihich runs just below the battery and pulling caused ripping it out... I continued with extreme caution, however in the middle I felt it is a little bit stuck, so I moved it a little bit side-to-side and then delicately pulled again. At this point if you feel any unusual resistance you might want to open the entire case to prevent damaging the connector... However, this seems to be rather isolated problem.

My battery was out in a few seconds after, but THERE WAS indeed some RESISTANCE - I guess that's completely normal. Just don't try to force it and it should be fine :)

3. Quick check if everything is fine :)

http://www.1src.com/gallery/data/501/47943PICT8532.JPG

After removing the battery I checked to see if everything worked fine: LCD, digitizer and hard buttons. Thankfully it was :) - as it seems no connectors broken this time :). At this point make sure you SWITCH OFF the device before attempting to unplug the battery!!!
4. The battery compartment opened

http://www.1src.com/gallery/data/500/47943PICT8534.JPG

Here you can see that the ribbon connectors afer removing the battery are located quite loose in the compartment... forcing the battery in that position would SURELY break them - keep that in mind :)

So what we can do?

TH55 forum users suggested to use a piece of a business/id card cut to the width of the battery to slide the battery in while keeping the connectors away.

5. Ready to insert the new battery

http://www.1src.com/gallery/data/500/47943PICT8537.JPG

Here you can see a piece of a business card in the battery compartment inserted to prevent damaging the connectors. I just slided the battery in, there was slightly more resistance than when removing the old battery.

6. The new battery in

http://www.1src.com/gallery/data/500/47943PICT8539.JPG

At this point I wondered if I could possibly leave the piece of business card inside to prevent the connectors becoming attached to the battery itself, but finally I removed it...

Now, before plugging in the new battery wait for a few minutes to let the capacitors discharge - some users reported that plugging it right away made TH55 not to wake up immediately... I waited around 10 minutes which turned out to be enough.

7. It's alive :)

http://www.1src.com/gallery/data/500/47943PICT8540.JPG

Right after I plugged in the connector Palm logo appeared on the screen. I closed and screwed the lid and left TH55 to charge all night.

That's the new BatteryTIME result:

BatteryTIME 20. Jan 2007;9:02

DISCHARGE

Time;Battery;Voltage
00:00:02;100%;420V
[...]
T:04:28:58 B10%,375V

So I gained 2 hours, not bad at all :)

I hope you enjoyed this quick guide, good luck with battery swapping and have fun with your TH55 (longer with no need to charge) :)

DanT

01-20-2007, 09:25 PM

Wow, what a very detail procedure you got there, Dr. Marcin. I got to add this procedure in the TH55 spareparts center (http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83569&page=1) thread as reference for do-it-yourself TH55 battery changing procedure. Good job! I can see you'll be a good surgeon too! ;)

zkc1234

01-21-2007, 07:43 PM

Good job,nice!

jj2me

01-21-2007, 07:57 PM

I can see you'll be a good surgeon too! ;)

Yes, thoroughness is the key to doing well in any job, but I especially appreciate it in my surgeon!

A question: What replacement battery gives 4:28:58? Was it a Sony?

DanT

01-21-2007, 08:01 PM

Yap. I got it from Sony for about $50.

jj2me

01-22-2007, 10:03 AM

Ah, the best. DanT, you treat your TH55er clients so well. Wish I bought a Sony as my spare instead of the new Cameron Sino in the fridge.

VincentChon

01-23-2007, 09:27 AM

salesrep

01-23-2007, 11:04 AM

More juice, perhaps, but Sony uses magical pixie dust to make their 1000mah batteries solidly and consistently outperform all other aftermarket replacement batteries that I've seen. . .although I have not seen this one before. Anyone else?

DanT

01-23-2007, 12:42 PM

Hello everybody ^^!

Here is the battery for SONY NR/NX/TG/TH Series, and cheaper than Sony. More juice.

1380mAh made by LG Cell

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150015859101

Any question, please feel free to ask me ^^!

Thanks!

Vincent

Why don't you show what LG cells' Battery TIME (http://palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=software.showsoftware&PartnerREF=&siteid=1&prodID=45712) discharge test look like?

The other 1400 mAh batteries made by Cameron Sino have been disappointments. Check out this Battery life incredible (http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42896&page=17&pp=15) thread. Many TH55 owners tested such batteries and were disappointed.

VincentChon

02-10-2007, 08:50 AM

Hello DanT,

Thanks for your suggestion, but I haven't TH55 right now ^^!

I just using TT3 while now, LG battery is our main cell that I use for

modification for PDAs ^^!

And the battery will include the screwdriver for TH55 also.

Below is the LG Chemical homepage for the cells reference.

http://www.lgchem.com/about/business/Information.jsp

Just let you have another choice for brand cell, not other unknow cell for

PDAs ^^!

Why don't you show what LG cells' Battery TIME (http://palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=software.showsoftware&PartnerREF=&siteid=1&prodID=45712) discharge test look like?

The other 1400 mAh batteries made by Cameron Sino have been disappointments. Check out this Battery life incredible (http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42896&page=17&pp=15) thread. Many TH55 owners tested such batteries and were disappointed.

DanT

02-10-2007, 09:51 AM

And how is the Battery TIME discharge test of LG Cells' on your TT3?

patitodehule

02-13-2007, 05:44 PM

Hello everyone, I have just confirmed that the reason my beloved TH55 stopped turning on is due to a completely DEAD battery - that's a relief!

I already went through both of the discussions on proper battery replacement... I want to go for either the OEM Sony, since it has GREAT reviews from all of you or the cheaper 1100 one, (power runner?) that I haven't been able to find on Ebay. If anyone has the link, that would be awesome!

And now we have a third contender, this "LG CELLS" something-something.

Has anyone else tried it already? If you did, please go ahed and post your results, I'm sure there's plenty of people still waiting to get a response in order to make a choice.

Thanks for all your assistance & have great day you all! :)

DanT

02-13-2007, 08:14 PM

Here is one eBay auction for Power Runner Item number: 170080780054 (http://cgi.ebay.com/Battery-for-SJ33-NR60-NR70-NR70V-NX70V-NX80V-TG50-TH55_W0QQitemZ170080780054QQihZ007QQcategoryZ75435QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem).

http://i15.ebayimg.com/05/i/08/46/62/52_1_b.JPG

jj2me

02-14-2007, 06:54 AM

And now we have a third contender, this "LG CELLS" something-something.

Has anyone else tried it already? If you did, please go ahed and post your results, I'm sure there's plenty of people still waiting to get a response in order to make a choice.

I ordered one two days ago--curiousity got to me. It's coming from Macau, so it might take a little while to get to me in the U.S. Then I'll test and post results.

patitodehule

02-14-2007, 02:59 PM

Great! Please keep us posted on the results!!! : )

jj2me

02-27-2007, 12:04 PM

OK, I just got and tested the LG Chem battery that VincentChon brought to our attention. Will post full results in the "Battery Life Incredible" thread later today, once I get to my Hotsync'ing PC to transfer the Memopad results. The envelope's return address was from "Chon, xxxx", same last name, and the ebay seller is "vincent_vango," same first name, so we might deduce that VincentChon is the seller. Battery came with a nice big tri-pointed screwdriver, no retail packaging (some soft foam wrapped around and scotch-taped), had to sign for it.

Brightness at 100%, BatteryTime run after very first charge: 4:35:59.

I slogged through the 18 pages of the "Battery Life Incredible" thread, and here are the top results for those I could determine were tested at 100% (there was one salesrep test of 4:44:28 but without brightness level specified).

5:13:13, Sony, DanT, tested 7/06, new battery
4:55:28, Sony, DanT, tested 7/06, new battery
4:54:15, Sony, winexprt, tested 8/04, 3 days old battery
4:38:36, Sony, Aces, tested 1/07, new battery
4:35:59, LG Chem, jj2me, tested 2/07, new battery
4:34:42, Sony, Aces, tested 1/07, new battery
[Several 4:30s new Sonys tested in 2004]
4:29:17, Sony, salesrep, tested 2/07, in a "hardly used" TH55 of unknown mfg. date.

Conclusion (based on an LG Chem sample size of one!): Sony's the best, but the LG Chem is competitive, especially based on the most recent new Sony tests by Aces, and in this thread, marcinm123's 4:28:58 posted 1/07 (but BatteryLife date of 1/06??)--perhaps the Sony stock is getting old? mAh rating (1380) is still irrevalent when compared to Sony's 1000 mAh rating. LG Chem battery from vincent_vango is about half the price of a Sony ($16.99 + $5 shipping to U.S. vs. $38.40 + ?? shipping). I'm satisfied, thank you VincentChon.

[EDIT: I could not find any mention of the screwdriver in the eBay listing (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=005&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=150015859101&rd=1&rd=1). Its inclusion was not a mistake because it was listed on a short contents list on the outside of the package. Just a warning that maybe other orders may not get the screwdriver.]

[A side note about ultra-long battery life: My 3.5 year old (open box, so may be older) black-and-white Sony Clie SJ20's battery seems to finally be deteriorating and need replacement--the charge is not lasting as long as I'm used to. I tested it with BatteryTime at Contrast Level set to midpoint (there's no brightness setting) and got 6:24:02!]

patitodehule

02-27-2007, 03:38 PM

04:35? Seems good enough for me, for what I've read on that post, that's a lot over the standard battery life for batteries found on ebay.

And a tri-pointed screwdriver was included? Come on, seems a great deal!

Please keep us posted on your results, tomorrow is payday and I might go ahead and order that battery!!!

Thanks once more for your effort ;)

marcinm123

02-28-2007, 08:20 PM

and in this thread, marcinm123's 4:28:58 posted 1/07 (but BatteryLife date of 1/06??)--perhaps the Sony stock is getting old? Hi!

There was obviously a mistake in my previous post, the test run with a new Sony battery was January 20th 2007 not 2006 :) I mistakenly put the 2006 instead of 2007 after the hard reset caused by the battery replacement. THX for pointing that out :)

Well, LG is not bad at all if it actually outperformed my new Sony cell :P and moreover it's cheaper!!

I'm charging now to see how is the new battery doing after a month of normal use, I will soon post the result.

However I am curious to see the results of other LG cells for TH55...

Maybe we would be able to calculate the difference in mean of the BatteryTIME Sony vs. LG and it's significance :)

So - if anybody gets another LG battery please post the results!! :)

psau3

03-02-2007, 03:29 AM

Keep in mind that while Lipolymer cells do not exhibit the old NiCad / NiMH 'memory effect', they do have a finite life, no matter how they are used. After around three years, you will notice a substantial drop in capacity. Buying up Sony cells to hoard in the fridge might not be a particularly sound investment. ;)

salesrep

03-02-2007, 01:13 PM

I bought one of the LG batteries and the e-mail indicated that it would come with the screwdriver (although I already have one.) As soon as I get it, I'll test and post results as well.

salesrep

03-13-2007, 06:12 AM

Just got my new LG battery yesterday and after a full charge and restore here are the results:

T:04:46:03 B10%,375V

Of course, brightness at 100%. Very impressive for around $20 including shipping and the screwdriver. I believe that's the best time I've ever seen from my testing.

Gekkon

03-15-2007, 02:45 AM

If it and the truth LG cells, then capacity by the seller are overrated on 100 mAh.
http://www.lgchem.com/en_products/electromaterial/battery/poly/ICP503759.html

marcinm123

03-15-2007, 07:17 AM

Hmm, that's interesting.

But still it is the best cell we have seen among non-Sony batteries - it performs at the least as good as the orgininal one or actually outperforms it...

olderTechnology

03-15-2007, 01:22 PM

I ordered one based on all the discussion here. Thanks for keeping this thread going.

Aces

03-15-2007, 02:47 PM

If it and the truth LG cells, then capacity by the seller are overrated on 100 mAh.
http://www.lgchem.com/en_products/electromaterial/battery/poly/ICP503759.html
Just to be clear, the "eurus-wings" (eBay) battery I originally bought (May of 06) was described as 1400mAhr, yet in my TH-55, was only getting 3:35 with BatteryTime, brand new. Whereas the new OEM Sony battery I bought in January of 07, is described as only 1000mAhr, yet in my TH-55, got 4:34 with BatteryTime.

I wonder where the standardization is in mAhr ratings? Perhaps if I used these batteries until the voltage is significantly lower than the TH-55 can tolerate, I'd get 1400 & 1000 respectively. And some would argue that with the backlight setting at a lower level (mine were done with full backlight), maybe the 1400 would out perform the 1000.

What really matters, is how it works in our devices. So BatteryTime results mean a lot more to me, than manufacture's mAhr ratings. And while full backlight and continuous on, isn't how we actually use them, at least it's a standardized test to rank one battery as better than another.

Gekkon

03-16-2007, 03:26 AM

1400 chinese mAh < 1000 normal mAh :)

VincentChon

03-16-2007, 11:08 AM

1400 chinese mAh < 1000 normal mAh :)
Yes, you are right, China's cell/battery usually over mark the capacity.
That's why I only sell the batties produce by SANYO & LG cells.
Other country's battery always under mark the capacity.
And the TH55 battery by LG has been test by machine to achieve 1380mAh
LG battery capacity usually under mark 6%, 1280x6%=1356.8mAh.
And the Technical Spec for a few years, the technology improve, the battery usually more juice that before.

jj2me

03-16-2007, 11:35 AM

Thank you VincentChon, much appreciated that you have made these available to us.

bestbefore

03-22-2007, 11:40 AM

I've just brought the LG battery from Vincent.
http://cgi.ebay.com.hk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150015859101&sspagename=ADME:L:AAQ::1

The battery is incredible!
Here is the result of the BatteryTime1.84

BatteryTIME Jan 1, 2004;5:17 am

DISCHARGE

Warning/Critical: 3.75V/3.70V
Battery type: Lithium Ion
Plugged-in: no

Time;Battery;Voltage
00:00:02;100%;420V
00:51:57;99%;419V
00:52:03;98%;419V
00:52:33;97%;418V
00:58:20;96%;418V
00:58:49;95%;417V
01:04:20;94%;417V
01:05:06;93%;416V
01:05:11;92%;416V
01:10:02;91%;415V
01:12:03;90%;415V
01:12:07;89%;414V
01:12:52;88%;414V
01:19:30;87%;413V
01:28:47;86%;413V
01:30:32;85%;412V
01:30:36;84%;412V
01:30:42;83%;411V
01:38:09;82%;411V
01:38:13;81%;410V
01:38:19;80%;410V
01:46:31;79%;409V
01:46:35;78%;409V
01:46:41;77%;408V
01:48:11;76%;408V
01:54:17;75%;407V
01:57:02;74%;407V
02:03:50;73%;406V
02:05:55;72%;406V
02:05:59;71%;405V
02:06:05;70%;405V
02:12:12;69%;404V
02:14:21;68%;404V
02:14:27;67%;403V
02:15:02;66%;403V
02:22:04;65%;402V
02:23:28;64%;402V
02:35:21;63%;401V
02:36:26;62%;401V
02:38:28;61%;400V
02:38:31;60%;400V
02:46:04;59%;399V
02:49:34;58%;399V
02:51:45;57%;398V
02:52:20;56%;398V
02:52:24;55%;397V
03:02:03;54%;397V
03:04:22;53%;396V
03:20:21;52%;396V
03:21:06;51%;395V
03:23:56;50%;395V
03:24:02;49%;394V
03:24:38;48%;394V
03:25:13;47%;393V
03:25:58;46%;393V
03:26:02;45%;392V
03:43:42;44%;392V
03:43:46;43%;391V
03:43:52;42%;391V
03:48:03;41%;390V
03:48:42;40%;390V
03:48:48;39%;389V
03:49:27;38%;389V
03:49:33;37%;388V
04:07:47;36%;388V
04:10:32;35%;387V
04:12:43;34%;387V
04:13:19;33%;386V
04:13:58;32%;386V
04:14:04;31%;385V
04:15:24;30%;385V
04:28:26;29%;384V
04:29:11;28%;384V
04:31:27;27%;383V
04:42:25;26%;383V
04:44:30;25%;382V
04:45:06;24%;382V
04:45:41;23%;381V
04:45:45;22%;381V
04:45:51;21%;380V
04:46:26;20%;380V
04:53:57;19%;379V
04:55:27;18%;379V
04:55:33;17%;378V
04:57:29;16%;378V
04:57:33;15%;377V
05:03:55;14%;377V
05:04:40;13%;376V
05:13:37;12%;376V
05:14:22;11%;375V
05:16:28;10%;375V
T:05:16:28 B10%,375V

Wow, 5Hour & 16 Mins
The voltage comes back to 20% for quite a long period of time (I didn't count it)
This is an E1, hard-reseted with bluetooth and beam receive turn off and full brightness during the test.

The battery package come with a screwdriver.
The price seems to have rised a bit now but I think it is still a very good deal!

Thanks Vincent.

marcinm123

03-22-2007, 03:56 PM

Well, lucky you :) That seems indeed incredible :)

Are you REALLY sure you had the brightness all the way up? :P

bestbefore

03-23-2007, 09:44 AM

Well, lucky you :) That seems indeed incredible :)

Are you REALLY sure you had the brightness all the way up? :P

Ha~ :p I've double check it several times for the brighness^^

As you can see from Ebay that my transaction states that it is a 1380mAH battery but I got a cell marked 1400mAH instead.
You may find out that Vincent is now selling 1400mAh now.
May be I've got the first set of stock which gives such an amazing performance.
:)

Gekkon

03-23-2007, 10:11 AM

Probably to print all on the battery. Even 1500. But mAh in a reality a small.

VincentChon

04-01-2007, 01:08 AM

Probably to print all on the battery. Even 1500. But mAh in a reality a small.

Thanks for your opinions. I also agree with you ^^!

Yes, The label is show Product info. to buyers before use.
So I'll pay attention on what's printed on it.
Same condition to work out the battery time 1.84 result as a standard, will be more usage on comparison ^^!

jhintonh

04-01-2007, 06:32 PM

Good Evening,

It has been a long time since I posted last but my Beloved '55 has begun asking me with less-than-subtle methods for a battery replacement. I am down to somewhere in the neighborhood of an hour before she starts showing me the tiniest sliver of cyan in the battery level indicator.

As a result, I returned to this wonderful forum to seek guidance from its Fora. Happily it appears that there are fresh posts concerning battery replacement. From these nuggets of knowledge and experience I just bought a 1400 mAh LG cell from Mr. Vango over at TheBay.

I will no doubt return to this very thread upon my receipt of this new cell so as to follow the fantastic instructions for performing the out-patient level surgery that the battery-replacement procedure seems to be. I will also make an endeavor to report back here my experience with this product.

Thank you to each and all that contributed to this thread.

-Jhintonh
The "J" stands for "Joyful that 1src is still around.

jhintonh

04-01-2007, 06:38 PM

Good Evening,

I just wanted to publicly e-wave to DanT who I remember from the "Old Days".

:) ;)

Good health to you Sir!

-Jhintonh
The "J" stands for "Jubilant" to see an old acquaintance: DanT

DanT

04-01-2007, 10:32 PM

Good evening and good health to you too, Jubilant hintonh :)

Welcome back. ;)

VincentChon

04-02-2007, 03:13 AM

jhintonh

04-06-2007, 09:29 PM

Good evening and good health to you too, Jubilant hintonh :)

Welcome back. ;)

Good Evening [bowing],

Amazing longevity our TH55s have, isn't it? What year did they come out?

Slainte to you Dan. :)

-Jhintonh
The "J" stands for "Just wondering"

jhintonh

04-06-2007, 09:31 PM

Hello!

Thanks for your support ^^!

Hope it help your TH55 reborn ^^!

I'm a beginner on this forum, will visit offer ^^! And hope you visit often too ^^!

Good Evening and thank you,

I eagerly await the arrival of your product. :)

-Jhintonh
The "J" stands for "Jonesin' for the old days of long TH55 battery life"

DanT

04-06-2007, 10:28 PM

Good Evening [bowing],

Amazing longevity our TH55s have, isn't it? What year did they come out?

Slainte to you Dan. :)

-Jhintonh
The "J" stands for "Just wondering"

It was one of the early arrival ones to West Oak Circuit City, Houston, Texas, on February 22, 2004.

VincentChon

04-07-2007, 01:16 PM

Good Evening and thank you,

I eagerly await the arrival of your product. :)

-Jhintonh
The "J" stands for "Jonesin' for the old days of long TH55 battery life"

Hello!

It take about 2 weeks for arrival ^^!

I'll always listen here for you responds ^^!

dazza1201

04-08-2007, 08:37 PM

DanT

04-08-2007, 09:04 PM

Okay... I managed to acquire a TH55 with spare batteries off ebay. My question is - do I need to store the unused spares in the refrigerator?

So far my TH55 is making just over 2 hours time on BatteryTime. Is it time to go for a change? Or should I just hang on until it's truly dying... 30 minutes?

Yes, it's time to change the battery when its BatteryTIME Discharge Test is < 03:00:00. Don't wait too long. Otherwise, you'll end up with dead battery when you really need it, especially if you don't have the automatic daily RAM backup program on it.

I use BackupBuddy VFS for my daily RAM backup and MSBackup occasionally before installing new app. Just in case the new app conflicts with the other apps.

jj2me

04-09-2007, 11:14 AM

Everything Dan said, plus when I took the cheap/conservation route, it takes a lonnnngggg time to get to 30 min. Mine was at about 2:30 for ~6 months when the annoyance of low battery life just got to me. I'm so happy I changed, no more daily charging. On the other hand, if you sync&charge every day and don't use the TH55 for 2 hours on any day, then it might make sense to you to stretch out the battery's life, heeding Dan's warning of lost data.

Gekkon

04-11-2007, 04:36 AM

LG battery 1400 mAh from Vincent on my TH55 - 4:46:14

VincentChon

04-15-2007, 01:50 AM

LG battery 1400 mAh from Vincent on my TH55 - 4:46:14

Oh......... Thanks for your information ;)

jhintonh

04-25-2007, 05:34 PM

Good Evening,

I purchased a battery from the gentleman here ("VincentChon" a.k.a. "Vincent Vango") by way of his eBay listing. It arrived last Saturday and I installed it on Sunday.

I followed the excellent instructions posted by "marcinm123", the originator of this thread. These instructions are superb and comprehensive. Thank you, Sir or Madam "marcinm123", I honestly appreciate your contribution. It is just this type of selfless free exchange of knowledge that makes 1src a fantastic asset.

I had one hiccup during installation. After successfully removing the old battery, I plugged in the new to assure myself that I did not damage anything during said removal. When I plugged it in and looked at my screen, it appeared to be a greyscale version of the Palm-logo boot-up screen. Even worse it started fading out and eventually, in less than 30 seconds, my screen became blank.

After checking to make sure that I had not urinated on myself, I unplugged the new battery and plugged my old one back in, thinking that perhaps I had obtained a bad battery unit. To my horror the same thing occurred with the fading screen after pluggin in the old battery!

Upon returning to my work desk ten minutes later, having had two shots of Wild Turkey Bourbon, I decided that I should simply complete the install. So I carefully slid in the new battery (using marcinm123's business card/shoe horn trick) and plugged it in. Oh happy day! when I heard the familiar do-do-do-do CLIE sound as my beloved TH started up!

Having done a full backup with Resco Back-Up prior to commencement of the surgery, I then slipped in the MemoryStick, performed a full restore and VOILA!, I was back to where I was before the transplant.

A word about my observed battery life to date. I am not running any software to come up with my estimates on this new battery's longevity. Rather, I am doing a real world torture test of the device. The old battery had gotten to the point where a normal day's use would leave me with about 25% charge left (meaning it had depleted 75% of its energy). Starting Monday (after a full night's charge Sunday), I began really using my CLIE. Reading ebooks, listening to tunes, writing with Wordsmith, popping on the 'net with WiFi and even snapping a few pictures of my cat, Ms. Isabella T. Cat. I followed this same usage schedule farily closely for Monday, Tuesday and today. I am just now pressing the battery status icon and...it says I have 82% charge remaining! That is remarkable!

Thank you again to "marcinm123" for their peerless parlayance of procedures in replacing the battery and of course a big THANK YOU! to "VincentChon" a.k.a. "Vincent Vango" for selling a very good product, which shipped very quickly and arrived packaged well and safe. Well done Sir!

I would not hesitate to recommend such a transplant to any TH-55 user that is experiencing poor battery performance. And do not resort to adult libations should you see the "Grey Ghosting Screen of Death". It was apparently no bellwether of badness, just a hiccup.

-Jhintonh
The "J" stands for "Just two shots of Wild Turkey cures the Grey Ghosting Screen of Death"

DanT

04-25-2007, 07:07 PM

...When I plugged it in and looked at my screen, it appeared to be a greyscale version of the Palm-logo boot-up screen. Even worse it started fading out and eventually, in less than 30 seconds, my screen became blank.

After checking to make sure that I had not urinated on myself, I unplugged the new battery and plugged my old one back in, thinking that perhaps I had obtained a bad battery unit. To my horror the same thing occurred with the fading screen after pluggin in the old battery!

Upon returning to my work desk ten minutes later, having had two shots of Wild Turkey Bourbon, I decided that I should simply complete the install. So I carefully slid in the new battery (using marcinm123's business card/shoe horn trick) and plugged it in. Oh happy day! when I heard the familiar do-do-do-do CLIE sound as my beloved TH started up!...

That is a common mistake. If you read step 6 carefully, it explains why you need to wait for 10 minutes to let the capacitor in the motherboard to discharge completely before plugging the battery back to the motherboard.

Just as you did too, I usually take a Miller time after unplugging the old battery. ;)

jhintonh

04-25-2007, 08:16 PM

That is a common mistake. If you read step 6 carefully, it explains why you need to wait for 10 minutes to let the capacitor in the motherboard to discharge completely before plugging the battery back to the motherboard.

Good Evening,

You are correct Dan. I failed to thoroughly read the very comprehensive instructions. I guess I should be thankful that nothing frightful happened as a result.

-Jhintonh
The "J" stands for "Just like a writer to not read everything" :)

totololo

04-26-2007, 01:23 AM

...
Just as you did too, I usually take a Miller time after unplugging the old battery. ;)

Huh ?
Sorry for asking stupid questions, what is a Miller ?

(I'm french and my english is ... quite average, but i'm curious !!!)

dazza1201

04-26-2007, 01:50 AM

Huh ?
Sorry for asking stupid questions, what is a Miller ?

(I'm french and my english is ... quite average, but i'm curious !!!)

Oops! Cultural references going awry. Miller is a brand of beer. :) Therefore it was time to open a can of beer, and have a break, before continuing with the battery change...

In Singapore, we would say, it's time for a Tiger..... (after the local brand, Tiger beer...)

DanT

04-26-2007, 05:24 AM

LOL :D

Sorry for using my American slang. You got it. After unplugging the old battery, it's a break time for beer, coffee, or whatever makes you relax, before putting a new battery.

totololo

04-26-2007, 06:03 AM

Haaah, thanks to both of you for my slight culture improvement today !

salesrep

04-26-2007, 06:59 AM

Very funny, indeed! I forget that this forum is read all over the world, and probably only a percentage of us only speak English. . .

Reminds me of a time when I worked at Outback Steakhouse (a local Australian-themed steakhouse chain.) We were training a management team from Mexico City that was to open a store down there. So as you can imagine, they spoke Spanish natively, but also English (as much of the world.) And since I spoke more Spanish than any other waiter at the time, I got to do much of the training for these guys. One day at the end of a shift, the guy that had been following me finally asked me, "So what do you mean by 'preciatecha' ?"

Well, in Texas, we would normally say something like " I appreciate you coming in" or something like that whenever a table would leave. But I guess it ran together at the beginning and sounded like 'preciatecha.'

totololo

04-26-2007, 11:23 AM

Hihihi, nice !

You know, the cutest thing with foreigners here in France ?
Their way of speaking french ...

Kawai ! (cute, in japanese)

marcinm123

04-26-2007, 02:34 PM

I had one hiccup during installation. Hi!

I am really glad that you liked and you find it usefull! :)

Yes, as DanT has already pointed out, the problem you encountered is actually described in step 6. :)

Waiting a few minutes is a very easy way to avoid a very stresfull situation requiring immediate treatment with a beer or sth else :P

I put it in bold in step 6. from now on so that the others hopefully won't miss it in future :)

Best regards,

Marcin

marcinm123

04-26-2007, 02:45 PM

Hihihi, nice !

You know, the cutest thing with foreigners here in France ?
Their way of speaking french ...

Kawai ! (cute, in japanese)Another OT :)

I guess it's always like that not only with French and English... a language spoken by foreigners always sounds a little bit awkward to the native speakers...

Actually at the moment I'm an exchange student on Rennes-1 Univeristy in french Brittany (trying to get my French... less cute to French people :P ) and the course I like most is English with the French students - we speak half French, half English and neither of those is my mother tongue (I'm from Poland) :) This is really fun, but even cooler thing is learning the basics of Swedish (a language I never knew before) in French :P

To make it less off-topic - all the dictionaries are always in my TH55 :P

totololo

04-26-2007, 04:04 PM

Hahahaha
What dictionnary do you use ?

I guess you are not a plumber student ?
(private joke inside, we had some stupid jokes about Polish plumbers in France)

marcinm123

04-26-2007, 06:49 PM

Hahahaha
What dictionnary do you use ?

I guess you are not a plumber student ?
(private joke inside, we had some stupid jokes about Polish plumbers in France)Medstudent :) Indeed, sometimes we do some plumbing as well :P

The jokes were nasty, but the campaign in response was really good (Je reste en Pologne, venez nombreux - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_plumber) :)

The dictioNaries :)

Alex for WordNet w/synonyms
SlovoEd
RoadLingua
ydpdict - Palm port of good dictionaries by polish software maker YDP

RoadLingua and SlovoEd have usually not so good non-english databases...

salesrep

04-26-2007, 08:35 PM

Not to keep it too off topic, but I love some good Polish jokes. . . And I'm not a hypocrite, either. I also like many other jokes about many other people. Unfortunately, there are many people that get their 'panties in a wad' when jokes are told and these people can't handle it well and take it too personal.

I bring this up because my last name is Zabriskie, and my wife and I actually looked for a Zabriskie Street when we were in Warsaw 6 years ago. (We have 6 year old twins adopted from Ukraine, and Warsaw is the final stop before coming home.) Never found one though; maybe my last name is like Smith in America--who knows?

What were we supposed to talk about? TH55 battery replacement? Oh yeah, and that too!

totololo

04-27-2007, 01:09 AM

Hahahah !
Marcinm ... I was only thinking about the poster with the handsome guy ... It was well apreciated by gay guys ! ... unlike the stupid sentence from this politic man (extreme right wing).

marcinm123

04-27-2007, 01:44 AM

Hahahah !
Marcinm ... I was only thinking about the poster with the handsome guy ... It was well apreciated by gay guys ! ... unlike the stupid sentence from this politic man (extreme right wing).Ha, that's something the public debate missed in Poland, good to know :P :)

Groby

06-26-2007, 12:53 PM

I got my new battery from Vincent and get 4:51 with my TH55.
Great,although the price is now 24,99 US with shipping. :D

VincentChon

06-27-2007, 09:40 AM

I got my new battery from Vincent and get 4:51 with my TH55.
Great,although the price is now 24,99 US with shipping. :D

Thanks for support my battery ^^!

If you want to lower the price, you can deal /w me directly, you can get the different from ebay charges ^^!

I've no problem deal on ebay or no ^^! And Thanks for your report ^^!

salesrep

07-04-2007, 12:08 AM

sungecko

07-05-2007, 09:15 PM

just curious. how is the battery life for you who put them in a couple months ago? still hanging in high? see any big drop off?

Danimal

09-19-2007, 03:36 PM

I just got one of Vincent's batteries this week. Just now did the backup data & battery swap.

Interesting anecdote: When I pulled the black strap to get the old battery out, the strap broke. Yes, it broke. The plastic is very brittle and it just snapped. Oh well. With a careful fingernail and needle-nose pliers, I got the battery out ok. But it was funny as I glanced back to the instructions thinking, "there's nothing there about what to do when the strap snaps!"

I'll post tomorrow the BatteryTIME results.

-Danimal :cool:

P.S. Quick question: I'm assuming that the backlight is on for the battery test, right?

Danimal

09-24-2007, 08:30 AM

BatteryTIME before: T:02:02:59 B10% 375V
BatteryTIME after: T:04:49:55 B10% 375V

Happy Danimal!

DanT

09-24-2007, 12:18 PM

Great news.

LG batteries from Vincent indeed perform just as well as the Sony batteries. I start using the LG instead of Power Runner now for all of CLIEs that I use, sell, or repair.

Yes, you need to test it with full brightness.

DanT

09-30-2007, 09:55 AM

Kudos to VincentChon and his LG batteries. . . my latest just topped out using BatteryTime 1.84 with full brightness and bluetooth off is 05:08:58. Now I'm wondering if I shouldn't hang onto this battery instead of the older 04:46:00 battery in my other E1?

Splitting hairs, I suppose! Seriously though, order your fresh TH55 batteries straight from VincentChon as it will be a little cheaper than going through ebay. Thanks again Vincent!

I second the kudos to VincentChon and his LG batteries.

I just replaced an old TH55/U battery with BatteryTime 1.84 discharge time with full brightness of T:00:26:20 (this must be the world record of the most used up TH55 battery). The new LG battery broke the 5-hour barrier with T:05:01:32. Barely, but over 5 hours nonetheless. ;)

snorski

10-27-2007, 07:17 AM

Trying to pull the battery out of the TH55 the black strap broke :mad:
Before doing something stupid please advise what's the best I can do now!

snorski

10-27-2007, 07:52 AM

I'm very happy!
Using a tweezer I could carefully pull the battery from of the TH55. :)
By the way: the TH55 is the best PDA ever!!!

DanT

10-27-2007, 09:24 AM

Good to hear you can pull the battery out.

When that happens to me, I just stick the tip of the Y-screw driver into the corner fold of the battery wrapper and jack the battery out using the corner of TH55 as the hinge point. Like playing see-saw between my left hand and the battery, using the screw driver shaft as the see-saw board, as I lower my hand the battery will slide up and out off the TH55 battery slot. ;)

snorski

10-27-2007, 01:13 PM

DanT, thanks for replying!
Everything works fine now: my beloved TH55 has a new live again.
Greetings from Holland.

snorski

10-28-2007, 06:16 AM

I'm curious to know how much Wifi drains the battery of the TH55.
Has anybody measured the maximum time using a new battery by continuous Wifi-access?

maxilogan

09-25-2008, 09:01 AM

Received a spare battery from Vincent a couple of days ago, still to test it but changed yesterday evening thanks to this helpful guide.

I thought that my battery was ok (I also asked Vincent how to keep it for a long time), since I do not use BT and Wifi a lot, and my TH was lasting a few days. But I carried out a test with Battery Time and got a 2.30, so I decided to install Vincent's battery. Still to do the battery time test, knowing that usually the best performances are achieved after 3-4 charging/dischargin cycles, I'll wait the needed time.

Long live to TH55 :)

ankh

09-27-2008, 03:33 PM

Vincent's ebay link is dead; i've tried a PM.

I was getting over three hours out of my TH55 with the screen kept mostly dimmed (bought used some months ago) but it's now getting worse fast.

BatteryTime gave me 6 minutes from full to flat with the brightness full up.
Eek!

Best advice for replacement battery soonest welcome; I gather Sony still sells them somewhere?

Dang, I love this thing, had already begun looking for a second TH55, for the same reason I kept two SJ30-level PDAs going for years.

Someone upgrade to an Apple phone please and sell me your ex?

Clie Patra

09-28-2008, 01:36 AM

Someone upgrade to an Apple phone please and sell me your ex?Upgrade? I wouldn't call it that...

ankh

09-28-2008, 02:16 PM

> Upgrade?
Ssshhhh. I'm hoping someone will sell me another TH55 (grin).

Battery replacement -- Vincent replied to my PM, has a few TH55 batteries left, and I've ordered mine from him. He says it'll take a few weeks to get to me.

I'm still getting over an hour from my TH55 with the dimmest screen setting but the battery really is degrading fast now. The second test I ran with full brightness, it lasted 8 minutes (though the battery bounced back immediately after I dimmed the screen -- the battery charge test said it was over 25 percent and I had to run it down further before I could get a charge time. Charging took about 6 minutes.

Not much left of this battery! It's a used Ebay TH55, likely on its original battery.