T665 batter drain

[lax_dad]

Lately my T665c battery power has become low after 24 to 48 hours even with no use! What I was wondering was if certain programs can run in the background and drain the battery even if the power is "off"? I am not sure what the culprit could be, other than maybe Happy Days that has birthday reminders that flash in the upper left corner of the screen. The unit is less that a year old so I would certainly hope the battery is not "worn out" yet. Any ideas appreciated. Thanks.

[Streamhawk]

Have you tried Energy Dimmer, it works for me, letting me prolong the life of my battery, give it a try. As for an answer of the background working apps, I don't think that that is really your problem, My T665 drains a lot of battery because of the screen, lower that and you'll have more lasting power.

Here's a link for the Dimmer
http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?prodID=28880

[Sid]

Originally posted by Streamhawk
Have you tried Energy Dimmer, it works for me, letting me prolong the life of my battery, give it a try. As for an answer of the background working apps, I don't think that that is really your problem, My T665 drains a lot of battery because of the screen, lower that and you'll have more lasting power.

Here's a link for the Dimmer
http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?prodID=28880

$8.00 is a bit steep for that. Isn't there several other FREE apps that do pretty much the same thing?

[tanker_bob]

I use BackLightHack. It's free and works great. It's a little quirky, requiring a soft reset when you change the screen-off times (it doesn't say that, but it does require it), but I never change that value anyway.

[tanker_bob]

Originally posted by lax_dad
Lately my T665c battery power has become low after 24 to 48 hours even with no use! What I was wondering was if certain programs can run in the background and drain the battery even if the power is "off"? I am not sure what the culprit could be, other than maybe Happy Days that has birthday reminders that flash in the upper left corner of the screen. The unit is less that a year old so I would certainly hope the battery is not "worn out" yet. Any ideas appreciated. Thanks.
That shouldn't happen. When the device is off, the power drain is minimal. Either the device is turning on and staying on for some reason, or the battery is dying. Any alarm that goes off will keep the device on until the autooff time expires. Backup programs will do the same. If you backlight is set high, that can eat battery life if enough alarms or reminders go off. I keep my backlight set at about 1/4, and set BacklightHack to 90 seconds. With all that said, the alarm or app that turned the device on will be active when you next turn the T665C on. Perhaps that will give you an idea.

Another thing you can do is to soft reset (using the reset pin in the back) the handheld while it is in the cradle charging. Some say that will reset the charging circuit. After about a year, I've noticed that my T665C doesn't always charge all the way if it is turned off while charging, but will charge all the way if it is left on in the cradle. If that's happening to you, that could also account for the reduced apparent life. I use ClockPop to read the battery voltage, but most launchers have a way to read the battery voltage while it's charging--usually by tapping and holding on the battery icon/value.

[Sid]

Originally posted by tanker_bob
I use BackLightHack. It's free and works great. It's a little quirky, requiring a soft reset when you change the screen-off times (it doesn't say that, but it does require it), but I never change that value anyway.

Do you really notice a difference in battery drainage using BackLightHack?
Also, are you using Backlight Combo Version 1.40, it's a hack and an app?
Is a soft reset required when first installed and set-up?
Thanks in advance!

[tanker_bob]

1) Yes, depending on the overall handheld usage pattern.
2) Yes, the combo.
3) I forget. I think so, because it won't change the backlight-off delay w/o a soft reset. It might not need it the first time, but I don't remember.
4) You're welcome!

[Sid]

Thank you for the speedy reply Tanker_Bob!

[tanker_bob]

You're welcome. The difference in battery life highly depends on usage. Some would see no difference from this type of app. The main value to me is in turning off the backlight after an alarm goes off and is not acknowledged by the user.

[lax_dad]

Well, I certainly appreciate all these replies. Yesterday I fully charged the unit. I turned down the backlight to 1/4, and did a soft reset while charging. The unit was definitely fully charged and off last night. It was still off this morning. However, when I went to turn it on this morning, the battery was extremely low again and the backlight would not turn on. Very weird situation that I would not expect in a unit less than a year old that has been well cared for. I guess I just have to accept that something is simply wrong with the hardware here. I had a similar situation with my previous IIIc, but did manage to get a replacement battery on Ebay and replaced it myself. I certainly wish Sony would get their act together here, they are great PDA's for as long as they work.

[jimroad]

My t665 runs for about 4-5 hrs without a charge. I have a car charger for EMO.

[lax_dad]

Well, after fully recharging this morning I turned the unit on. The battery simply seems to be bad. I am watching the voltage go down by .04 every couple minutes. Has anyone gotten a battery from cliebattery.com? I know the specs are different from the original and that worries me a little.

I think it is inexcusable that this battery would go bad in less than a year.

[tanker_bob]

Batteries are funny things. LiIon batteries are very sensitive to heat above 95F or so. Even in average conditions, they deteriorate slowly after about a year. Most other battery technologies deteriorate rapidly after a year or so. I agree that yours should be much better than it is at this point, though.

I saw the stuff on cliebattery and am skeptical. Battery life is somewhat measured by its rating, and the amp-hour rating of the replacement there didn't impress me. It also doesn't say what technology the battery is. If your device is less than a year old, Sony should replace the battery under warranty.

[Unregistered]

Perhaps a hard reset would work. The same thing happened with my T665c a few weeks ago. It would not fully charge and would not hold a charge. I took it to Best Buy to have it repaired or replaced under their extended service contract. Before I brought it in, I performed a hard reset. The technician found nothing wrong. I was sure he had no clue. To my embarrassment when I brought the PDA home, the battery seemed as good as new.

[sindu]

Maybe that's what I should do since my battery has been acting wierd recently...I had tried soft reset while in the charging cradle to no affect.

[lax_dad]

Reviving this thread............I have determined that it is the alarms that are draining the battery..........each time the battery is drained in the morning the alarm must have turned on during the night? Wonder why the auto-off did not turn the unit off?

I guess my question is.....how do I use alarms on my T665 without causing this battery drain?? I generally use alarms for birthday reminders etc.

[Sacharissa]

I've had that happen from time to time on my T665, so I recently picked up POWER from Handango. It's a little app that allows you to specify what can turn on the device.

Most people use it to disable the app buttons from accidentally turning their PDAs on, but I just have it set so that alarms do not turn it on. Instead, I just get the alarm when I turn on my Clie. Not an ideal solution, but so far, no more mysterious battery drains!

[suppaman]

Backlight Combo isn't working for me, at least from time to time it seems to work, sometimes (like now) whatever time I choose for "Auto-off delay" it does nothing.. :(

I use X-Master for hack, but why should it work sometimes and other times not?

I've tried soft-reset and even a reset with the middle button pulled up but it doesn't work anyway.

What could it be?

[Sid]

BackLight Combo did not work satisfactorily for me either. I'm trying Energy Dimmer, which works great and does more, but it's shareware, not freeware.

[suppaman]

Does it not work satisfactorily or does it not work at all?

[tanker_bob]

Backlight Combo works great for me. I have to soft reset to get the timer changes to take, but I haven't changed the timer in almost a year. Maybe altering the load order of your hacks would help. I'm also using YAHM, which handles multiple hacks more reliably than X-Master.

[suppaman]

What delay did you set?

Actually it seems to work but sometimes tapping the screen will no relight backlight.

[tanker_bob]

90 seconds. That's long enough to keep the light on when someone briefly interrupts me while I'm reading the news. If a tap doesn't restore the screen, then some other app is intercepting the input.

[suppaman]

I was using the ToDo apps (don't know its exact name), could be it ?

What time it is there?

[tanker_bob]

I'm not sure what you mean by the ToDo apps. It's now 6:49 AM.

[Sid]

Originally posted by suppaman
Does it not work satisfactorily or does it not work at all?

It used to work fine on my T665, but when I switched to a SJ33 it had some odd behavior:
•When connecting the charging cable while the SJ33 was off, the screen would come on for a second as a bright blank/white display - this symptom was traced to BackLight Combo.
•Even after a soft reset the delay time was never activated so the backlight never turned off.
•Deleting and reinstalling BackLight Combo did NOT fix the problem.
•The response from the app's developer was that he could no longer support the Clies.

As I mentioned, Energy Dimmer (also a hack) works wonderfully for me.

[suppaman]

Originally posted by tanker_bob
If a tap doesn't restore the screen, then some other app is intercepting the input.

I was in "To Do List" when the tap didn't restored the screen.

[tanker_bob]

Built-in ToDo or a third-party program? More than likely, it's another hack that's the problem.

[suppaman]

I've got only BatteryLog Hack and Backlight Hack

[rmichiel]

The past few days, my year old Clie T665C has been recharging erratically. It did not charge when I tried recharging 8 hours last night-the battery indicator was in the 30's% range at the end of the recharging period. I then recharged for about an hour at work, and the battery indicator went up to 100%. I used the Clie for less than half an hour after this and the battery indicator was down to 78%.

Is this erratic charging and discharging of the battery an end of life indicator for the battery, or is the battery gauge misleading?

Thank you.

Bob Michiel

[tanker_bob]

Try soft resetting it while charging it in the cradle with it powered up. Some have said that can reset the charging circuits. I've never heard of the battery reading malfunctioning. If my suggestion doesn't work, the problem is the battery. I've found that mine won't recharge completely in the cradle unless it is powered on during the charging. That's 100% consistent here.