Dead or disconnected battery?

[slwerner]

My Xoom suddenly died last night. It hadn't shown a low battery indicator, but it seemed as though it was out of power. I hooked it up to my plug-in charger, and it booted back up. At the log-in screen, the second line was flashing and indicating that battery charging was a 84%.

I used the Xoom for a while while it was plugged in, and it worked fine. Then, as soon as I unplugged it, it died again. I plugged it in, booted it up, and left it to recharge over-night, as it was getting late.

This morning, the login screen still had the flashing charging at 84% message. While plugged in, my Xoom ran fine, but teh instant it was unplugged, it died.

I booted up holding the "volume up" button, and got the message:

"Starting RSD protocol support 0
OneWire: Charger is not connected or battery is not being charged...
Battery charge level: 84%"

Is this an indication of a dead battery? And what's with the constant 84% charged indication. If it's a 84%, shouldn't it run?

If I looking at a dead battery, is this a Verizon Store serviceable issue, or is it going to be a "send it back to Moto" deal?

Very pissed,

slwerner

 

[dhendriksen]

I'd call Motorola. Good luck.

 

[Castorshells]

Yeah your gonna need a new batt most likely. I would call moto, you should be abke to get that replaced or something.

Xoom+Root = Perfect Match

 

[slwerner]

Yeah your gonna need a new batt most likely. I would call moto, you should be abke to get that replaced or something.

Xoom+Root = Perfect Match

Turns out it was some sort of "stuck-on-stupid" Xoom trick.

I talked with Verizon tech support, to no avail. I was about to contact Moto, when I decided to try one more possibility.

I had a new charging dock which I received with my LTE upgrade. After my original dock suffered the fatal charging pin spring failure, I had gotten away from using one, so the new one was still unwrapped.

Anyway, since I had tried both of my charging cables and had not gotten the battery to charge/function to keep myXoom running, I wondered if the issue might have been that the charging plug receptacle had become disconnected internally. I intended to test this possibility by using that new charging dock, which would apply charge to the external contracts.

Well, when the charge status ceased to blink 84% and started to display a steady and increasing value, I thought I had figured out my problem.

I resolved to contact Moto and tellthem about what I thought I'd figured out...but decide to make sure - so as to not endup looking like an idiot. I pulled my Xoom off the charging dock, expecting it to die...but it stayed on.

It was showing 90% charged at that point, so I decided to run it back down to 84% to see it it was at that level that it would again spontaneously shut off.

But, when it did get below 84%, it kept running. Rather perplexed, I let it continue until it displayed the low battery indication. Then, still convinced that I knew that it was a charging plug issue, I plugged it in directly using the cable.

But, instead of not charging, it indicated that it was charging. In abouthalf an hour, it was again fully charged.

I have since tried letting it run- down and recharge a couple more times, and it has neither shut down nor failed to charge.

I have no explaination for what happened. And I continue to expect it to happen again. But, for the moment, all seems well.

I'm wondering if this wasn't just another weird and random one-time occurance, much like the time it was failing to turn on, and after several attempts to use the "volume up-power button" combo, it finally worked and has never had that problem again.

All I can think of to describe it was that it was just "stuck on stupid"...again.

 

[peterozumurray]

I'm having the exact problem you describe in the OP. However, I don't have a recharging dock, so I currently can't try the "fix" that worked for you. I can go out and get one, but I wonder: Did the problem ever recur, or did that one time "fix" do it?

Thanks.

 

[slwerner]

Yes, it did re-occur - multiple times.

I eventually set it to Moto for repair. But, I did discover a "fix" that worked in my particular case. If I pressed firmly on the front bezel near the point that the power contacts would be, with a little bit of "fiddling", I could get it to power back on. This lead me to believe that there must have been a loose connection internally somewhere near the point where the connectors for power were.

Moto repaired it under warranty, (no charge, they paid for over-night shipping both ways). But they never gave me any indication as to what it was that they fixed. I used the support on-line chat to inquire what repairs had been made, but the customer rep I dealt with told me that even they do not have any information on specific repairs to any units, as a matter of company policy.

I thought that it had to be one of the stupidest policies I'd ever encountered (I'm pretty sure there would be no wide-spread panic in the streets if some systemic issue with Xoom's became public knowledge).

However, my Xoom has worked perfectly since they repaired it, so I would advise you to have them repair it if your warranty is still in effect.