Battery/power Problem


dpoarch

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Ok my gp2x never got great battery life but this is getting rediculous. I cannot get it to run on a set of batteries for more than an hour. I use to use my energizer 2500mah with no problem. They started dying really fast so I bought some other off brand 2300 mah batteries because they were cheap. Those were worse. Finally I bought some sony 2700 mah batteries that last for about 15-30 minutes. I have used 2 different chargers. The only batteries that seem to work decent are the photo lithium non rechargable batteries but I can only use those for about an hour. If I plug it into the ac adaptor it works fine. Is there any thing that could go out on this to make it drain the batteries fast like this? Any advice/help would be great. Hopeully this is fixable as I have no money to buy a new one right now.
 
Probably unlikely to be your problem. But I find leaving the battery in the charger once I've turned it off will slowly drain them. This even happened with my laptop when I only unplugged the power pack from the wall but not the laptop itself thoguh.
 
I have had this problem. When you say you have used two different chargers you need to be quite specific. If they are of they were cheap then that may be the problem. What cheap chargers do is supply a high current for a certain amount of time and then switches to a lower trickle charge so although the light may have gone green the batteries are not fully charged. I have found that if I leave the batteries charging over night it helps. I would be surprised if the voltage regulator was burnt out.
 
yes i used an unofficial ac adaptor but the most i set it to was 3.7. I read that squidge ran his at 4.1 and was ok. Usually though I ran it at 2.7. The original charger I used was a rayovac ic3 quick charger. It only charged the ic3 batteries quick everything else took like 4 hours to charge 2 batteries. That worked fine for a year with my gp32 and then 8 months with my gp2x. new charger is a sony cycle energy charger model BCG-34HRMF. This charges everything slow and includes a refresh feature that I tried on my old batteries to see if it would make a difference but it did not. It came with 4 sony 2700mah batteries. I did try letting the batteries trickle charge although it did not make much of a difference only a few minutes. I tried underclocking picodrive and got a little more time but still like 40 minutes top doing that. I have tried taking the batteries out of the charger right when they finish and letting them trickle charge some does not make much difference. Sometimes I put a freshly charged set of batteries in. It will boot and the bar will say half charged, I go to do something it locks up like the batteries died, so i restart it and now the the battery meeter says empty. That probably took a matter of a few minutes. I have not checked the voltage regulator yet I might have to do that before class if not it may have to wait until tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for the amount of replys
 
After checking the wiki I think that my voltage regulator is ok. There are no cracks or anything to the case. If anyone has a way to test it with a multimeter or something I would try that.
 
The only batteries that seem to work decent are the photo lithium non rechargable batteries but I can only use those for about an hour.
What you said here probably proves there is something wrong with your hardware and not your rechargeable batteries or the recharger.
 
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I know I kind of figured that it is with the hardware. The photo lithium batteries run at 1.5 volts and last incredibly longer than your standard alkaline. They also have a really good recovery which is why they are recommended to be used in cameras. Does anyone have an idea of what piece of hardware could cause this to happen?
 
I think I may have found the problem actually! Well I hope so anyway. After reading this post http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showt...22173&st=45
someone stated that having a cold solder could raise resistance and lower voltage. Well it didnt come with it from the factory but the rechargable batteries are definatly slightly bigger than standard double AAs. I checked and one of my battery contacts is definatly loose. Hopefully resoldering it should fix the problem. I have soldered things before but I am a little scared about hurting it so I will wait until I have enough time to do a good job. I guess its not even a hard joint to solder but I just dont want to mess up.

edit well I guess its harder than I though. Since the battery is going to be pushing against everytime you take out and put in new batteries. I tried but did not get it fixed. I will have to give it a go later when I am not so tired.
 
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Oh crap, I just got my gp2x and I think I might also have this problem!!!


:eek:

After only a few minute or two all power is drained!

What should I do, I just got the thing and have yet to even be able to play around a bit...
 
After only a few minute or two all power is drained!

What should I do, I just got the thing and have yet to even be able to play around a bit...


If you're talking about the 2 alkaline batteries that came with your GP2X, then don't panic as it's perfectly normal! Do some research around here and you'll find out what happened ;)
 
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