Bulging Battery


AndyL

AndyL

Still Fresh
Joined
Oct 11, 2011
Messages
3
My Pandora has developed a bit of an issue. My battery has begun to bulge outward. Not too much, in fact, you can barely see it just looking, but enough that I can't really close the battery compartment anymore.


I will admit that the Pandora had probably been connected to line power for at least a week. (I'd been using it as a desktop media player.) Is that something I'm not supposed to do?


So, My question is : how can I find out if my Pandora is still under warranty, (I was in the first couple dozen final units shipped out, So it's been a while.) And either way, how do I get a replacement battery so I can use my Pandora again?


Thank you very much.


-Andy
 
Hmm.. I thought it was up to date, but it's entirely possible I missed an update.


I'll try to get a photograph, but like I said, it's tough to see just looking. I only noticed it because one of the two battery compartment clips had popped open, and I discovered I couldn't re-close it.
 
Oh, hey. It runs without the battery in. I was sure it wouldn't do that. Handy.


I'm on hotfix 5, which is the current one, so far as I can tell.


Edit : I guess I should have said "The current one on the website". I see that a new one came out last week,. So I'm one behind.
 
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there were i think 6 different hotfix5's, massive changes between them, especially in charging department
 
You may want to consider purchasing a new battery aswell, as these things once swollen up are unlikely to reduce in size and more importantly can be bad news i.e catching fire/exploding etc.
 
MarioPandio said:
You may want to consider purchasing a new battery aswell, as these things once swollen up are unlikely to reduce in size and more importantly can be bad news i.e catching fire/exploding etc.
Click to expand...
Excellent point .
 
Hi all - yes, I too experienced the battery bulge phenomenon. It was actually really strange since the bulge was not evident until I took the battery out of the case to perform a firmware reset. Then when I went to close the compartment back up, it would barely snap back in. So of course I have removed it and re-ordered a replacement (I sure hope they can get it to me quickly with the expedited option I selected since I just put my unit up on eBay)... And I can definitely say the cause is most likely attributed to the fact that I had it plugged in too long.
 
Yeah, you can run it on just AC. Personally, if I was going to not take advantage of the battery for a long time, that's what I would do.


But really, given how short the cord is, I wouldn't want to use it like that anyway.
 
onpon4 said:
Yeah, you can run it on just AC. Personally, if I was going to not take advantage of the battery for a long time, that's what I would do.
Click to expand...
Do note that running it from the mains, sans battery, is an unsupported "experimental" feature, though, and it does not work on all Pandoras.


I just wanted to point that out, because there are units where this does not work, and that's normal. It might save some unnecessary RMAs. :p
 
yep mine is one of the ones that only works via battery.But the portability is what the pandoras all about so what the heck.
 
without battery, mine works fine with official psp charger...not so much with official pandora charger
 
well im quite sure my pandora charger doesnt say SONY on it...although there is a cheap ol' "FOR PSP" sticker on it, but its not official sony, whereas my psp charget is official sony product that came with psp1001, and as said, will keep pandora turned on without a battery, but for charger i got with pandora, it turns it on, and as soon as it does, it shuts off, then tries again, and shuts off, tries again, etc.
 
I have my pandora plugged in all the time in my bedroom (with the battery out). It's a nice low power audio player/torrent downloader, and I play c64 games while watching boring TV. For some reason it always says the battery is at 82%, though there is no battery in it. Why is running without battery experimental, and why would some pandoras work and some not? Is there a difference in the boards they have?


Also, if you have a pandora without the ability to run purely from the mains, perhaps (I take no responsibility) if you have a bulging battery you could remove the cells from it (CAREFULLY, and DON'T BURST/BREAK the cells) to make a deliberate dud/dummy battery. Maybe it would let you run from mains without the concern of "fat bastard battery syndrome".
 
TitanUranus said:
I have my pandora plugged in all the time in my bedroom (with the battery out). It's a nice low power audio player/torrent downloader, and I play c64 games while watching boring TV. For some reason it always says the battery is at 82%, though there is no battery in it. Why is running without battery experimental, and why would some pandoras work and some not? Is there a difference in the boards they have?


Also, if you have a pandora without the ability to run purely from the mains, perhaps (I take no responsibility) if you have a bulging battery you could remove the cells from it (CAREFULLY, and DON'T BURST/BREAK the cells) to make a deliberate dud/dummy battery. Maybe it would let you run from mains without the concern of "fat bastard battery syndrome".
Click to expand...

BAD IDEA.


These are not normal Lthium-Ion batteries. If you accidentally puncture a Lithium-Ion Polymer battery, it can easily go up in flames. And I think that's an understatement.
 
Yea LiPo batteries can be SCARY if they explode, either by bulging too much, shorted or punctured. When charging LiPo batteries for RC for example, you charge them outside or in a LiPo safe bag because people have lost their homes and lives in LiPo fires.
 
onpon4 said:
TitanUranus said:
blah blah blah....
Click to expand...

BAD IDEA.


These are not normal Lthium-Ion batteries. If you accidentally puncture a Lithium-Ion Polymer battery, it can easily go up in flames. And I think that's an understatement.
Click to expand...

Yes I know, but I'm fairly certain that inside the wrapping, there are smaller LiPo cells that could be removed carefully and with minimal risk, then disposed of hilariously or sensibly, depending on individual choice. I haven't tried it on my pandora battery, but I have some experience of batteries, and they are virtually always composed of multiple smaller cells. Certainly, don't do it unless you like playing with fire though. But what sort of lunatic doesn't like playing with fire?
 
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TitanUranus said:
Why is running without battery experimental, and why would some pandoras work and some not? Is there a difference in the boards they have?
Click to expand...
My understanding is that it's deemed experimental by Texas Instruments - it's more that it's an experimental feature of the SoC than of the Pandora.


I'm not sure why it works with some Pandoras but not others, though I'm guessing it's something to do with some sort of variances in manufacturing. :p
 
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