From: Manuel Dejonghe <manuel_at_dejonghe.de>
Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 16:20:04 +0200

yes, sounds like a grilled charging chip.

Good luck unsoldering it.

~lImbus

On 5/30/06, Nick von Korff <nickvk_at_itouch.com.au> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I know this is off-topic, i.e. not related to rockbox specifically, but I am
> really struggling to resurrect my old Archos Jukebox Recorder and am not
> sure where to go for help.
>
> My main question is:
>
> I've replaced my Archos JBR 20GB batteries with some new high capacity (2500
> mAh) Energizer Ni-MH batteries. They work fine to power the unit (I charged
> them in an external charger before putting the new batteries in), but the
> batteries do not charge up in the JBR, so they just drain away until the
> unit is unuseable. Are you able to charge high capacity batteries in the
> player itself, or do you have to charge them externally, i.e. does the
> player put out enough power to charge higher capacity batteries internally?
> It would kind of defeat the purpose if this is the case, as it's a pain to
> get the batteries in and out.
>
> If you can't charge just any rechargeble batteries in the player, do I need
> to get a specific type of battery? I noticed that the output
> voltage/amperage on the external charger (5v, 1.6 Amps) is vastly different
> to the voltage/amperage that the AC adaptor of the Archos puts out (9v, 0.6
> Amps).
>
> Secondly, I've seen some posts saying that you can fry the charging chip
> (part number MC34063AD, I believe). Perhaps this has gone on my player,
> causing the unit not to charge the batteries. If anyone out there knows of a
> simple test that I can do to prove whether this chip is blown or not, I'd be
> keen to know. I wouldn't call myself an electronics expert by any stretch of
> the imagination, but I can follow instructions, use a multimeter and
> soldering iron if required, I'm just not sure what to look for in this
> situation.
>
> The reason I am trying to 'resurrect' my player, in case anyone is
> wondering, is that I leant it to someone from work for use as a removable
> USB hard drive some time ago, and 2 things happened to it on that fateful
> day that most likely caused its death:
>
> 1. I didn't have the original charger with me and it really needed some
> juice, so a generic power supply with the correct voltage/amperage and
> interchangeable tips was purchased for use with the player. The positive and
> negative tips were on the wrong way round at first. When it was plugged in,
> nothing happened, so I immediately unplugged it. I could smell that fried
> electronics smell coming from the player, but no visible smoke. I switched
> the polarity of the tip and plugged it in, and it worked! I was pleasantly
> surprised.
>
> 2. It was dropped from a decent height (roughly 2 meters up) by one of the
> idiot techs a short while later.
>
> To cut a long story short, it was pretty much dead after that, making really
> strange noises from the harddrive on startup and reporting some sort of
> hex-dump to screen. I managed to get my work to replace the player for me,
> seeing as it was killed while being used for work purposes, so I got an
> iRiver H340 instead, which is great.
>
> I've now replaced the hard drive of the JBR with another 20GB laptop hard
> drive I had lying around and I've replaced the rechargeable batteries with
> some high-capacity ones (2500 mAh NiMH Energizers). I charged the batteries
> in an external charger and put them in. The player came to life with a full
> charge. I felt that pride that doctor Frankenstein must have felt when his
> monster came to life!!
>
> I figured that was it, I'd got it working again. Wrong. I copied up all my
> music onto it while running off batteries, as I wanted to see what the new
> high-capacity batteries could do. They held up well, and I had around 40%
> left by the time all my music had finished copying up.
>
> BUT!! When I try to charge the batteries in the player, by plugging in the
> original AC adaptor, it doesn't do anything. The battery level stays the
> same as it was before I put it on charge, even though the screen on the unit
> says its charging. I changed the Battery Capacity menu option in RockBox, as
> I thought this may have something to do with it, but I have since learned
> that this figure is only used to calculate remaining battery life etc.
>
> If anyone has any input on this situation, that would be great. I really
> don't want to bin that player, as it is such a good unit.
>
> Thanks and regards,
>
> Nick v K.
>
>
>
>
Received on 2006-05-30