From: Ray Lambert <listlizard_at_interthingy.net>
Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 00:28:40 +0000

Rocker wrote:

>
> Hi you wrote:
> Another different problem I have been having is that sometimes it
> refuses to start up. After I push on, the green light turns on briefly,
> the back light comes on, I hear the hard drive start to spin up, but it
> fails and the unit turns off before anything comes on screen. Is this
> battery failure of some sort? Is it in some way linked to what is
> happening above?
>
> *I have had the same issue with my FMR for over a year now. Other
> then taking it apart and checking the battery connectors, testing the
> HD and all the other sawder points there is not much that can be done.
>
> I don't know if this is a firmware issue or just lousy hardware.
>
> Sorry I could not be more help...rocker


I might know what this is. I replaced my battery earlier this year and
I started having this problem afterwards. My problem was also
accompanied by low run times (even though my new battery had higher
capacity than my old). It turned out to be two separate problems.

The first was that the battery would sometimes slide sideways and short
out against the metal chassis. The battery (I believe) is actually a
double cell. When one side shorts out, it appears that it no longer
supplies power (and probably drains rapidly) while the other side
continues providing power for the unit to run, but (not surprisingly) it
runs out twice as fast as normal. My solution for this was decidedly
low-tech: I wedged two pieces of a plastic coffee stirrer on either side
of the battery, between the battery and the chassis. :-) Sounds
pretty cheesy, I know, but it works like a charm. :-)

The second problem is that the battery sometimes slides away from the
battery contacts until it no longer makes contact. When this happens,
the unit won't come on at all. When I apply external power, I get
almost the exactly what was described. I have not yet found a permanent
solution to this problem. Wedging something behind the battery might
stop it from sliding out, but I fear this will only cause the extremely
cheesy battery cover (very poor archos design, IMO) to pop out. The
fix, of course, when this happens, is to remove the battery cover, push
the battery back in, and replace the cover.

I suspect the original battery had something sticky on it to prevent it
from sliding. There was a plastic film on it which I assumed only acted
as an insulator. (Maybe the sticky stuff dried up to the extent that I
didn't notice it?) Before installing my new battery, I placed a similar
clear plastic film on it (intending it to be an insulator; I actually
used some clear packing tape cut to size). The plastic does increase
the friction between the battery and the chassis but not enough to keep
the battery from sliding if I drop the unit (even just a small drop) --
the impact will cause the battery to slide out. One solution might be
to open it up again and put some double-sided tape on the battery (but I
haven't gotten around to trying this).

I've found the general archos designs to be pretty good but certain
details are quite poor (such as the aforementioned battery cover), their
construction is highly suspect, their SW leaves a lot to be desired,
their support is just awful (they've never even responded to any of my
inquires), and their "community appreciation and strategy" is really
quite dumb. Frankly, I intend to avoid ever buying an archos product
again. For this reason I'm very glad to see rockbox being ported to
other devices. (Whoops, I didn't plan on ranting tonight; sorry.... ;-)

~ray

-- 
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Received on 2005-06-06