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H/PC Philosopher Posts: | 471 |
Location: | Italy | Status: | |
| Hi everybody,
I would like to know by different people possessing a NEc 900c about its battery duration.
Everytime I use my Nec 900c with a wifi card it drains out the battery very fast. I am talking about 20/30 minutes of surfing.
The same don't happen with my Jornada 720; I can surf web with it for time.
So I would like to know about other people experience because if others have longer battery I have to search for some 900c problems.
For example, loss of charge when it is not used. I have noticed on the upper right corner of the keyboard, above brughtness key a hole which correspond to a plastic pin just below the screen that would fit the hole when Nec is closed (in my case the pin is missing). I was wondering that maybe that is a security power switch off.
Please, let me know if others have same problem and suggestions on how to solve it are appreciated. Thanks |
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H/PC Sensei Posts: | 1,278 |
Location: | Silicon Valley, USA | Status: | |
| I tested some batteries. Good ones last 1 hour during my continuous surfing. Bad ones last 10 minutes. |
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H/PC Philosopher Posts: | 451 |
Location: | United States | Status: | |
| Quote Slycarter - 2009-02-17 1:27 PM
Hi everybody,
I would like to know by different people possessing a NEc 900c about its battery duration.
Everytime I use my Nec 900c with a wifi card it drains out the battery very fast. I am talking about 20/30 minutes of surfing.
The same don't happen with my Jornada 720; I can surf web with it for time.
So I would like to know about other people experience because if others have longer battery I have to search for some 900c problems.
For example, loss of charge when it is not used. I have noticed on the upper right corner of the keyboard, above brughtness key a hole which correspond to a plastic pin just below the screen that would fit the hole when Nec is closed (in my case the pin is missing). I was wondering that maybe that is a security power switch off.
Please, let me know if others have same problem and suggestions on how to solve it are appreciated. Thanks
With a rebuilt battery pack, around 3 hours without alot of surfing (I find the MP900 too frustrating for extended surfing ). I bought the cells once I was routinely getting less than 40 minutes of use time and even 24 hours off-charge (A/C power ) would result in a low battery indicator. The screen brightness significantly affects the use time.
The pin/hole tells the unit when the cover is closed. Presumably, setting the unit to power off after a few minutes of inactivity will take care of the absence of the cover switch.
I really like the keyboard and the compactness, but I spend alot more time with my Psion Netbook Pro these days.
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Global Moderator H/PC Guru Posts: | 7,188 |
Location: | USA | Status: | |
| Different battery characteristics, different wifi cards, different everything...kind of like comparing apples and oranges.
Nice when you can set the wifi power output to meet your needs, especially when you don't need to broadcast 100 yards versus hitting a hotspot 10 feet away.
I am good for about 2+ hours of constant surfing using my extended battery fully charged.
Yep, that pin/hole thingie turns the power off immediately when closing the lid whether you power down or not, and opening the lid turns it back on. You can test it easy enough...run Windows Media Player and loop a sound. Then push down on the pin. The screen and the sound goes off immediately, suspending all activity. Release the pin...you are back where you left off.
Rich |
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Global Moderator H/PC Oracle Posts: | 12,672 |
Location: | Southern California | Status: | |
| I have two batteries for my 900C-A, and both give me about two hours of medium-duty use. Both tend to run down almost completely after a few days of nonuse.  |
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H/PC Philosopher Posts: | 471 |
Location: | Italy | Status: | |
| So, assuming that pin-hole doesn't affect power consuption...where can I find a battery long lastin like yours?
I have bought one on ebay a couple a months ago as replace for the one I had before but as I said it won't last more even though it was guaranteed as 24h lasting with no activity (actually when I recieved from USA about 10 days later it was still holding almost full charge).
I looked up and down for 900c battery but I hadn't a clue. If you have some suggestion on buying even only cells to be replaced.
Thanks. |
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Global Moderator H/PC Guru Posts: | 7,188 |
Location: | USA | Status: | |
| The best battery is to get the OP-MP9-EXTBATT
That is the extended 4-cell Mobilepro 900 series battery. Just do a search on this site for "battery rebuild" and you will get more info than you need!
If you need to rebuild a battery pack, something like this: http://www.batteryjunction.com/2600pcb-18650.html is the way to go.
Again, on this site just search "18650" and you will get a ton of info on the cells themselves. |
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| If anyone has the marvell chipset CF wi-fi card (the 11g one that worked on Sig3) could they try that in a PCMCIA converter.
I found the marvell 11g made a considerable increase in the wi-fi browsing time. IIRC almost an extra 45min +
Just interested to know if that is the same on 900C |
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H/PC Philosopher Posts: | 471 |
Location: | Italy | Status: | |
| I got Netgear MA401 wifi card with Intersil chipset.
Intersil has a power save option but this is not visible in this driver (it does on Jornada720). Does anyone know how to enable it by registry?
Myabe it help a bit.
Is it difficult to change cell into battery pack?
Edited by Slycarter 2009-02-18 2:10 AM
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| Quote Slycarter - 2009-02-18 7:06 AM
I got Netgear MA401 wifi card with Intersil chipset.
Intersil has a power save option but this is not visible in this driver (it does on Jornada720). Does anyone know how to enable it by registry?
Myabe it help a bit.
Is it difficult to change cell into battery pack?
http://www.hpcfactor.com/support/cesd/h/0034.asp |
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H/PC Philosopher Posts: | 451 |
Location: | United States | Status: | |
| Quote Slycarter - 2009-02-18 2:06 AM
Is it difficult to change cell into battery pack?
Nope. Somewhere on the web, there used to have some pictures of the process (might have been Rich Hawley's site, now http://webpages.charter.net/hpcnec/).
Basically, you just need to open up the case with an Exacto knife or razor by cutting along the seems. It takes several dozen small cuts. You can then remove the old cells (they look like oversized AA batteries ). You'll need to snip them out. You can then either resolder the leads to the new cells (there's some danger of overheating here since Li-ion cells don't like "excessive" heat ), add springs, or fold over some of the metal to keep the cells under tension. The only other issue is not to cut or lose the thermister circuit (it's a third wire that was wrapped up in the cells -- the other 2 wires connect the cells in series ).
Use some tape (or any other cool, removable sealing process ) to close the pack back up.
It sounds abit more complicated than it really was.
jt |
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H/PC Philosopher Posts: | 471 |
Location: | Italy | Status: | |
| I think I am gonna do it aslo because price for a new battery plus shipping to Italy is not cheap.
Do you think I need particular cells or standard AA rechargeable battery will do? |
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H/PC Philosopher Posts: | 451 |
Location: | United States | Status: | |
| Quote Slycarter - 2009-02-18 9:00 AM
I think I am gonna do it aslo because price for a new battery plus shipping to Italy is not cheap.
Do you think I need particular cells or standard AA rechargeable battery will do?
You can't use AA's (1.5V ). The standard cells in the MP900C are 3.7V lithium cells. They are connected to provide 7.4V. I got mine from Battery Junction as posted earlier in this thread.
An advantage of the 7x0 series was the availability of a AA adapter (it sticks out further behind the unit ). AFAIK NEC didn't make one for the 900. |
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| the cells you need are called 18500 IIRC.
Loads of online sellers. Keep an eye on the mAh rating as some are lower than std some are higher. The bigger the MAh number the longer the battery will last.
When you buy them I recommend buying from somewhere that will pre-attach solder tabs you dont really want to be getting the cells too hot so this helps a lot.
John
PS my smartbook has 2600 mAh 18500 cells in it. not sure what std 900c ones are. |
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H/PC Philosopher Posts: | 471 |
Location: | Italy | Status: | |
| Do I need 18650 or 18500IIR cells? |
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