Mobilepro 900c Battery and charger problems

I am having a lot of trouble with my MP900c's battery and charger. Sometimes the charging light stays on and sometimes it doesn't. To get it on I have to move around the cord towards the end which plugs into the MP900c. Wasn't there some kind of updae for the MP900c with a charging detection problem? I thought I remember seeing it somewhere. Anyways. Thanks for any help.
Ben

Sounds like UsedHandhelds is sending out 900C's with loose power sockets. I sell those ones for $50... If I were you, I'd complain to them about it. You paid for a year warranty after all, and it's not anything that can be fixed with software (nor fixed at all, short of soldering a new connection on).

Edited by isotherm 2007-03-21 11:46 AM

this is so sad, Bensawsome.. is this your third unit??

Of course you have to troubleshoot the problem and determine, is the problem with the a/c adapter itself, that is does it have a bad plug, or a broken wire within the shielding, or perhaps is it just a loose plug in the wall or something else that corrects itself with wiggling?

Or is it as Isotherm says, a bad jack, perhaps one that has broken loose from the motherboard and can be fixed with a simple soldering job (most often that is the problem).

But sometimes the problem is an aftermarket a/c adapter where the plug is just a little off in manufacturing specs, the hole is a little to large, or the barrel is a little too long, or any of a multitude of differences.

And of course, about the only way to tell is to swap out a/c adapters and see if the problem repeats itself....

Rich

I'm having a similar problem with my 790 after having it and using it for several months. I got another 790 adapter and still have the problem. I'm wondering if the contacts just bend back after a lot of use, and if so, is it a major job to go inside the MobilePro to bend them back into place.

The contacts themselves rarely bend inside the jack. The problem with the 7X0 series was that the jack is soldered onto the motherboard in only a tiny area, and it is delicate and easy to damage if you put lateral pressure on the plug while it is in the jack. In other words, it is easy to twist the connection loose, and not so easy to resolder, but possible if you are very careful and very good with a soldering gun.

Since it sits atop the motherboard, it is possible to actually break the solder joint and still have it make contact simply by gravity...which gives you that on again/off again loose contact symptom. Lifting up on the wire while it is plugged into the jack and watching the charging light go off is one possible sign that just that has happened.

The only way to tell really is to remove the motherboard, plug in a test continuity jack into the adapter, carefully wiggle the connector and see if it is loose. Sometimes heating the existing solder connections will resolve the problem, especially if it is just a cold joint and not an actual open break.

Rich

Fourth I think. First one was a bad PC card slot, second UPS crushed it (still holding a grudge ), third keyboard was bad, and now the current one! I think it may just be the charger. Is there any way I could test that (other than buying a new charger)?
Thanks for everyones help.
Ben

uh, i hope the warranty covered all that!

Yeah it did. Don't worry. I am submitting a damage report now.

I thought I'd post this quick question in this thread rather than starting a new one: Can anyone recommend a non-OEM generic power adapter that will work with 900c? The adapter that came with my 900c broke in an unfortunate accident involving garden shears (don't ask). I want to replace it, but I don't want to pay the $35 on usedhandhelds (considering I paid only $100 for the unit in the first place). I'm thinkin something for 10 bucks from Walmart or Radio Shack or whatever... but I certainly don't want to damage my beloved 900c. Any advice is appreciated.

I've posted it several times, but Walmart carries the PowerLine brand of universal a/c adapters. They have a couple models, some lower current than the others. You would want the 1000mAh rated one. It costs about $16 here in Michigan now. It will charge your 900C just fine. A higher amp rating is probably a little better, especially if you are trying to charge, run the unit with a wifi card going the same time, but for use without a wifi card, I haven't noticed any problems with the 1 amp rated adapters.

And Bensawsome, I have an old jack that I soldered a 12V automotive bulb onto. I can plug in any of my 900 series adapters into it it. It only checks for continuity, not current draw. But the idea was that I could wiggle all the wire I wanted and if I saw the light flash off, then I knew I had a bad plug/wire somewhere on the a/c adapter. I could have done the same thing by watching the charging light on my HPC, but I didn't want to be wiggling the wire around in the jack and who knows how that might, if at all, affect the unit itself; maybe damaging the jack with all the torquing I was doing. A bulb is pretty sureproof and cheap.

Rich

it was the way these current mobilepro 900c were mounted used that is the problem..people were ripping on the cord going into the units and eventually creating a cold solder joint on the motherboard..i havent seen any faulty ac adapters out of hundreds i have seen maybe 20% of the mobilepros have a bad or slightly bad ac input connection so it is a very common issue..bad as in touching the cord would make it go orange green,sorta bad when moving the input jack by hand would do the same..its not a hard solder job but i dont want to spend an hour plus fixing one either..