Battery Meter

[poddie]

Hi everyone! This is my first post and I think this site is great! I got my first 2gb mp4 player (3.5.37 firmware) from eBay recently. During my first 4 hrs of charge, the battery meter only showed 80% full. During my second 5 hrs of charge, the battery meter only showed 50% full. Subsequently, I tried charging the player in both on and off mode but the meter only showed that it's 50% full. Is this a common occurence with clones? Please help!

[lattesurf]

poddie, is the playtime still the same as when you 1st bought it? Or has the playtime dropped significantly?
If so, it could be that the battery has some problem and it's better to contact your seller and request an exchange.
Generally, for my player, it is able to charge fully both when it is on or off.

If the playtime is still the same when you 1st bought it, you can try extracting your existing firmware, repair it, and re-flash it back to your player.

[tadad1]

poddie. Your player should always be on when charging.
Depending on the mAh rating of your battery you should expect a minimum of about 5 hours of continuous MP3 play with all power saving features enabled. Some players will run for 7 to 8 hours or more.
The on screen battery meter is not terribly accurate so do not put to much faith in it. I have one player that from full will reach a 1/4 in the first hour or so then run a furthur 6 -7 hours from there.
As long as you are getting an acceptable amount of play time there is possibly not alot you can do. If your running time is significantly reduced to a few hours then you may have a charging problem.
You may also find editing your battery icon images may give you a more accurate reading as some only show a level change every second or third image so the indicator changes in larger chunks rather than a smooth increase.

[poddie]

Many thanks to both Lattesurf and Tadad1 for their helpful suggestions. So far, the continuous playtime hasn't been great. From the 1st 80% charge, i was only able to get about 2 hrs playtime on it. The most recent charge at 50% gave me approx. 1 hr playtime. I understand that the battery meter probably isn't the most accurate but at the moment, I suspect it could be a problem with the cable that connects the player to the AC adaptor as the green light doesn't come on when I connect the both. I tried fiddling with the cable just now and a faint green light appeared. My player probably has past the date of exchange, so if the latter doesn't work, I'll give the firmware trick a try.

Just to double check, what are the power saving modes? And secondly, is there a way to darken the screen when mp3s are being played (ie. put screen in power saving mode during playback)

Thanks again for all your help

[tadad1]

poddie, You mentioned a faint green light coming on, are you using a wall charger? If so I suggest you only use it only if you have no access to a PC and for no more than 4 - 5 hours at a time as they tend to strain the battery and shorten it's life.
To set the LCD off go to Settings>LCD set>darkle or black or both and set the slider to 10 - 15 seconds. On one Player I have darkle and black settings and the screen off feature does not work unless I set both.

[poddie]

Thanks Tadad1 !

Yes, I am using a wall charger and that's a very useful piece of info to know!