Clara HD Battery Issues

[MasterBomarc]

I have a Clara HD that seems to be having similar battery problems as some other threads, with the battery dieing while sleeping. One thing in common with this problem is a faulty or 3rd party sleep cover. Except my problem started before and sleep cover was installed.

Currently: Wifi off, Sync off, Autosleep with cover off, Overdrive off, sleep after 15min. Kobo will go from full battery to between 10%, or from 10% to 1%, within 3-4 hours every 2nd day. The battery has never fully died. The clock also seems to change whenever this happens by a random amount of hours.

When the device charges it does take a couple hours (normal I assume?) with no large jumps in battery %. It has been charged to 100% 3 times, and dropped to 1% 3 times. It has not fully died. In use the battery seems perfect. Dropping 1% or so after 2-3 hours reading with a 5% backlight. Which leads me to believe it's a software issue not a hardware issue.

Things I have already tried: Plenty of restarts. A Full reset of the Clara, update to the newest firmware (4.19.14123) with a restart after an hour after the update. Loaded on books (80 or so, using Calibre. All epub, none were converted). Restarted device an hour after the book load.

Next step to try: Unload all books and see if I can download one from the Kobo store to ensure it's not a corrupt book causing the problem.
Any other ideas? Is there a way to log what the device is doing to see if it is constantly waking while sleeping? Just to help narrow down between a software or hardware problem.
If anyone has a fresh copy of what I need to flash on an SD card I'd love try a new SD card with new software incase it's a problem with the OS currently installed. After that it's going be replacing the battery if I can order one.

Last note: This was purchased used about a week ago, so I can't return and likely can't do a warranty replacement. I have no idea what the last owner may have done in terms of loading other software ect, as it was factory reset before I bought (but didn't have the latest firmware)

Help.

[karthikrr]

I had a Kobo Aura H20 that did crazy things with the battery, including random drops and jumps. I solved it by letting the battery go to 0 once and then leaving it connected to the charger for 24 hours straight. Important not to turn on the device or use it in anyway for this period. Sounds hard to believe, but it worked and I have had no problems since then.

[MasterBomarc]

Yea guess that's my next step. I'll do another factory reset, let it die, then leave it charging for a while to see what happens.

[stumped]

it could just be a bad battery, with an inaccurate charge indicator.

but to eliminate as many other factors as possible try setting it to never sleep, set light to minimum , disable wifi , and also remove all books, and remove the cover.

then if you can have it somewhere handy for spot checks and start it off at 100 at start of day, so you can check battery % every hour or so - see what results you get.

if the battery is bad you will see a steep % fall at some stage, because some cells cannot hold a charge.

a bad battery will often appear to charge ok and show 100% charge, but fail to hold it for long


OTOH if its looking good after a couple of days like that, then add back in other factors, one at a time...

in most countries and with most retailers or even with ebay, you can return within 14 days for a full refund if not happy, so if you've only had it a week...

[MasterBomarc]

Great suggestions stumped. That's definitely a way to tell if it's from faulty sleeping, or from a bad battery. Won't be able to try this for another day or 2, but I'll update when I do.

Sadly I did not purchase through a retailer, it was through kijiji. Can't really go after the old owner, so I'm outta luck there. Hence I'd be looking at replacing the battery myself if I can source one that is pretty cheap.

[stumped]

did you pay cash ?

if you used paypal, you can open a dispute with them.

there should be folks here ( but no me) who can advise on the practicalities of replacing a battery, if that is needed

with no books , no (or minimal) light and no wifi there's really nothing for the clara to be doing that would burn up battery power, so it should discharge very slowly and take a long time zero.

clock does go haywire if battery gets completely drained, I had an older kobo that reverted to 2013 when flat.

[MasterBomarc]

Yes cash. Kijiji is like craigslist in the US I guess? Buy & Sell site for local stuff. Typically all meet in person/cash deals. I'm honestly not that worried about it. It's always a risk when buying used hardware, and this is the first time I've been burned (if it is a bad battery, still not convinced). This is my first ereader, and I love it outside of the battery only lasting 2 days. So I may just buy a new one and use this one for testing different software & patches and as backup parts.

Would the clock go haywire if the device never dies? I haven't actually had the Kobo completely die yet, and the date is always right, even though it seems to display a completely random time (hours, minutes, AM & PM are all wrong) every time this happens. I have also noticed the device doesn't actually like me trying to set the clock, it can take 4-5 attempts before it saves.

I've had the device on, no sleep, with 5% backlight. Opening and closing a book randomly for the last hour with no change in battery. But as you mentioned, I suspect it will take a few days to die, even without sleeping at 13% battery if everything acts normal.

Thanks for the continued suggestions stumped. I'll be following your suggestion once I can get this thing to actually die and charge up to full. I'll remove the books and see what happens if I don't let it sleep.

[davidfor]

As it is second hand, you could open it and inspect everything. Maybe there is a loose connection. You can also check the battery for any damage or unusual swelling.

[MasterBomarc]

Nothing unusual when I open it up. It's completely clean, all contacts and connections are clean and secure. No swelling on the battery. The whole device really is in immaculate condition.

Another small update. The ereader has been left on for about 22 hours now, without going into sleep mode. Backlight has been kept at 5%, and there was about 4-5 hours of active reading in that 22 hours. Battery has dropped from 13% to 5% in that 22 hours. I've never owned an ereader before, but that seems pretty normal, and is about what life I would expect to get out of the device.

[sdj]

Originally Posted by MasterBomarc

Nothing unusual when I open it up. It's completely clean, all contacts and connections are clean and secure. No swelling on the battery. The whole device really is in immaculate condition.

Another small update. The ereader has been left on for about 22 hours now, without going into sleep mode. Backlight has been kept at 5%, and there was about 4-5 hours of active reading in that 22 hours. Battery has dropped from 13% to 5% in that 22 hours. I've never owned an ereader before, but that seems pretty normal, and is about what life I would expect to get out of the device.

Not sure if it's any help, but I just wanted to say that I bought a brand new Clara HD on December 24th, charged it fully right after I took it ouf of the box, and have been reading a lot on it since then (from 1 to 3 hours every day, with the light set to ~25%). Right now, the battery is at ~32%, and I have not charged it again since the first time.

I have the original sleep cover, and I obviously don't let the wifi/autosync on.

Cheers.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by MasterBomarc

Nothing unusual when I open it up. It's completely clean, all contacts and connections are clean and secure. No swelling on the battery. The whole device really is in immaculate condition.

Another small update. The ereader has been left on for about 22 hours now, without going into sleep mode. Backlight has been kept at 5%, and there was about 4-5 hours of active reading in that 22 hours. Battery has dropped from 13% to 5% in that 22 hours. I've never owned an ereader before, but that seems pretty normal, and is about what life I would expect to get out of the device.

i would charge it back to 100%, this time set the sleep timer to default value ( = 5 mins? ). don't change anything else, retest

its important to be patient and only change one thing at a time, when troubleshooting

[MasterBomarc]

It's been about 8 hours at 1%. Waiting to see how long it takes to completely die. I'm going to charge it up to 100% after, and I want to repeat this test from 100% without letting it sleep. I'll likely turn up the brightness so it dies a bit quicker. That would eliminate faulty cells in the battery being the cause.

[MasterBomarc]

Starting to look like it could be a problem with the calibration of the battery.

The device has now been at 1%, still on with the backlight and not being let to sleep, for 32ish hours. I wonder if the previous owner kept it always plugged in. Will be interesting to see how long it takes before it actually dies.

Thank you for everyone's continued help with troubleshooting.

[stumped]

That's a good outcome If true
Most advice on repairing calibration is to do a few complete discharge then recharge cycles.

After that it's better to stay above zero with li on cells, recharge whenever they get low
and no real need to force 100%, going back up only to 80 or 90 is less stressful for the chmistry

[compurandom]

A full discharge is bad for a lithium battery. Every time you do that, you lose a chunk of capacity.

If the first full discharge/recharge doesn't reset the charge chip, subsequent ones are not going to help a lot.