Dying Tablet?

[gordon_s1942]

The other day my wife had problems getting the Aldi 10 inch tablet I bought her 2 years suddenly shut down and would not restart.
I fiddled, pressed, tried the 'reset' and nothing happened until I plugged the charger in.
On came the power 'blue light' and a each of the start up screens appeared one after the other until it was seemed to be running normally.
According to the screen, the battery had more than a 90% charge but it did the same thing today, she turned it on (Battery only) and just as the 'Home Page' appeared, it shut down and would not restart.
The only way I could get it to start was to plug in the charger and on comes the power light followed by the normal start up pages before the Home page.

Its 2 years old and out of warranty and would probably cost more than a new one for any repairs if there are any available but I am wondering if its a battery/power problem even though its showing 90%+ charged ?

Anyone else had this sort of problem either with this brand or others?

btw, my wife looks after it and puts it in a foam cover when not in use so its not been used as a fly swatter as per that TV ad !!!

[mtv]

If it's a lithium battery, they drop off very suddenly.

'Appearing' charged, the voltage drops rapidly under load and the device shuts down.

This is typical of a lithium battery at the end of its life.

It may also be possible the charging circuit isn't working correctly.

[gordon_s1942]

I am pretty sure its a Lithium but typically not 'User replaceable' so if its as you suspect MTV, hopefully it will keep working on the charger for her as it doesnt leave the house so the battery isnt a problem unless its failure shuts the tablet down completely.

[lsemmens]

I bought a cheap clone for a friend on eBay. It exhibited exactly the same problems after a couple of months. They actually repaired it under warranty with no issue. I have no idea what the problem was, though.

[fandtm666]

i have played with various cheaper tabs in the past and most
are all re-badged Chinese ones.

All the ones i have operated on in the past had only a couple screws
holding them together and once removed only needed the plastic pry tool
from the iphone repair kit to pop the screen of to find the battery taped
onto the back of the unit.

When i checked ebay a replacement could be found for not much money.


what model is it - in the firmware what does it say about model manufacturer etc.

[fromaron]

I would also try a battery calibration app before buying a new battery. I've seen a few phones behaving in a very similar manner with the battery stats file corrupted.
You can't charge more as it shows the battery is full when in reality it's close to nothing.

[gordon_s1942]

The outer case appears to be totally wrapped around the tablet and I cannot see any screws anywhere to allow for battery replacement but if the number for the Help centre is still active, I will ring and ask.

[jwoegerbauer]

To calibrate your tablet's battery at least once a month fully discharge and charge it. The well known "memory effect" - which comes about because the working voltage of the battery drops over time because of incomplete charging-discharging cycles - as it exists in Nickel-Cadmium- and Nickel-metal hydride batteries .

[gordon_s1942]

'Re-cycling' the battery may prove difficult now as it turns off moments after being turned on and having it on charge for a period of time doesnt seem to change that effect or hasnt until now but it wont hurt to try again but this time in a more orderly manner and note what its doing.
But as I said earlier, if it will keep working while connected to the charger will keep her happy.

[Downunder35m]

I would open the thing and use a multimeter to check the battery and if useless see to find a replacement.
Keeping on constant charge might do you more harm than good in the long run.

[gordon_s1942]

The only way I can see to 'open' it would be either with a can opener or the back of an axe as the outer metal case is folded over the whole device and there are no visible screws.
I havent had a chance yet to try to recharge it but I do remember that it normally displays a red light when charging but I did notice a couple of times it would display a 'Blue Light' and turn on when the charger was attached so I am wondering if its not always turning off properly but going into a 'sleep mode' which would maybe discharge the battery and thats whats causing it to shut down now on 'Start Up'?

[gordon_s1942]

I recharged it yesterday making sure the Indicator light was RED during the charge and when I tried the Tablet this morning, it turned on and loaded to the Home page with no problems.
I used for over half an hour before finally turning it off and it seemed to be working normally so I wonder if my previous guess was right and it hadnt turned off properly for some reason.
I have told my Wife to make sure if she puts it on charge, that the indicator light glows RED and not Blue.

[fromaron]

That's good.
Now it might be a good time to recalibrate the battery.

[gordon_s1942]

That might be a choice if I knew how to do it unless you mean by using it for varying times and charging it to different levels each time.
One thing my Wife was doing when she was using it was to connect the charger rather than running it on the battery alone.
I have no idea of how often she did this or her actual use of the Tablet.
I never know 'nuthin' until I am told, 'Its not working' or 'It wont turn on' and then having to extract what these phrases mean.

[fromaron]

That might be a choice if I knew how to do it unless you mean by using it for varying times and charging it to different levels each time.

Gordon, you might want to read and follow the instruction from the site

[gordon_s1942]

Gordon, you might want to read and follow the instruction from the site

Thanks for that info and I will see if I can apply what is needed to the Tablet.

So far, it appears to be working correctly but I am not happy to leave it at that as ignoring it might prove a bad move in the long term.