So for a long period of time my Treo had been dying a slow death as a cell phone. At first I thought that maybe Sprint had lost a local tower, as it seemed very tempermental about making or receiving calls, but only at home. Then I realized that Karin's phone still worked fine. The problem slowly worsened, and it got to the point that I would borrow Karin's phone to make calls (we never use all our minutes). Then one day a few weeks ago I had the Eureka moment - it only made phone calls when it was plugged into the charger. I looked around, ordered a replacement battery online and waited for shipping with great excitement.
So one day the battery arrives. That night I leave it plugged in overnight and the next morning I back it up and then popped open the Treo to change the battery. That's not exactly easy, but it wasn't too bad. Plug in the new battery, close it all back up, plug it in - and it won't charge. Much messing around later I determine it's just the new battery - it says it has 0% charge, starts a charge cycle and then immediately stops it.
So I get a RMA for the battery, and put the old battery back in the Treo. Close it up, plug it in and it claims to be at 45% charge. Note that this battery was supposed to be at 100% charge when I unplugged it. I let it charge up to full again and tried a phone call on batteries. No problem.
I played with it for the next several days and it make every call I tried. I even ran the battery down lower than 45% and it still made a call. Mind you it had gotten to the point where I could make a call on the charger and disconnect the charger and it would immediately hang up before I took it apart and reassembled it.
What caused this behavior? I have no real idea. The real interesting question is this - now I have another replacement battery. Should I mess with it, or should I leave well enough alone? I'm thinking don't fix what ain't broke. I run the slight risk that the second battery is also bogus, but I paid the money and now the phone works - so no complaints here I guess.
So one day the battery arrives. That night I leave it plugged in overnight and the next morning I back it up and then popped open the Treo to change the battery. That's not exactly easy, but it wasn't too bad. Plug in the new battery, close it all back up, plug it in - and it won't charge. Much messing around later I determine it's just the new battery - it says it has 0% charge, starts a charge cycle and then immediately stops it.
So I get a RMA for the battery, and put the old battery back in the Treo. Close it up, plug it in and it claims to be at 45% charge. Note that this battery was supposed to be at 100% charge when I unplugged it. I let it charge up to full again and tried a phone call on batteries. No problem.
I played with it for the next several days and it make every call I tried. I even ran the battery down lower than 45% and it still made a call. Mind you it had gotten to the point where I could make a call on the charger and disconnect the charger and it would immediately hang up before I took it apart and reassembled it.
What caused this behavior? I have no real idea. The real interesting question is this - now I have another replacement battery. Should I mess with it, or should I leave well enough alone? I'm thinking don't fix what ain't broke. I run the slight risk that the second battery is also bogus, but I paid the money and now the phone works - so no complaints here I guess.