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Kiwi Gooner

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 29, 2003
2
0
New Zealand
My Dad has purchased me a new 20gb iPod for the PC for Christmas. I am not allowed to use the iPod fully until Christmas but I have already transferred some music onto it and updated it to 2.1. Since I’m not allowed to use it regularly it sits in a cupboard without being touched. So I leave it for about a week and then I show it to a mate but I notice that the battery that was fully charged is now nearly flat. I know that no one is using it, so what’s happened? Please Help!
 

Dreadnought

macrumors 68020
Jul 22, 2002
2,060
15
Almere, The Netherlands
Nothing to worry about

This is normal. Also, when you only use it on your pc/mac it is not gonna get fully charged (unless you live it hooked on your turned on computer all day) even do the battery indicator says so. Every now and then, plug it in a powersocket for a night. Then it is fully charged!

The Ipod uses energy even when it is turned of (clock, remembering where you left of in a song, other data in cache, etc.) You have the same with a moblie phone, only the ipod uses a bit more energy!
 

ZildjianKX

macrumors 68000
May 18, 2003
1,610
0
Also the 2.1 firmware is pretty whack and doesn't indicate the battery charge correctly 99% of the time.
 

rainman::|:|

macrumors 603
Feb 2, 2002
5,438
2
iowa
the best way to think of it is this: the iPod is a computer, in that it runs an OS and has all of the components. When you're not using it, and the screen is blank, it's simply asleep... the OS is still running, keeping time, etc... and the RAM is still being powered. So it loses about 5% of it's charge per day of storage (according to apple). when your iPod crashes (rarely), or is plugged in, it powers down entirely, but automatically reboots, which is when you see the apple logo... like when you unplug it from your computer. so the tradeoff is that you lose 5% battery per day, in order to use the iPod without waiting for 5-10 second startup each time.

pnw
 

coho

macrumors newbie
Oct 30, 2003
3
0
BC, Canada
on a similar subject...

i recently bought a used 2 month old 3rd generation 15gb ipod with firmware version 2.1 from a reputable person off ebay...it is currently formatted for mac and I use pc..so i haven't even used it myself yet but i noticed that when I plugged it in to charge it...it indicated the unit was charging on the lcd screen and everything seemed honky dory. When I came back at a later time to see the screen indicating that it was "charged" and no longer flashing/moving as the manual describes...i unplugged it and to my surprise the battery indicator said it was only half charged? I thought "what the hell?" i recalled reading that if it wasn't used in a while it would do weird things so i plugged it back in...again it said the unit was charging and then when i unplugged it later after it said it was charged...the battery indicator said 3/4 full? I did it 2 more times before it indicated a full charge! Is this normal?

In addition...i haven't used it since but I have noticed that the battery level has dropped...which coincides with the above posts but...I've noticed that the bloody indicator will start at a certain level once I turn it on...and then increase??? Anyone have any insight? Thanks a lot in advance.
 

poisonmonkey

macrumors newbie
Nov 10, 2003
29
0
Markham, Ontario, Canada
Coho,

Don't worry about the crazy battery charging problem too much. What happens is that with ipod update 2.1 there are a lot of problems with it. My ipod does that once every so often and so does my friend's 10GB so I know its normal. As for the you checking on it at various intervals of time, just make your you charge it for a good 4 hours to fully get it juiced.

The increase is again a problem with the software/firmware. It happens again on my ipod + my friends (as you can see, we check our ipods with each other to make sure its ok)

My guess is that it is re-checking the battery life and adjusting to match.
 

sahnert

macrumors 6502
Oct 20, 2003
498
57
Seattle
mine also shows that it's not fully charged even after it says "charged". i still get the full life out of it before having to recharge. And sometimes it does go up and down. Kind of weird. but nothing to worry about
 

ZildjianKX

macrumors 68000
May 18, 2003
1,610
0
What's to be worried about is that the firmware was released awhile ago, and Apple hasn't gotten off their asses to fix it :(
 
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