Unpredictable battery usage on 940

[DaveMatthews]

Hi folks,

Ever since I bought my 940 (almost 18 months ago) its use of its internal battery has been rather unpredictable...

Most commonly I use the 940 for getting to work (primarily so I can keep an eye on any traffic incidents), a journey that takes about an hour. On most occasions I'll leave home with a full-charged battery and by the time I get to work it is around 50% exhausted, which leaves enough power to make the return journey in the evening. Occasionally, however, when I set off for home, I find that the battery has almost completely exhausted...

It's almost as though the screen itself is off but the unit is still operating for some reason.

As far as I'm aware the only procedure for switching the unit off is to hold the power button down for a few seconds until the splash screen appears and then it will close itself down a few seconds later. (I note in the User Guide that there is a chapter headed "Switching the unit on and off" yet it doesn't actually describe the latter operation!)

One thing I did try was to put the unit into Flight Mode before switching off but the battery still ran itself down.

Most of the time, however, the unit does behave predictably. For example this week I used the 940 on Monday for an hour and, having only just switched it on again this morning, the battery level is still showing around 50%.

Am I doing something wrong or could it be that my battery is faulty?

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Many thanks!,


Dave

[mikealder]

Dave what Navcore software version are you using on the 940? as I have seen some issues with battery power when I loaded the Fiat BlueMe navcore to my 940, this isn't an officially supported device for that software so I wasn't too surprised when things didn't quite work as expected!
If its stock software installed then it could be the battery as 18 months isn't unusual to see failure, fortunately the x40/ x50 devices have the battery glued to the inside of the case making swapping it out far easier than the x20/ x30 series have a read of This which details how to swap out the battery - Mike

[DaveMatthews]

Thanks, Mike.

I've upgraded Navcore a couple of times since I bought the unit but always via "Home", so there isn't anything non-standard on it. I'm presently running version 8.371.

As far as I can think back I've had this problem from time to time since I bought the unit. It's becoming increasingly frequent now. The odd thing, though, is that while the unit is switched on, I do get a good two hours of use out of it, so not only is the battery charging to full capacity, the actual "life" is in line with normal expectations, too. It's switching the unit *off* that seems to be the problem! Hence my reason for wondering whether it was shutting down properly.

Nevertheless as swapping the battery seems to be pretty straightforward - thanks very much for your article - I'll give it a go if we can't think of any other reasons for the mystery discharge.

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Cheers,

Dave

[MrT]

I have had similar issues, the x50 Navcore does not allow the 940 to fully turn off but I have had the battery go flat a few times using 8.37 Navcore and the times it has done that, I have not cleared the route before shutting down, which is something that I normally do. Maybe it is related to that? The power is software controlled, so any lock ups or bugs could affect it.

Also if the in-car power supply you use does not have sufficient power, the LED will show that the unit has power connected and you think it is charging but it does not actually charge. If you touch the satellite bars, you will see the battery icon moving and it should say "charging" underneath it (unless it is fully charged). With a weak supply you see a battery icon but without the words charging.
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Drivelux

[DaveMatthews]

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