Battery is charged??

MP3 players Sansa Clip | Clip+
26

I would have to agree, there’s too many reports of this issue to be defective units. Sandisk, are you listening? We need new firmware, PRONTO!

@armchairallstar wrote:

It would seem that this is a calibration issue that Sansa will have to fix in a firmware update.

Message Edited by Sasafrass452 on 09-22-2009 10:06 AM

27

Here is the real question, does anyone have a clip+ that doesn’t do this???    Doug:)

28

My Clip+ does not blink while charging. It switches between the Sansa logo and the Connected screen, as it always does. I have it in the Auto mode for USB, and run it on an iMac. Even if I unmount the Clip+, it still says it is connected. The only way for me to tell how much of a charge there is, would be to follow the tip posted here, and unplug my Clip+, and look at the battery status in the Settings menu. I am charging it right now, for the first time after it ran out while using it. Got it a month ago at BB, and it had a charge. So the only charging it received, was while attached to my iMac, to load content to it. Must not have had much of a charge on it, as I got less than half the 15 hours claimed. Probably more like 5 hours. I can see why people spend the extra money on iPods. I like my Sansa, for the price, but it is rather clunky to operate.

29

Update: I had been charging with a USB cable from a computer but today I decided to use my Motorola phone wall charger and what-do-you-know, the battery indicator worked correctly. Full yellow with no scrolling.  Next time I will charge again with the USB computer cable and see if its fixed for good or if it is a USB computer charging issue.

30

Just a “me too” post – the display on mine always looks like it’s charging, but the device properties indicates 100% charge.

It’s a nice little thing, with several bugs, but still pretty nice for the price – still wish they’d work out these kinks tho… 

31

I just got the clip+ and am having the exact same experience. When charging from my computer the icon shows a partial charge, which gets fuller and fuller, until it’s completely charged, at which point the icons reverts to the animation for charging from empty. In system info, at this point, it says there is a 100% charge. However, as another person found, if I charge from a wall charger rather than my computer, this doesn’t happen. Once the battery is charged, the screen simply displays a full battery icon (as one would expect).

Aside from the fact that going through a couple charging cycles does not seem to be solving the problem for people, I don’t see how this can be considered not to be a bug. I have never had any other device do this (requiring a few charging cycles or not). And let’s face it, there a bazillions of devices out there (cell phones, mp3 players, computers, etc.) that charge in this way and get it right. Obviously there is no functional reason for the display to do this, so by definition it’s a bug. On top of that, since the charging icon displays as expected with a wall charger, but not when plugged into a computer, that further confirms that this is a bug (what would be the design purpose of such functionality–again, there isn’t one, so it’s a bug).

32

@cb474 wrote:

Aside from the fact that going through a couple charging cycles does not seem to be solving the problem for people, I don’t see how this can be considered not to be a bug.

fwiw, I spoke to a not-terribly-helpful SanDisk support person. She seemed to say that different devices supply power USB ports differently – so, for example, a laptop might provide less power than a desktop or a dedicated USB power port. So, this might help explain what’s going on. However, it still seems like a bug, despite that.

She also seemed to say that leaving it to change overnight could damage the battery – which also seemed like either nonsense, or a bad design.

34

No wonder Apple has pretty much cornered the market on portable media players. I regret having made the purchase. The Clip+ works, but is too flakey.

36

Charging from the computer’s USB port the battery indicator never stopped blinking but Info says 100%. Charging from the AC adapter and the battery indicator did stop blinking. Info still said 100%. In both cases I get about the same amount of time on the charge - within about 10 minutes of each other before it quit. Close enough for me to not consider this any kind of an issue at all.

What the heck is all the fuss about? Did I just get lucky and get one of the few Clip+'s that work? I’m loving the Clip+!

37

@kkinderen: Obviously this is not the most problematic bug ever. But it’s still obviously a bug. I don’t see why it shouldn’t be fixed. There are plenty of devices that have no trouble charging from a computer or wall charger and have their battery icon work properly. Fixing this in firmware should be trivial. I don’t think people are making a lot of fuss. It’s just slightly confusing when you get this device and the first thing it does is fail to properly display a fully charged battery icon. I don’t know why SanDisk wouldn’t want to fix this. It creates a bad impression right off the bat. Is that what SanDisk is shooting for?

Message Edited by cb474 on 10-11-2009 06:57 PM

Message Edited by cb474 on 10-11-2009 06:58 PM

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@kkinderen: Obviously this is not the most problematic bug ever. But it’s still obviously a bug. I don’t see why it shouldn’t be fixed. There are plenty of devices that have no trouble charging from a computer or wall charger and have their battery icon work properly. Fixing this in firmware should be trivial. I don’t think people are making a lot of fuss. It’s just slightly confusing when you get this device and the first thing it does is fail to properly display a fully charged battery icon. I don’t know why SanDisk wouldn’t want to fix this. It creates a bad impression right off the bat. Is that what SanDisk is shooting for?

39

Sorry, yep. You are right. It just looked to me that the usb port on my computer was charging to 99.99% (fudged number of course) while the AC adapter had a little more zest to trigger a solid battery indicator. It is something I would overlook but I shouldn’t expect everyone to do the same. According to the instructions, the battery indicator should go solid when the device is fully charged and that is what we should expect - and what SanDisk should correct.

I hope the comparison between charging from the computer’s usb port and from a separate AC adapter was useful even if the rest of my comments were not.

I didn’t notice in this thread if anyone reported the issue directly to SanDisk (outside of this forum) or maybe there is a bugtracker?

Message Edited by kkinderen on 10-12-2009 10:11 AM

40

The Clip+ is sort of like using Ubuntu for the first time. Feels very awkward. While the battery charge issue is no biggie, the life of the battery is not as good as claimed. One might get 15 hours, if they never did anything to make the screen light up. I like the unit, but not enough to buy from Sansa a second time.

41

Is there any way you can overcharge the battery or does it cutoff when it’s full regardless of the display bug?

43

@miikerman wrote:
It cuts out–you should be fine.

fwiw, SanDisk phone support actually told me that leaving the Clip+ to charge overnight could overcharge it and damage the battery – however, that strikes me as probably wrong – but it is what she said… 

44

Thanks guys. Well I figured the common sense thing would be to have the device cutoff when it’s fully charged and if it’s a lithium battery which I assume it is it would almost have to. However, I had read a few posts back where someone had mentioned what sandisk had told them about the possibility of ruining it and that’s why I asked. Hopefully the CS person didn’t know what they were talking about. I don’t mind going into the settings menu and checking the battery % but it’s not something I want to have to do every 15 minutes when it’s charging. It’s a shame you can’t leave that screen up while it charges.

Did I read somewhere there is a way you can monitor the charge status with your PC? If so would someone be kind enough to link me or explain?

Thanks,

Eric

45

If the Sansa is connected in MTP mode, you can check charge status while connected.  Open a Windows Explorer window, then right-click on the Sansa.

Select Properties.

The charge status will be shown in a graphic.  The status will not update, however, as this is Microsoft, of course.  To check up on the charging process, you have to refresh the window by selecting Properties again.

Incidentally, I experienced the perplexing charge display the first time I plugged in.  Currently, she’s charging, with two bars flickering between full and “not-so-full”.   The PC says 97%.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

46

Thanks Bob, I will try that next time I connect. :slight_smile:

47

I will be away from my iMac for a while. Maybe when I come back, Sansa will have made an update to fix this. I am not a Windows user, and Ubuntu is my secondary OS. So the previous fix is useless to me.

48

I confirm this issue. While charging when battery metter reaches full, it changes to a empty battery and charging like for ever. Sansa please fix this bug!

Message Edited by icsterm on 10-19-2009 07:19 PM