Urgent Help Asap Please!

GRIMEY · #1 (**permalink**) June 5th, 2005, 10:12 PM

i'm off on holiday in a min,

have just discovered i used the wrong fucking charger and my H140 has spent the last 3-4 hours charging on a 4.5 V charger, not a 5V.

needless to say it won't switch on.

is it screwed? it's dead hot, will it cool down and work again?

need to know whether to bring it with me or start gettin it fixed while im away..

thanks!

dapureplaya_04 · #2 (**permalink**) June 5th, 2005, 10:18 PM

uh..well i guess you can wait until it cools down and try it again. but you charging it for hours, i would think it would has been rendered completely totalled.

If it's still under warranty you chould call up iRiver and get them to help you out. Seeing that you only have minutes to go, i guess you can take it with u and just c if you can get it working after cooling it down. if that fails, well call iRiver when u get back from your holiday

GRIMEY · #3 (**permalink**) June 5th, 2005, 10:22 PM

cheers man,

i know sodall about electronics but i'd be inclined to think less damage was done by the fact i used a 4.5 V charger rather than a charger above the 5V of the iriver? It still aint switching on, has cooled down a fair bit tho.

I need it again more urgently for another holiday in a fortnight's time and doubt iriver would be able to service it in time by then.. Is it easy to buy iriver batteries online etc? And if i have fried the battery, d'ya think the hard disc would have died too or is that completely separate?

dapureplaya_04 · #4 (**permalink**) June 5th, 2005, 10:28 PM

well i'm no electronics gizmo either (even tho i'm doing third year electronics at uni atm

), but i wouldn't have thought 4.5V would have hurt either. But still. not a smart move anyways by using the wrong charger.

Well i dunno if charging it up with the wrong charger would have made the whole player useless.......i would think it would have screwed up the player but don't take my word for it. And yeah it'll take longer than two weeks to get your player serviced. That's if they buy your story and that they're willing to replace it for you.

Apprentice · #5 (**permalink**) June 5th, 2005, 10:30 PM

Have you tried using the 5V charger afterwards? It's possible you had the wrong polarity and discharged it? I don't really know what I'm talking about by the way.

E f E d H h H · #6 (**permalink**) June 5th, 2005, 10:36 PM

I don't see how less voltage could hurt it??

Dragon_Fangs · #7 (**permalink**) June 5th, 2005, 10:50 PM

i dont think the polarity is ever switched, nor would it discarge, but rather blow up, lol, but i don't know either

. i don't see how a 4.5 would have made it so hot, it would have either not charged it or charged it slower than normal--no damage, unless you have made a second mistake in identifying the adapter used,

. I think that when i cools down all the way you should use the right charger and see what happens...
My h320 used to get hot when it's been on AND charging... i dont know about anything else tho, i dont even have that player anymore but it seems like my h340 gets hot also...

GRIMEY · #8 (**permalink**) June 5th, 2005, 11:57 PM

Can't fucking believe this, I am on the internet at the airport.

Cheers for the help. I'm gonna leave it to cool right down yeah, then see if i can charge it using the normal charger. It's definitely a 4.5V charger I used... Agreed, I can't see how it'd have done any harm but it defo aint having any of it when i switch the bastard on.

I see your point about them taking yonks to fix it too. And I've messed about with the firmware so I guess they'd turn round and tell me it's all cos i've got a new logo or something (oops). Well I'll let you lot know, cheers for the swift response, good introduction to this site!

Anyone else with any more info, let us know. Big up.

Mr Whippy · #9 (**permalink**) June 6th, 2005, 02:14 AM

Check the polarity, it should be centre positive. Did you use a mobile phone charger?

**andrewmel** · #10 (**permalink**) June 6th, 2005, 02:20 AM

A 4.5 v charger will not cause it to heat up or give you any problems in it self....

But, if the charger is negative centre or more than 2000 mA then you may have a problem. But given you are off to holidays and dont have the potentially offending charger with you, you wont be able to check.

The heating does seem to indicate some problem, as does a failure to turn on.

a

Dragon_Fangs · #11 (**permalink**) June 6th, 2005, 02:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Whippy

Check the polarity, it should be centre positive. Did you use a mobile phone charger?

a moble phone charger? it has to be big enough to fit in the hole and most cell phones are small--with small chargers...

Timmah · #12 (**permalink**) June 6th, 2005, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dragon_Fangs

a moble phone charger? it has to be big enough to fit in the hole and most cell phones are small--with small chargers...

Nokia chargers fit comfortably.

But don't go trying it :P

Arm_The_Homeless · #13 (**permalink**) June 9th, 2005, 01:11 AM

Quote:

A 4.5 v charger will not cause it to heat up or give you any problems in it self....

But, if the charger is negative centre or more than 2000 mA then you may have a problem. But given you are off to holidays and dont have the potentially offending charger with you, you wont be able to check.

The heating does seem to indicate some problem, as does a failure to turn on.

I'll second that opinion. I had to charge mine with a 4.5V charger for a couple weeks as I had misplaced my stock one. Albeit it took much longer to charge, but no problems beyond that. I wouldn't think that polarity would be a problem, because I don't think that would affect it unless you were trying to run it off the charger which it doesn't sound like you were trying to do. My guess is an overload of current. I'm not sure about the exact levels it can handle, but I think you may have problems even if it were below 2000mA. Whatever the culprit may be, I hope that your player miraculously ends up working (heat issues maybe?), or you still have the warranty so that you can replace it. Post some more detailed info on the charger when you arrive home if you get the chance, as this may help solve the problem in part and be of use to others in the future. Best of luck...

**coreman** · #14 (**permalink**) June 9th, 2005, 09:10 AM

The battery should charge fine on 4.5v but as someone correctly pointed out, it would take a lot longer. Peak voltage on the battery cell is 4.2V so 4.5v won't harm it. Current isn't a problem, the internal resistance of the battery limits the amount of current it will draw...anything from 200 ma to 2 amps @5v will charge the battery fine although the low end may take a tadbit longer.

However I did read an article that says discharge time is longer when charged at lower currents, like 200 ma. I think it more fully polarizes the chemicals inside than high current levels do.

However if the battery were warm, that seems to indicate some kind of short circuit in the battery protection circuit causing the battery to discharge...and that could have resulted from an incorrect tip polarity during charge cycle.

Look on the adapter, there will be a little drawing mostly like looking like a "C" with a dot in the middle of it. The dot represents the tip...there will be a line running from it with either a "+" or "-" sign. If it is "-", it is wrong polarity...let us know!

GRIMEY · #15 (**permalink**) June 10th, 2005, 11:11 AM

Easy all,

Just got back from holiday. First of all, can I say thanks for such a wicked response, what a useful forum, good to see so many ideas being floated about, given me a second lease of life in trying to save my iriver, had kinda given up on it a few days ago.

Unfortunately, cooling down did approximately nothing, as it still won't switch on. I've got the offending wrong charger with me now (not entirely sure what it was originally used for, i seem to have chargers all round my house. Bizarre). Excuse my lack of technological knowhow on the subject, so I will relay all the info written on the back of it:

Input: AC230V-50Hz 5.5W
Output: DC4.5V-400mA 1.8VA

Re polarity, again I have no idea if i'm describing this right, but it has a C in the middle with a positive and negative in circles with lines adjoining either side of it, and the positive line ends in the middle of the C with a small bullet mark (sorry, this will be cringeworthy to anyone who already understand this crap, doubtless). @ Coreman, I assume this means it is positive polarity?

Hope the above info makes it a little easier. I tentatively plugged my iriver in with the proper charger and the green light came on as tho to suggest it's charging again, but it still won't switch on. Is it worth me investigating purchasing a new battery, or is that likely to be a waste of money and thus worth purchasing a new one altogether? Thanks again people.

Timmah · #16 (**permalink**) June 10th, 2005, 12:26 PM

Leave it charging.

GRIMEY · #17 (**permalink**) June 10th, 2005, 12:51 PM

I left it charging earlier today on the iriver charger, it charged for a while, then eventually the green light switched off. Still no luck

**coreman** · #18 (**permalink**) June 10th, 2005, 09:24 PM

The charger is the right polarity...possible the charger damaged the charging circuit, the hot battery tells me the battery was discharging a lot of current.

Sorry couldn't be more help....

**NPswimdude500** · #19 (**permalink**) June 10th, 2005, 09:54 PM

odd part is that it doesn't sound like it could have possibly hurt your player. how long have you had your unit ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrewmel

...does seem to indicate some problem, as does a failure to turn on.

[sarcasm]is that so ?[/sarcasm]

GRIMEY · #20 (**permalink**) June 10th, 2005, 09:55 PM

S'ok, have found iriver's number so gona give them a ring 2moro.

Tentatively.. is it easy to a.) buy a new battery and b.) replace it yourself?

I appreciate they MAY offer to fix it under warranty but i SERIOUSLY need it for 10 days' time and it may prove vital to simply replace the battery given that can probably be done within that time constraint. I'm UK based.

Ta again.

edit: @ swimdude, only just seen your post,

had it since xmas. no problems at all. I THINK it had been charging bout 3-4 hours on this wrong charger, but it was definitely really really hot.

Timmah · #21 (**permalink**) June 11th, 2005, 03:51 AM

iRiver it!

It's not worth wasting your warranty if you go and f**k another bit of it over (HDD, LCD etc...) which is much harder to replace.

Cheatah... Ungowa! · #22 (**permalink**) June 13th, 2005, 05:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timmah

iRiver it!

It's not worth wasting your warranty if you go and f**k another bit of it over (HDD, LCD etc...) which is much harder to replace.

Yeah, changing the battery isn't easy. It's worth doing if you're fairly savvy with electronics and have a steady hand and want extra battery life from your iRiver. I did it 'cause I bought mine second hand and the battery life was rubbish and with the new battery I can get about twice as much as the original battery had when new.

But in your case you've got a dodgy situation. Maybe there's a short circuit, maybe the battery wires are touching. Lucky you didn't burn your house down if that's the case.

On the other hand, you have a time constraint & an iRiver which doesn't work. You could buy the iPod battery for it
2100 mAh Li-Polymer Battery
and if that doesn't work put the old battery back in and send the unit back to iRiver (unless you feel that's unethical which is your own choice. I wouldn't do it, but that's 'cause I'm too f***ing considerate for my own good.)