Resetting your EPOC device - the options

Battery life - what can I expect and how can I improve things?

  Resetting your EPOC device - the options

All EPOC devices:

• very very soft - Ctrl-E - closes current program.
• very soft - Ctrl-Shift-Fn-K - Kills current program and restarts System.

5/5mx/MC218/7/netBook:

• soft - gently poke a paperclip into the pinhole inside backup battery compartment - shuts all open programs, restarts System, loses System view settings, resets 'Home City' in the Time map and 'Switch off after' time setting.
• hard - as for the soft reset, except switch on with the [Esc] key while also holding down both [Shift] keys. All data stored in RAM will be lost.
• very hard - remove all batteries for 15 mins - factory reset. All data stored in RAM will be lost.

Revo/Revo Plus/Mako (thanks to Colin Messer for this info):

• soft - open the Revo and gently press something like an unfolded paperclip into the reset hole marked '1'. Colin points out ('scuse the very poor pun) that a paperclip will damage the circuitboard if you press too hard, so it is preferable to use re-set software for a soft reset (e.g. ResetPlus http://www.mypsion.ru/ResetPlus.php). When you switch the Revo back on after a soft reset, it will beep twice.
• hard - open the Revo and press both ends of an unfolded paperclip into the reset holes marked '1' and '2' at the same time. All data stored in RAM will be lost. Your Revo will beep once and you will have to press the On switch twice to turn on your machine. It takes a little time for the circuts to drain down so hold the hard reset for ten seconds before releasing. It isn't always easy to hard reset, so if at first you don't succed try again.

Battery life - what can I expect and how can I improve things?

General

Battery life decreases noticeably while using CF and PCMCIA cards, while using higher brightness levels, and of course when using the backlight. To conserve battery power, try to minimise use of all these. Additionally, it is wise to turn off the 'Link to Desktop' (the serial port) when you are not connecting to a desktop computer. Finally, the Series5/5mx has a bug to do with battery life - more on this (and a cure) here.

Good averages for a Series 7:
7 [6-8] hours life while not working, just being powered on, with medium brightness
6 [5-7] hours life while working with various applications, with medium brightness
4 [3-5] hours while working with CF memory card and being connected to the internet through PCMCIA LAN card, with medium brightness.

If I use lowest or highest brightness setting I can get/lose another hour of battery life.

(Thanks to Tom from the PsionPlace message boads for this data.)

netBook

Battery life on netBook is shorter then on Series 7, because of netBook's faster CPU and more RAM. But not so as you'd really notice.

These use standard AA cells, so the battery life will depend on the quality of cell you use. Best to use are high-power alkaline or lithium cells (Duracell and the like). Worst are rechargables - their voltage is only 1.2V fully charged, and drops more suddenly than non-rechargeable cells, thus leaving you more susceptible to data loss if you don't carry spares.

Enough blather, here's some rough usage figures:

• medium contrast, backlight not used, up to 27 hours on a pair of Duracells or good equivalent.
• medium contrast, backlight used for an hour-ish every evening, up to 23 hours on a pair of Duracells or good equivalent.

Series 5

Same as above but 30 and 23 hours respectively.

Revo/Mako

Thanks again to Colin Messer for the following.

Revos come in a number of flavours, 8MB, 16MB and with D&Gs upgrade service 24MB and 28MB. The operational time for all flavours is the same and depends to a great extent on the software run. Use only ROM based software and never use IrDA or the serial link then you will last 8 to 10 hours between re-changes. Run processor intensive games and browse the internet then expect to exhaust your batteries in 3 hours.

The real difference between Revos is maintaining the memory when not in use. Each 8MB of RAM takes 2.5% of the batteries charge each day to maintain the contents of the memory. So 16MB takes 5%, 24MB takes 7.5% and 28MB takes nearly 9%. A power user will find themselves recharging every two days, while a light user may only need to recharge once a month.

Page last updated: February 25, 2003