Everyone including me wants to know about the G's battery. Nikki - this is specially pulled out for you - dear girl.
The closest we have come to find out from the horse's mouth is what Glenda wrote after her conversation with Mr. Jim Colby - the VP of production in PC.
Here is her writeup - quotes from the Gypsy MB
"I asked about the Gypsy BATTERY: Are we supposed to drain it completely before we charge it, or are we supposed to leave it plugged in to charge all the time?? Mr. Colby answered that the Gypsy battery is an ion battery—there’s NO MEMORY. He said all their current tests show right now that you don’t have to worry about draining it. That means the tests show it doesn’t matter one way or the other if you drain it completely or don’t drain it at all. Either way it’s OK. The current battery has something like 50,000 duty cycles, & after that, it doesn’t just stop suddenly one day. When the battery starts to go bad, it will start by notholding a charge as long as it used to. I asked him what was the procedure going to be when we starting having problems with our battery?? He said for CURRENTcustomers, the battery is a “serviceable” part, which means we’ll have to call customer service (CS) & arrange with them to send it in to get the battery replaced. He also said Provo Craft is always looking at what’s the best overall system & what their consumers want for the product, so that is something, based on customer demand, that could possibly change in the future. "
11 comments :
Pam - thanks for pulling that out for me. I got lost in that thread and must have missed that part.
You're the best!!! :)
Thanks for posting that Pam! I was wondering what to do...now I guess it doesn't really matter ;) I usually just put it on the charger once the battery is on the last bar. I'll continue to do that.
oh, I have never thought about that. I just used it like I would use a PSP or DS or whatever. So when my pretty blye light goes red, I stick it in the charger!
Wondering how that replacement thing is gonna work though, for people who live abroad like me. It would scare me to bits to send my lovely gypsy in the post, flying over the ocean. Not to mention that I would have to be without her for many weeks :(
I purchased a new one and the battery was defective. Finally getting a hold of CS they are sending me a label to return it. I am to keep everything that came with it and only return the Gypsy itself. I had already uploaded some of my cartridges to it so they have to have it to put my serial number on the new one. I'm hoping no more than 2 weeks.
The battery has gone on my lovely gypsy and I have been told I have to send it over the ocean (I live in France. They will after replacing the battery at cost of $39 send it back within the USA and not back to me in France. Good job I have a sister in the states but shall look for alternatives. Maybe a computer shop or something.
Does anyone know how to open a G to check the batteries?
Finally got it open - just 3 screws (2 at one end, one at the other), then there are plastic tabs on the inside holding it together. Maybe I can breathe new life into the "blue light, black screen" issue.
OK, got the Gypsy open. Put in a fresh mb battery (CR2032). Did a reset and still blue light with black screen. It is like it is not booting up. I would bet that the little button battery was what powered the memory on the mb. Once that battery dies, You not only have to replace the little battery, but then you have to reload the main software for the device. That is probably why so many people got the error. Either by design flaw or planned obsolescence - they probably did not expect folks to hang on tot he device past the internal battery life.
If anyone knows how to reset the device to be able to start back up, it would be great to hear about it. (maybe some tech that used to work for Provo Craft?) I have done quite a few searches and came up empty. I would bet it is something that has to be done with equipment in-house at Provo Craft.
If the online service does most of what the Gypsy can do, then I guess we can just throw this device away...
Has anyone paid the $40 for the black-screen-blue-light repair? If so, do you remember the name of the company that actually did the repair (Provo Craft does not do the actual repair, they said they contract it out to someone in their town)?
I think the wife is just going to move over to the online thing... no sense wasting the $40, since she does not have a need to be any more mobile than a laptop.
Spoke with PC manager today he said the black screen blue light is not so much a battery issue as it is the screen is not getting power. I took off the back and plan on having father who is trained computer tech to look at it.
"kind encouraging and inspiring words"
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