One VAIO, humming...

[alexpgp]

At full load, running about three copies of Mozilla, the LJ client, and doing a virus scan, the air exiting the back vent is at a steady 120.6 deg F. The case does not feel hot.

Talking about electronics, a pair of fully charged AAA batteries managed to die inside my PalmPilot within 3-4 days. I mean die! To the point where the unit lost all of its data and booted from scratch when I did put a new set of batteries in. I'm not entirely sure it's the fault of the batteries, as I have caught the Palm being "on" when it had no business being so (almost as if the auto-off had stopped working).

On the other hand, I've experienced "dead" alkaline batteries in a Palm, and have noted that they will at least retain enough charge to keep the data alive for a long time. Thus, I am "retiring" the NiMH AAA's the next time I go on the road. I can't afford to have my PDA crap out on me like that.

Cheers...

Comments

[jdcatron.livejournal.com]

You have a palm VII, yes?

Watch that antenna! Dependant on how you're storing your palm (I am using one of rhinoskin's carriers with the little elastic strips, and until I realized this problem was tucking the elastic underneath the antenna. bad idea) if the antenna goes even a little bit up the palm starts eating batteries. I don't know if this is because it automagically turns on every time the antenna is jiggling, or if it's that the transmitter transmits stuff (which also eats battery) but for awhile I was having the same problem. Keeping the antenna carefully secured brought the battery life up to five days or so, with no data loss, with NiMH batteries.

(Also, conditioning your batteries is important)

JD

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

No, a Palm IIIx. Generally very good with batteries.

Conditioning? Supposedly, the Energizer charger takes care of that. As others have speculated, perhaps I just got a bum set of battereis.

Cheers...

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

The discharge curve for alkalines tapers off gently while the curve for NiCads is fairly flat, then drops like a rock. I've never worked with NiMh's so I've never studied discharge curves on them. It'd be interesting to look up.

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

I should have searched before I posted ;)

Osel Alkaline discharge curve (http://www.ningbobattery.com/htm/test-nimh.htm)

Osel NiMh discharge curve (http://www.ningbobattery.com/htm/test-nimh.htm)

Maha NiMh discharge curve (http://www.mahaenergy.com/support/techfact/chart/discharg.htm)