U () = )( ð P S I O N T I P O F T H E W E E K T O P I C: Batteries PREAMBLE Sorry this is late but it turned into a huge topic. Your PSION organizer requires two types of batteries. The "main" batteries are standard AA types. When these fail or are removed a lithium dime-sized model 1620 battery in the B drive bay preserves your data and settings. This is the "backup" battery. RAM SSD disks also require a 1620 battery; Flash SSDs don't. The lithium 1620s normally have 2 to 3 year life-spans. Batteries are incredible when you think about it--power to operate devices independently of wire tethers, you can buy them anywhere, many standard sizes. The only problem is the technology has not changed significantly since someone stuck electrodes in a potato. The nickel-cadmium (nicad) heralded in the rechargeable era; the lithium-ion in Dell portables seems to yield profoundly better performance. And so it is we have three types to choose from: alkaline, nicad, and lithium. I've used all three types of AA batteries in my Series 3 since obtaining it January 1993 and in my 3a from July 1994. And since obtaining the 3a I've collected statistics into a spreadsheet. BOTTOM LINE Not surprisingly, lithium AAs are the longest lasting (despite Energizer's ad campaign) but very expensive. Alkalines give good performance and are the cheapest. PSION says alkalines should last for "several months of normal use." Right. The specs say 80 hours of use. Rechargeables don't seem to last really long but are very practical if you have four (a somewhat immediate expense but cheaper in the long haul, but then you have to factor in the recharger expense and your hydro bill and...). My nicad life-span measurements may be low as I have "tired" batteries. Remember, to "exercise" nicads to prevent their "memory effect." RATING LIFE-SPAN COST ENVIRO coolness lithium alkaline nicad I hear ya alkaline nicad alkaline yeah, whatever nicad lithium lithium STATISTICS AVERAGE TIME ON TYPE DAYS BATTERIES alkaline 13.8 23.5% lithium 52.0 26.9% nicad 12.8 24.9% WHERE TO BUY SPECIAL BATTERIES AA lithium camera stores; not Black's AA Dynacharges anywhere, Consumer's Distributing is cheap AA nicads, other Radio Shack, camera stores 1620 lithium Radio Shack, camera stores LOW BATTERY INDICATIONS A battery icon will appear in the Status Window on the right side of the screen. You can display or size the Status Window in just about any application by pressing . The battery appears as half-full. That's half-empty for all you pessimists. The Battery info dialog (see below for viewing this) reports it "Low." I have used my PSION for days or weeks with this indicator on... There are no other signals. There is no icon for RAM SSD status. SEVERELY LOW BATTERY CONDITIONS Initially, the battery icon in the Status Window will flash, showing the battery level falling from half to zero; the Battery info dialog says "Replace!" (I think). An intermittent message displays at the bottom of the screen informing you to replace the main batteries. When the battery becomes seriously low an irritated chirp sound comes from the PSION when ordered to play a sound or fire an audio alarm. It emits this short chirp to save power instead of generating a long, loud sound which depletes the battery faster. If you don't replace the batteries at this stage and continue to use the unit, it will power itself off--just cuts out. After a while, it will only remain on for 5 seconds or less. And your flirting with danger. On my Series 3, I pushed it and it got me. I corrupted my agenda file once. This situation also exhausts the backup battery. If both the main and backup batteries fail, you loss ALL YOUR DATA in internal memory and on the internal disk. Ah, too bad! CHANGING BATTERIES When replacing the main batteries, be sure the backup battery is in good condition. Have your replacement batteries ready. Turn the unit off. Quickly replace the main batteries. When replacing the backup battery, verify the main batteries are in good shape. Open the drive B door. Remove the SSD, if necessary. Remove the battery. Insert the fresh one, avoiding contact with skin--use a cloth to hold and insert the battery. Make sure the positive (+) contact is up. Don't change both batteries at the same time. Consider plugging in the transformer when changing batteries. CHECKING BATTERY POWER First place to look is in the Status window. Press to briefly display the Status window. Press to turn on, off or size the Status window. In the Status window, to the right of the drive icons, a battery icon is dislayed during low conditions. If there's no icon, the batteries are at a medium or high level. You can specifically check main and backup battery status in the Battery info dialog box which reports "Good," "Low," or "Replace!" Press button to get to System screen. Press to get into main menu and choose INFO, BATTERY INFO, or press . Press or when done. You can check battery levels of a RAM SSD by examining the disk space status screen: Press button to get to System screen. Press to get into main menu and choose INFO, DISK INFO, or press . Press or for the desired SSD drive. Note the top of the dialog. Press when done. To examine how much time you use the batteries, the time you are plugged into the transformer, and battery current, when you last changed the batteries, check out the usage monitor dialog. These are estimates. Press button to get to System screen. Press to get into main menu and choose INFO, USAGE MONITOR, or press . Press

to view the previous readings, if desired; press to re-examine the current "live" battery readings. Press when done. IMPROVING BATTERY LIFE There are a number of things you can do to improve the life you get from your batteries, no matter the type. Minimize sounds! As fun as it is, don't play sounds often. Avoid playing big sounds and avoid loud sounds. Use shorter, quieter sounds for your common alarms. Lower the volume using the following: Press button to get to System screen. Press

to get into main menu and choose CONTROL, SOUND, or press . Highlight Beeps and choose the Quiet option. Highlight Key Click and choose the Quiet option. Press to store new settings. Turn off automatic desktop updating. This forces a read action of all disks. Press button to get to System screen. Press to get into main menu and choose SPECIAL, SET PREFERENCES or press . Highlight Update lists. Choose System button, not Auto. Press to store new settings. Avoiding writing or saving often to Flash SSD disks. They require more power than RAM SSDs or the internal memory. Get a transformer (they're cheap)! Get a couple. I plug into the "AC mains" when I arrive home. I take the transformer along with the PSION to bed (don't ask). I take it when I travel. I take it when I know I'll be desk-bound for a day or two. By the way, the transformer does not charge your rechargeable batteries. Avoid using the 3-Link without the transformer. Make sure the PSION is set to power itself off automatically. It should never be set to not auto switch off. Press button to get to System screen. Press to get into main menu and choose CONTROL, AUTO SWITCH OFF, or press . Highlight Auto switch off. Press to choose Yes or if you use a transformer for external power. Set the Switch off time to a short interval, less than 5 minutes perhaps. Press when done. A NASTY POWER PROBLEM There are small thin wires that carry the battery power from the battery compartment into the main circuit board of the PSION. I had a problem with my Series 3 where opening and closing the unit (and probably the times I severely dropped it). This caused the hinges inside to gradually cut into the wires. At some point, the wires broke. The symptoms were constant low power even when I bought fresh batteries, the unit died when I opened or closed it, alarms wouldn't fire, the backup battery needed frequent replacement. If you experience these problems and you're still under warranty, take it in. Gerry Thorpe experienced the same problem on his first 3a and Bell Mobility just gave him a brand new one! If you're off warranty, call me and I will fix it. A possible preventative measure: open and close your unit less often. Sounds silly but if you're going from the living room to the kitchen, don't close then open it. N E X T W E E K The problem with alarms. C L O S I N G Startin' to get some feedback. Are there any topics YOU want me to cover? W A N N A B E M E M B E R S Here's a list of people that I know of that use or want PSIONs but don't have electronic mail ids or have ids that I don't know. Please forward a hard-copy to them and send me their email address(es). Cybelle Srour (Lex, do you have her address?) every customer of Bell Mobility every customer of Marketron C O L O P H O N Tip number: 3 Written by: Blake Nancarrow of Computer Ease Entered: 95.03.01 @ 20:30 EST Platforms: PSION Series 3, Series 3a Sent via: internet Origin: CompuServe Good id: 70511.673@compuserve.com Cheap id: blake.nancarrow@canrem.com Written in Word on PSION, uploaded to Dell with RCOM, imported into Word for Windows 6.0, spelling checked. Stats entered into Sheet in PSION, saved to WK1 format, imported into Excel 5.0, subtotals generated, copied and pasted as table into Word document, converted to tabs, saved as Text Only with Line Breaks, reformatted with IBM Personal Editor 2.0, saved in pure ASCII.