m130 battery

October 13, 2005 by paul
Filed under: Uncategorized

Good news: the replacement battery for my Palm m130 has arrived … from Hong Kong! (I bought it on eBay, where it said “Item location: Canada”)

Better news: I didn’t get charged any tax on it. (That’s why I bought it from Canada!)

Even better news: it comes with two screwdrivers.

Hmmm, challenge: “Read instructions in Operating Guide before using the battery” … what Guide? Remember, GIYF: voila, instructions!

The instructions miss a few important steps:

synchronise your PDA before you even think about taking it apart! (Obvious, you’d think, but if it’s not stated than people might forget.)
remove the external SD card before you try to take the case apart
OK, now follow the instructions but remember to check the orientation of the battery connector before you remove it
before putting the screws back in, check that you can still insert the SD card OK – if not, you should re-seat the board and try again
you can check that you’ve connected it correctly by putting the PDA in the cradle and turning it on
your PDA is now back in the state that it was when you bought it – only the basic Palm functions are there, so if you skipped/forgot (my) step #1 you’re probably kicking yourself!

Remember children – read all the instructions before starting the exam!

p.s. I don’t know if this is something I’ve installed (ages ago) or part of the standard config, but in Preferences there’s a page called Battery which shows useful info like the current percentage charged and voltage, along with warning & critical settings (which give you a serious warning if you think about changing them!).