Could I have killed this Windows tablet

[mikeymikec]

I was given an unneeded Windows tablet (Toshiba Encore Mini WT7-C), that the customer had a) forgotten their Windows password for and b) didn't need it anyway. I had switched it on a few times before without problems. Yesterday I did a Windows reset (no problems), then I set it off on the long job of doing Windows updates. I set the sleep timer to 3 hours.

This morning it reported that it was out of battery (flat battery symbol when switching on), so as it charges via a USB Micro connector I plugged my Android phone charger into it. I thought it was a bit odd that the flat battery symbol came on every few seconds and I attempted to switch it on, but it only got through a short way of the Windows boot-up routine before it switched itself back off.

Paying more attention to the flat battery symbol, I thought that maybe it isn't charging or doesn't like the charger, so I read the manual and it said "only Toshiba compatible chargers or plug in to a PC to charge", so I plugged it into my computer. The symbol stopped appearing yet the tablet still wouldn't start (getting a short way into Windows booting then off again). I thought I'd leave it for a while in case that's all it's trying to tell me.

After about 30 minutes I tried to switch it back on. The battery symbol was showing that it was something like mid-way charged, so I tried to boot Windows. Windows felt the need to do startup repair, then said nothing was wrong, so I told it to restart and it booted Windows. I then noticed that the Windows battery indicator was saying 9% charged, so I guessed that the tablet uses more power when on than the power from the PC can give it, so I shut Windows down the nice way and left it for something like another half an hour.

Then the flat battery symbol situation happened again and the same old story with Windows failing to boot (currently it's doing less than that and as I left the house for a short while I decided not to leave it charging unattended). I'm wondering whether the "incompatible charger" gave it too much juice and its battery charging system packed up (or maybe just the battery).

 

[Raduque]

I've noticed that Windows tablets in general (except the Surfaces) seem to be picky about charging. I'd just let it charge for a day or so, while off, then try booting it up.

 

[mikeymikec]

Yup, I thought I'd try that by charging it from an old charging block. It soaked up all of that during the night, but got up to 50% charged. Now I have it plugged into the mains but using a cable that I now gives a snail-like charging rate.

 

[mikeymikec]

The charge level dropped from 50% to 21% after several hours of charging. It's not a normal symptom in my experience of simply a faulty battery. Does anyone have any similar experiences?

 

[Raduque]

That's weird, I have never seen a device lose charge while charging while off.

 

[podspi]

Smartphones and tablets in general can be pretty finicky when they run out of battery power - one of the reasons I think that having non-removable batteries is a bad idea, sometimes you just need an external charger because the device doesn't have enough juice to load the charging software.

Anyway, I'm doing to suggest trying something different: No more trickle charging, I'd go for the most powerful charger you've got, preferably a 2A or greater one. In my experience, when a lot of devices have trouble getting out of the dead battery trap - especially cheap Windows tablets. The best thing to do (in my experience) is leave it for a while on a high-current charger.

 

[mikeymikec]

Admittedly I find the business of it running out of battery a bit fishy. The night before, I judged the battery level and amount of time to be sufficient, but even if it wasn't the tablet should have gone into sleep mode. I therefore suspect the battery was faulty before I attempted to charge it. I'm just wondering whether I should chance buying a new battery for it as I'm not certain that I'll have a use for it. I had hoped to use it as an ebook reader but the screen is pretty poor quality.

- edit - I accidentally booted it just now (I intended to press the power button once to get the battery status on the screen), and the charge level reckons 63%... I'm going to continue the very slow procedure of charging the battery charging block I have, then charging the tablet from that as it seems happiest with that approach. If I can get it to steadily go up then it might give me a chance to test out the tablet and decide whether I can find a good use for it.

 

[mikeymikec]

I've managed to charge it to 100%

I'll probably still find that the battery is faulty when it gets a bit low, but at least this will give me some time to play with it and hopefully decide whether I can make use of it.

 

[mikeymikec]

Is there any chance that this tablet may be designed not to charge while switched on?

 

[Raduque]

Is there any chance that this tablet may be designed not to charge while switched on?

Unlikely. I've met a few tablets that don't charge while on, simply because the drain load is higher than the incoming charge, but that mostly applies to low voltage chargers, or using it while charging.

Never seen a tablet that only charges while off.

 

[mikeymikec]

The reason I ask is that this one's charge level seems to stay the same for ages, then at some point it decides the charge level is much lower than the previous level.

The overall problem is, unless I can get some idea of how well it functions when Windows is fully up-to-date (including how long it takes to chew over a WU cycle), it seems silly to invest in it, and currently it is taking ages to do its first WU cycle. I've tried feeding it a recent servicing stack update but it hasn't helped.

 

[agent00f]

The reason I ask is that this one's charge level seems to stay the same for ages, then at some point it decides the charge level is much lower than the previous level.

The overall problem is, unless I can get some idea of how well it functions when Windows is fully up-to-date (including how long it takes to chew over a WU cycle), it seems silly to invest in it, and currently it is taking ages to do its first WU cycle. I've tried feeding it a recent servicing stack update but it hasn't helped.

This is usually a sign the battery is going (odd given it's <2 years old, but not unheard of). Specs esp ram looks pretty shitty anyway, and windows as tablet is useless on that small of a screen.

The tablet situation is completely fucked. Both cheap winos and android tablets are shit, coincidentally each for reasons complementary to the other; no ecosystem for one and no OS support for the other.

Apple is the only game in town, but that means living with apple.

 

[podspi]

The battery might be going, or the calibration could be off. If you have a low amp charger, the tablet may also be using more power running than the charger can supply. The Surface 3 (which I have) will actually just discharge slowly when plugged in to a low amp charger, since it defaults to .5a for most chargers.

I'd charge it to 100%, drain it down fairly low 20% ~ 25% and then charge it back up again a few times. Then you can run:

powercfg /batteryreport /output "C:\battery_report.html"

in an elevated command prompt window, and it should give you more information on the health of the battery. Most hardware supports detecting failing batteries nowadays, but these cheap Windows tabs sometimes are missing things they really shouldn't be...