How I Revived My Dead TouchPad

[jscm3]

I have 2) 16gb & 1) 32gb touchpads. So far I only had this issue with the 32gb version.

[zxhwk]

Originally Posted by teamw23

If you can't pull a charge from the TP wall plug charger, and you know the cheap TP USB cable hasn't gone bad, here is the next thing to try: Go get a standard, low power, USB charger (like for your cellphone, or if need be use your computer's regular USB port). Plug the bugger in on your wimpy little USB cell phone charger and let it trickle charge at that low, 1000mAmp rate for a couple of hours and see what happens. I revived mine doing this, after the TP wall charger did nothing for 14 hours. It appears that if the voltage drops too low, the only way to charge it is using the standard USB voltage and not the higher voltage normally fed out by the TP wall plug or Touchstone. Definitely try this before you go through all the trouble of pulling the thing apart.

I have tried everything everyone else said except taking it apart and decided to try this one and left it for a couple hours and low and behold it came back to life

Thanks for the info

[mralda]

Before taking apart your TP try this, it worked for me: enter USB mode (holding power and volume up simultaneously), connect to your computer and run webos doctor, it will quit when it recognizes a low battery, causing the screen to show the plug in message... disconnect the TP from the computer and immediately connect it to the original power adapter. Mine went from 5% to 24% in less than an hour.

[chuckc983]

Can anyone explain the connector or wires coming out of the touchpad battery? There are 2 red, 2 black, 1 blue, 1 yellow, and 1 green. If I check the red and black with a volt meter - I get zero. If I check the red and green I get about 2.5v. If I want to try charging this battery with a lipo charger - how should you connect to the charger? One red one black or put a jumper between the two reds and one between the two blacks charge from these connectors. I guess what I don't understand is why I don't see any voltage when I check the reds/blacks.

[pderr]

I had this problem too -- my touchpad has been dead for over a week. It died when the battery was low and I didn't set it properly on the touchstone chager. I tried every suggestion I read short of opening it up to charge the battery.
Finally I decided to try webos doctor. The instructions say to connect the powered-off touchpad to the USB cable while holding the volume up button. I tried this with the USB cable connected to the plugged-in charger and a battery charge icon appeared on the screen!

So, this is what worked:
1. USB cord plugged in to charger connect to power
2. hold volume up button only -- don't let go and plug USB cord into touchpad

After charging for a few minutes it automatically booted! The charge indicator showed only 3% on the battery. Right now it's still functional and charging, up to 15%. I think it's going to be OK!

[cyberprashant]

well I tried OP's method of charging the battery with FAIL unfortunately. Originally the battery would show 2.8 volts but lately it has been reading 0.00. Charged using the LIPO charger from turnigy. It seemed to charge but then the battery doesn't show any voltage after charged. I think it may be a dead battery now.

I guess I could try spending $25 on a battery but not sure if worth it. In the process of opening and closing it so many times (and not being patient with it), I've managed to destroy the power button contact switch ( though I think I should have been able to power it up w/o it). And now, to add to the misery on the motherboard that connects to the battery, there's 4 metallic spring-like connectors that seem to make contact with the back of the TP (not sure what they're for but 1 of them has come loose). Any ideas what these 4 spring-like contacts are for (they are 2 x 2 and make contact with the back when the motherboard is screwed in. (I'm hoping it was for Touchstone which I could do without). o/w I think this one's toast. (See attached ifixit pic).

Luckily I have 2 more TP's but who knows how long they last before they go bad.

BTW: This site is pretty interesting. By the looks of it, I could either buy a battery ($29) or even the mainboard itself - could the problem be a defective mobo? (32gb at $139) and it should be good as new. Not sure it's worth the gamble but it might be a fun electronics experiment (and the satisfaction of a successful repair). Any thoughts on this company? http://www.portatronics.com/index.ph...ad.html&page=2 From reviewing many discussions on dead TP's it seems the 32 gb ones are the ones to die. Would 16gb mainboard fit in as a cheaper replacement?

[cyberprashant]

Originally Posted by cyberprashant

well I tried OP's method of charging the battery with FAIL unfortunately. Originally the battery would show 2.8 volts but lately it has been reading 0.00. Charged using the LIPO charger from turnigy. It seemed to charge but then the battery doesn't show any voltage after charged. I think it may be a dead battery now.

I guess I could try spending $25 on a battery but not sure if worth it. In the process of opening and closing it so many times (and not being patient with it), I've managed to destroy the power button contact switch ( though I think I should have been able to power it up w/o it). And now, to add to the misery on the motherboard that connects to the battery, there's 4 metallic spring-like connectors that seem to make contact with the back of the TP (not sure what they're for but 1 of them has come loose). Any ideas what these 4 spring-like contacts are for (they are 2 x 2 and make contact with the back when the motherboard is screwed in. (I'm hoping it was for Touchstone which I could do without). o/w I think this one's toast. (See attached ifixit pic).

Luckily I have 2 more TP's but who knows how long they last before they go bad.

BTW: This site is pretty interesting. By the looks of it, I could either buy a battery ($29) or even the mainboard itself - could the problem be a defective mobo? (32gb at $139) and it should be good as new. Not sure it's worth the gamble but it might be a fun electronics experiment (and the satisfaction of a successful repair). Any thoughts on this company? HP TouchPad Repair From reviewing many discussions on dead TP's it seems the 32 gb ones are the ones to die. Would 16gb mainboard fit in as a cheaper replacement?

Just as I was about to call it quits I had the idea of removing the broken power button switch and instead using two screwdrivers to emulate the power button being pushed. Now have a question mark icon (the first thing I've seen on the screen in 2 months - I had no idea if the screen was the issue up till now).

Question is now what. PC recognizes it as a unknwon device. In fact, not sure how to get rid of the battery symbol now that it's lit up. I can't get it to power off, so I guess I'll try a USB charge for 1-2 days and report back.

Anyone was able to fix their TP from a questionmark symbol? So I guess the battery IS working?

[GMMan]

Question mark battery icon... I've heard of it before, and I'll try to take a stab. Probably the battery failed authentication, and the system will refuse to charge it or something. That's speculation. There's either something wrong with the charging circuitry, or something with the chip in the battery. I don't think anyone's solved this yet.

[cyberprashant]

Originally Posted by GMMan

Question mark battery icon... I've heard of it before, and I'll try to take a stab. Probably the battery failed authentication, and the system will refuse to charge it or something. That's speculation. There's either something wrong with the charging circuitry, or something with the chip in the battery. I don't think anyone's solved this yet.

Thanks GMMan - from researching the web - it looks like no one has been able to solve the question mark problem which seems to indicate bad firmware (or corrupt from CM9 installation somehow) or damaged mainboard. I see several people have tried installing a new battery only to also get the battery question mark error to reappear.

So I guess this is endsville for this TP. Luckily I have 2 more but still it is a loss. All three were running CM9. From the research on the web, CM9 does place your TP at risk of this kind of failure, but the risk was definitely worth it. Just makes me wonder now how long the remaining 2 will hold on as nothing out of the ordinary happened to this first one.

Anyone have a working motherboard to sell? Someone had a link to a chinese website selling parts? Maybe it's time to get a NEXUS 10

[cyberprashant]

The saga continues : Follow this interesting thread:

TPDebrick v0.1 - HP Touchpad - RootzWiki

[vistacom]

I found a web page http://kb.hpwebos.com/wps/portal/kb/...en.html#N100F3
that said to charge a HP touchpad that is dead you follow these steps:
1 Hold power button and push home button 10 times. This put the Touchpad into a low power mode.
2 Now Hold the volume up and the power buttons until the battery icon and plug symbol show up (10 seconds) plug your touchpad in with the wall charger.

Charge the device until it powers up. (I am at this point right now and will update after it powers on. If it powers on.

UPDATE*

It worked. After 3 hours it booted up and is fine now. WOW

HP Touchpad dual boot webOS and CyanogenMod9 was left unplugged and battery died while running the Android OS. It would not power on or charge. The above steps worked to fix it.

[cyberprashant]

Originally Posted by vistacom

I found a web page Palm Support : Troubleshooting webOS Doctor
that said to charge a HP touchpad that is dead you follow these steps:
1 Hold power button and push home button 10 times. This put the Touchpad into a low power mode.
2 Now Hold the volume up and the power buttons until the battery icon and plug symbol show up (10 seconds) plug your touchpad in with the wall charger.

Charge the device until it powers up. (I am at this point right now and will update after it powers on. If it powers on.

UPDATE*

It worked. After 3 hours it booted up and is fine now. WOW

HP Touchpad dual boot webOS and CyanogenMod9 was left unplugged and battery died while running the Android OS. It would not power on or charge. The above steps worked to fix it.

Please see this thread TPDebrick v0.1 - HP Touchpad - RootzWiki - Page 35. @jcsullins is a genius!!!!!!

After 4 months my TP is working!!!!!

Credit goes to the original poster as my particular touchpad had a dead battery that required a lipo charger externally.

[cyberprashant]

Originally Posted by this n00b again

Thanks! i did the same thing..
Click to view quoted image

That's pretty much my setup I used to fix my TP. Again not for the faint of heart and I recommend having some basic electronics knowlege before attempting anything like this AT your OWN risk. But the charger recommended Turnigy Accucell 6 is a safe one with many safety features (it will cut out if it detects issues or completes charge) - (used 2.2A default setting, LiPO 1s (default) and auto and CHG (all default) to charge for about an hour. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...cessories.html - though hobbyking is a SLOW shipper took several weeks! For power source I used a 12v battery jumpstarter (commonly sold for jump starting cars - 12v power pack). Just connect to leads of jumper tool.

But the key was also a corrupted A6 firmware on the chip without the help of genius jcsullins would have been impossible see this thread: TPDebrick v0.1 - HP Touchpad - RootzWiki - Page 36

Seems most everyone should be able to just reflash their firmware to fix it without the need for openeing it up for a LiPO charge, unless jcsullins diagnostic reveals your battery is completey dead.

Symptoms should include:
1. dead TP
2. when connected to USB on windows a PALM ? device in device manager when HOME + Vol UP is pressed
after plugging in
2. when connected to USB on windows a QUSB_DLOAD device in device manager when HOME + Vol DOWN is pressed after plugging in

[lunotown]

@cyberprashant,

Seems like I have the exact symptoms as you do. How did you go about reflashing the touchpad? I took a look at the link you provided and I only saw the instructions for creating an error log.

[liquid_celica]

Originally Posted by cyberprashant

That's pretty much my setup I used to fix my TP. Again not for the faint of heart and I recommend having some basic electronics knowlege before attempting anything like this AT your OWN risk. But the charger recommended Turnigy Accucell 6 is a safe one with many safety features (it will cut out if it detects issues or completes charge) - (used 2.2A default setting, LiPO 1s (default) and auto and CHG (all default) to charge for about an hour. Turnigy Accucel-6 50W 6A Balancer/Charger w/ accessories - though hobbyking is a SLOW shipper took several weeks! For power source I used a 12v battery jumpstarter (commonly sold for jump starting cars - 12v power pack). Just connect to leads of jumper tool.

But the key was also a corrupted A6 firmware on the chip without the help of genius jcsullins would have been impossible see this thread: TPDebrick v0.1 - HP Touchpad - RootzWiki - Page 36

Seems most everyone should be able to just reflash their firmware to fix it without the need for openeing it up for a LiPO charge, unless jcsullins diagnostic reveals your battery is completey dead.

Symptoms should include:
1. dead TP
2. when connected to USB on windows a PALM ? device in device manager when HOME + Vol UP is pressed
after plugging in
2. when connected to USB on windows a QUSB_DLOAD device in device manager when HOME + Vol DOWN is pressed after plugging in

I think we're all pretty interested in this. I read Jschillins post and thought you still needed at least a small charge before you update the firmware. I'll give this a shot this weekend and let everyone know if the QoD fix applies to the dead battery fix as well. Thanks for the info so far. BTW, did you happen to take a better pick of your Li-Po setup?

[wooduknow]

Hallelujah and Happy New Year!

New Year's resolutions and all, I figured I would give my dead TouchPad one more try. It had been dead in a drawer for over 6 months. I found this thread and another one and did all the button push combinations. I twisted the round plug back and forth. Previously I had left it on the Touchstone charger and the regular plug-in charger for weeks. Last night I tried a Samsung 5.0V 0.7A phone charger. As soon as I plugged the phone charger cable into the TouchPad, I got a left-right blink on the home button. This was the first sign of life in over 6 months. This morning it booted up and showed 26% charge after 8 hours. It is now on the Touchstone recharging. After one hour it's up to 40%.

I had purchased QVC's TouchPad package when the TouchPad was first introduced. It included the TouchPad, rubberized slipcase and Touchstone. I always used the Touchstone for recharging through the slipcase. Like others on this thread I think I misaligned the TouchPad on the Touchstone and open apps wore down the battery. Knowing what I know now, when the TouchPad goes below 30%, I will turn off the TouchPad when I charge it, just to be safe that I am not actually discharging it. I will also hold on to the little Samsung phone charger!

Thank you to all that formed this thread. It's great to have my TouchPad back.

Happy New Year!

[cyberprashant]

Originally Posted by liquid_celica

I think we're all pretty interested in this. I read Jschillins post and thought you still needed at least a small charge before you update the firmware. I'll give this a shot this weekend and let everyone know if the QoD fix applies to the dead battery fix as well. Thanks for the info so far. BTW, did you happen to take a better pick of your Li-Po setup?

Yeah, give it a shot, jcsullins will be on IRC to help you walk thru the process once you obtain logs as he describes in the thread.

As for pics, I didn't take one but it's identical to what this n00b again has in his post on page 1 (he has a pic) except I didn't have the breadboard with the terminals where he's got the TP.
http://forums.webosnation.com/hp-tou...ml#post3324360

Essentially

12v Car Jumpstarter Pack <---------> Turnigy Accucell 6 LiPO Charger (link on page 1) (settings 2.2 A (default), CHG (default) Auto - charge for 1 hr or when it says completed. LiPO 1s (default). < -------> Touchpad battery (connect 2 red bell wire to red terminals twist together on other end and 2 black bell wires to black terminals, twist together at other end). The other ends go to LiPO Charger. As they mention on page 1 the cells in the battery are in parallel.

Place TP battery in a metal tray (make sure connector is outside of the metal tray, don't want a short) or firesafe box and keep an eye on it all times. Do this at your own risk! (make sure you have some basic electrical know how). the recommended lipo charger seems to have some cool safety features (i.e. it won't charge if leads are loose or if battery doesn't check out to be OK). Mine went from 2.6v to about 3.9-4.0v after about an hour and that's where I stopped. It had enough juice to complete the de-bricking process of jcsullins

From what we know most people do NOT need to externally charge the battery. @jcsullins will tell you from teh log if it's even needed to remove/swap/charge batery. To get the battery out I followed the Ifixit guide (I wasn't able to take any shortcuts as OP posted)

[liquid_celica]

Originally Posted by cyberprashant

Yeah, give it a shot, jcsullins will be on IRC to help you walk thru the process once you obtain logs as he describes in the thread.

As for pics, I didn't take one but it's identical to what this n00b again has in his post on page 1 (he has a pic) except I didn't have the breadboard with the terminals where he's got the TP.
http://forums.webosnation.com/hp-tou...ml#post3324360

Essentially

12v Car Jumpstarter Pack <---------> Turnigy Accucell 6 LiPO Charger (link on page 1) (settings 2.2 A (default), CHG (default) Auto - charge for 1 hr or when it says completed. LiPO 1s (default). < -------> Touchpad battery (connect 2 red bell wire to red terminals twist together on other end and 2 black bell wires to black terminals, twist together at other end). The other ends go to LiPO Charger. As they mention on page 1 the cells in the battery are in parallel.

Place TP battery in a metal tray (make sure connector is outside of the metal tray, don't want a short) or firesafe box and keep an eye on it all times. Do this at your own risk! (make sure you have some basic electrical know how). the recommended lipo charger seems to have some cool safety features (i.e. it won't charge if leads are loose or if battery doesn't check out to be OK). Mine went from 2.6v to about 3.9-4.0v after about an hour and that's where I stopped. It had enough juice to complete the de-bricking process of jcsullins

From what we know most people do NOT need to externally charge the battery. @jcsullins will tell you from teh log if it's even needed to remove/swap/charge batery. To get the battery out I followed the Ifixit guide (I wasn't able to take any shortcuts as OP posted)

Hey Cyber, did you use the abbreviated version on page 35 or the full version on page 1?

thanks!

[krakken]

So, I don't think this is a battery issue in itself. I am(was?) running CM9 nightly. Worked flawlessly. One day, won't turn on and has battery? issue.

I went to the extreme of opening it up, installed new battery still same issue. Took my wife's webos tp and took out a fully charged battery and put it in mine and SAME ISSUE. Put my old CM9 battery in her webos tp and it shows FULLY CHARGED! ***? So, now i'm out $20 bucks on a new battery and have a dead TP. F this!

[lifeisfun]

Here is possible a solution to your problem (thanks to jcsullins)
TPDebrick v0.1 - HP Touchpad - RootzWiki

Mine is partially bricked, I can reboot any time without problems
but can't power off and then back on since most of the times it
will not power back on. While using battery monitoring app, it
actually shows that it keeps draining the battery instead of full shutdown.
I did uninstall Android then WebOSdoctor 3.0.5 and installed
using Acmeinstaller3 moboot 0.3.8/cwm6/CM9 again but the
problem continues not only in Android but using shutdown in WebOS as well.