18 January 2008

HP iPAQ h5450 dead/flat battery

So, you forgot to recharge your iPAQ h5400 PPC handheld for a week and it doesn't power up anymore? Not even if you leave it plugged to the external supply for days?

Might be too late, or not.

First of all, if you read this before your battery has flatten out, go to the HP website ("software and drivers"), download and install firmware upgrades if you've never done it. There is a fix for the flat battery that doesn't get recharged.

If your h5450 has already passed away without upgrades, you need to find another h5450 (h5400 series), do the patching and then recharge your battery on it. Most probably in less than 24h you'll have your h5450 working again.

If you have a h5500 series handheld (h5550 for example), HP has not released the battery charging patch, while it seems to be affected as well (real world experience). Since h5400 and h5500 batteries are the same, let a patched h5400 recharge your battery and you'll be back on track.

Important: always do these chargings with direct connection to the external power supply. Do not use the USB charging feature.

Good luck.