M050201b: Blocco Battery Observations

Date	Observation

2005-01-31	Pre-Order Research: While researching the system I downloaded a copy of the battery warranty (79kB PDF file). There is a six months warranty on purchased batteries. I also obtained a copy of the Averatec C3500 User Guide (2.9MB PDF file). The User Guide (p.124) specifies that the "Target Battery Mark" is 4 hours. The resource sites that I visit have the short battery life as a common litany.
2005-02-08	2005-02-08-17:06 On unpacking Blocco, the Quick Start Guide just says to insert the battery. The only other external documentation is on Windows XP Tablet PC Edition (2002). I know there is an User Guide, but I go ahead and simply follow the instructions. After Windows XP takes me through the first-startup configuration activities, I find myself in administrator and Norton Antivirus 2004 takes me through its registration process. Someplace in that procedure I manage to do something weird with the pen and the computer goes into hibernate mode. I go along with the gag. After the machine has shut down, I plug in the power adapter and allow the battery to recharge.
2005-02-08	2005-02-08-21:21 When the battery is recharged, I conduct another on-battery session, straightening out my accounts so that orcmid is a regular user. I create another administrator account. I watch the battery indicator in the system tray, and notice that it is coming down. At 22:35pm I make my first Journal note, recording that I am down to 21% and 21 minutes left, suggesting that we have about 100 minutes capacity. It seems like less time than that, and I think it is around 60 minutes consumed at this point. As the %-age goes down there is a slight increase in minutes left, and suddenly the system goes into standby mode. It does this very quickly with not enough warning to intervene in any way. I plug in the power, do some clean-up, and shut down the computer with it left to recharge.
2005-02-11	2005-02-11-21:05 I have come back up on AC power, and nose around a little. The power meter information identifies the battery. The power scheme is set for Portable/Laptop. I click to select Max Battery, but I am denied permission to set the active policy. I will need to do that as administratory.
2005-02-11	2005-02-11-21:00 I unhook the AC power and battery powery resumes. There is no battery light (just as I remembered it) and the battery indicator in the system tray says 1:25 hours (99 percent) remaining. This is with the machine configuration set to its out-of-the-box settings. I have the WLAN set to the off position (I have never had this machine on a network or modem connection), and I see if I can register One Note while I am here. I will do the little "Get Going with Tablet PC" tutorial first. 21:23 1:07 (85%) remaining. The OneNote registration fails (thinking I should have an install CD where it can access `D:\PA561401.CAB`) and then aborts after I say OK. [Other users have noticed this abberation.] I also note that the Power profile is still Portable/Laptop, but we should be running on the battery side of that. I see that Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 is now on my Start menu and when I open it up, I am invited to activate. I cancel out of that because I have no connectivity at this point. I notice, to be dealt with elsewhere that the page in OneNote is dated June 25, 2004, so I learn how to delete everything. 21:40 49 min (64%) remaining. I am reading the OneNote Help and other information. 22:00 27 min (37%) remaining. I don't see the sidenote guy. I may have to restart to get it. Hmm, orientation doesn't work on startup. This restart is taking a while. I wonder if I'll have enough power to get through it. It seems to be stuck on the Windows is Starting Up ... screen, with the text pad on it. I don't get to the usual failure to log me on automatically situation (which I want to figure out how to get rid of at some point). The disk activity can be heard but the indicator doesn't flicker, so I try a restart. That doesn't seem to get me anywhere, so on a second restart, I plug in the AC adapter. It's working away (it's been something like 5 minutes, with momentary suggestions of life) but not getting anywhere. At some point, the screen saver came up, I stroked the touchpad and the logon screen came up. I got in, checked the recharge level, made a OneNote about it, put it back on battery only, and let it go a few minutes until it gave me a low battery warning in the system tray. I did a shutdown, folded up Blocco, and put him on the shelf with the AC adapter plugged in and recharging. Time to do something more systematic.