Re: 3 'dead' h5555

On Tuesday 30 September 2008, Mister Ribble wrote:
> I recently became the proud owner of 3 'dead' HP h5555. I put dead in
> quotations because I don't know what the problem was - just that they
> stopped working enough that a government agency didn't want them
> anymore. What I'm looking for is some information with what to do with
> them. I'm all for supporting porting Linux to them, and I'd be willing
> to give them to someone who would use them towards that effort. Also, if
> anyone has an information about how to go about providing them power
> directly (I don't have batteries for all of them, and I don't have
> docking stations for any) then I could troubleshoot what's wrong with
> them and work on porting Linux to them myself.

The h5000 series has a wonderful "feature" where if the battery is completely
discharged it won't even indicate that it's charging when you plug it in, let
alone turn on - they're apparently totally dead. If you leave them on power
for a few hours, then hard reset, then press reset and the power button a few
times you can usually get them to come back to life. I would suggest
acquiring at least one replacement battery - cheap ones are available on eBay
(although the quality is questionable).
 
I understand that there is a method for getting them to power up from the
charger alone, but I don't know what it is myself.

Good luck :)

Cheers,
Paul
Received on Tue Sep 30 2008 - 20:00:14 EDT