[UPDATED] battery draining completely even after ipod has been manually shut off

[iambigjilm]

First time poster (obviously), and I wanted to give thanks to everyone involved with Rockbox, as I have been absolutely loving it for the last week or so I've had it installed on my 4g Ipod.  I've got a question that I was unable to locate an answer to using the search though(I'm sure it's been answered, I just can't locate it.)

For the past couple of days I've completely charged my ipod and then used it for maybe an hour or so (battery life shows over 1/2 left after said hour) and then I shut it down and put it away until the next day.  However, I've noticed that when I try to turn it back on the next day the battery is completely drained.  Is there something I'm missing as to why it would still drain battery power after it has been shut down?

I apologize if this is in the incorrect forum.  And if this question has been answered previously would someone please point me in the right direction, as I've searched and searched and cannot come up with an answer.

I love the fact that I can play my flac files on my ipod with Rockbox, and I'm aware that Rockbox is going to use more battery power that the original apple software, but I can't for the life of me figure out why I lose every bit of battery power over night even with the ipod shut off.   Thanks in advance.

edit... and yes, I have read the manual and everything I thought would help me locate a solution.  If I missed something, again, someone please point me in the right direction.

[AlexP]

1)  I don't know if you can, but if so please change your name.  If not I am sure the mods can.

2)  There did use to be a bug where ipods turned on by themselves, but it was fixed.  What build are you using?

[iambigjilm]

thanks for the reply.

1) i was actually looking to see if i could change it (i woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning).  if it can't be changed then i'll gladly re register under a different name.

2) i'm very new to this, so please bear with me.  is there a way to tell which build i'm using w/o having the ipod turned on?  (ie. through the files i downloaded?)  the reason i ask is that i haven't been able to get it to turn back on since it died this morning (and it has been on the charger for close to 6 hours now.)  i'm not worried that it won't turn back on, as it has done this to me every time the battery has completely drained.

[AlexP]

If you still have the rockbox.zip you downloaded there should be a rockbox-info.txt file inside the .rockbox folder in there.

[iambigjilm]

ahhh, i looked right over it.  was looking for a readme.

Target: ipod4g
Target id: 17
Target define: -DIPOD_4G
Memory: 32
CPU: arm
Manufacturer: ipod
Version: r15099-071013
Binary: rockbox.ipod
Binary size: 440008
Actual size: 440000
RAM usage: 848752
gcc: arm-elf-gcc (GCC) 4.0.3
ld: GNU ld version 2.16.1
Host gcc: gcc (GCC) 4.2.2 (Debian 4.2.2-1)
Host system: Linux

[AlexP]

OK,

1)  You can change your display name if you go to your profile then account settings

2)  You are required to test with an up-to-date build before reporting any problems, as they might have been fixed in the meantime - yours is three weeks old.

There was a bug with ipods turning on for no reason, hence running the battery down, but that was fixed on the 28th Sept.  Nonetheless, please try with a current build first then we can take it from there.

[iambigjilm]

cool, thank you very much.  i had no idea that i had an old build, as i just downloaded and installed this about a week ago.  i'll update it as soon as i can get it to power back up.

thanks again for your help bigbambi.

[AlexP]

No problem.  I deleted a few posts from here as I was talking rubbish and confusing everyone (including myself).

To summarise - iambigjilm leaves the ipod turned off with hold on, so could someone with better knowledge of iPods tell us whether an ipod will just turn back off under these circumstances if the alarm (faulty or otherwise) wakes it?

[iambigjilm]

update (from work):

Updated to the current build yesterday, charged the ipod to maximum capacity, listened to it for approximately 30 minutes last nght, manually shut it down and switched hold on.  Got to work today, switched hold off and attempted to boot into Rockbox and unfortunately got the low battery icon again and it shut down.

I really appreciate BigBambi's help yesterday, and hope someone else out there can help me figure this problem out.

One more detail I failed to mention yesterday.  I installed Rockbox about a week ago and had no problems with battery draining until a coupe of days ago.  I didn't change anything in that time frame, so I'm really at a loss as to what the problem is.

[AlexP]

That is very odd.  We shall have to wait for an ipod guru to come along.

[iambigjilm]

yeah, i thought it was odd also.  now, i,m not going to lie here, but i'm pretty sure that once i had it up and running last night I went into the settings to turn off the alarm set.  did i do it?  i'm pretty sure i did.  however, i'm not 100% positive, so the problem may still be on my end.  i've got it charging at the moment, and i'll check it again when i get home this afternoon to make sure that's not the problem.  i'm still curios though if it will still power back up (due to the alarm mode being set) even when it's on hold.

i know i said i read through the manual and had tried everything, but i'm beginning to second guess myself.  once it's back up i'll confirm that my settings are not what's causing the problem (or confirm that they are what's causing the problem.)

[Elbo]

I am having the same issue but I'm using a newer build. I have no idea what could be causing it.

Target: ipodvideo
Target id: 15
Target define: -DIPOD_VIDEO
Memory: 32
CPU: arm
Manufacturer: ipod
Version: r15390M-071101
Binary: rockbox.ipod
Binary size: 541700
Actual size: 541692
RAM usage: 1618456
gcc: arm-elf-gcc (GCC) 4.0.3
ld: GNU ld version 2.16.1
Host gcc: gcc (GCC) 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)
Host system: Linux

[Chronon]

iambigjilm mentioned that this only started happening a couple of days ago.  Once your player is charged again you could test to see if a build from before this causes the same problem.  Elbo, did this problem appear around the same time for you as well?

I haven't looked at the alarm code at all and don't really have an opportunity to do so now since I'm at work.  But you could always test the behavior by setting an alarm to go off in a few minutes and then shutting the player off and setting the hold switch.  I wouldn't be surprised to find that the alarm flags and boots up Rockbox.  But it still seems like the idle poweroff should shut the system down again.  This battery draining seems very mysterious to me.  Does the battery actually get drained, or is this one of those situations where the iPod just thinks the battery is low and refuses to turn on?

One last thought: If the alarm is turning the unit on unexpectedly it might not ever turn back off if playback is set to repeat.  However this situation would be easy to falsify since you could just leave it plugged into some external speakers to wake you up if the iPod begins playback unexpectedly.  I would also imagine that starting with a full battery you would probably wake up before full battery drain happened under normal playback.

[Elbo]

I just installed Rockbox yesterday. I'm going to see if it happens again tonight (I'll be using my ipod all day on a drive). I didn't set the alarm and it's currently disabled. And the battery is definitely drained (it's not just the ipod saying it's drained).

[Chronon]

Elbo, how do you differentiate between the battery actually being drained and the iPod just thinking that it's drained.  The phenomenology will be quite similar (e.g. the player will give you the low battery message and refuse to boot up in both cases).