Iriver H320 -- Can it play on external power only? No internal battery?

[cromag]

I have a few Iriver H320 players with CF cards and Rockbox installed maybe 7 or more years ago.  They've gotten a lot of use over the years and I really like them.  The problem is the batteries.  The last time I replaced batteries was several years ago, and those batteries are no longer holding useful charges.  I've now installed my second "new" battery in a week only to find that it, like the last one, was Dead On Arrival.  I'm guessing that all anyone has out there are old batteries that have been sitting on the shelf for years.

I'd be happy to remove the internal battery completely and run the players off an external battery pack via the charging port or the USB port, but this doesn't seem to work.  Without at least a partially charged battery in place, the player won't turn on.

Does anyone know if there's a way to get the player to work on external power only, or is it hopeless?

Thanks in advance for any and all replies!

[saratoga]

Not sure about the old irrivers, but it's pretty common that players need the battery to boot. You an try and remove checks for low battery from rockbox (and it's bootloader if there are any), but you're still depending on the hardware being able to boot as far as rockbox without the battery.

Why not just leave the dead battery in the player?

[cromag]

Thanks very much for the reply.

I do still have a couple of batteries that are very (very) weak, and the player will turn on when one of them is installed.  But most of my batteries -- including the last ones I bought and returned -- are completely dead and the players won't turn on.

The other problem is that with the external power connected the player still tries to charge the weak/dead batteries.  Even the weak ones are getting warmer than I remember, and the dead ones get very warm.

I was afraid there might not be a practical way to fix this.

Thanks again.

[7o9]

How about replacing the battery with a new aftermarket one?

I have no idea about availability but anything compatible would allow you to start your player and then run it off USB power. A new one might not have the overheating problems.

[cromag]

The new ones I've been getting have been Dead on Arrival.  I assume they're "new old stock" -- never been sold. but sitting on the shelf for too long.

I'm still trying, but obviously this isn't promising.

[saratoga]

The iriver batteries are just a + and a - terminal to a lithium ion battery, so you could put almost anything in there that will fit.  No thermistor or microchips or anything like that. There are aftermarket ones on amazon though. 

[cromag]

Thanks!  The two dead ones I got were from Amazon vendors.

I tend to be very cautious about Lithium batteries.  I remember when they were being developed in the 80s and being described as potential hand grenades. 

I may wind up giving that a try in the garage if I can't find any working batteries.  I suspect the various vendors at Amazon etc. are all drawing from the same stock.

Thanks again.

[kostkoro]

Here is an old post of me, about this situation and the solution I luckily discovered:
https://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,25598.msg172148.html#msg172148
The cfmode guide page still exists and the special bootloader for CF is still there for downloading: H300.zip. In my experience the bootloader was functioning OK without having to replace the hard disk with a CF card. I just don;t know if this old bootloader is compatible with newer features, eg. themes etc. I also I am not sure if it will succeed in charging by Rockbox and not by iRiver firmware. This happened with my H320, which was European version. Good luck!