Prius AUX jack fried my MP3 player battery, DEAD!!!

[freshmtt]

Originally Posted by Yak18

Another thing you said concerns me..."hardly ever used". Batteries need to be used (cycled) to stay fresh. It's possible that the battery went below 3.0 volts just sitting there on standby for a few months.

Hmm,, do you think it always being plugged into the charger in the house could have done this??, I never really kept it on, but I always kept it plugged into the charger but it was always off. I had it connected to the docking station all the time and it was always plugged in. But I really did not use it much, especially after I got another MP3 player in December.

I found my receipt. I bought it in February 2007. So to me that is still pretty new and hardly ever used, but like you said, if not using it, could destroy the battery, that really sucks big time..

I will have it fixed though, I found an independent company that can replace the battery since Creative will not do it for me. They just want me to buy a new one..

I feel a bit better now thinking that the Prius did not kill my player.. Now I just want it fixed..

[PriusSport]

Sounds like you are talking about the AUX jack that connects your player to the car speakers, not the 12V outlet which might be used to recharge? I have a couple of Creative mp3 players, and hesitate to use them now in my Prius. I have connected them to Creative external speakers (the small tabletop type) without any problem. The speakers come with a connecting cable. Perhaps the problem is the cable?

[freshmtt]

Originally Posted by PriusSport

Sounds like you are talking about the AUX jack that connects your player to the car speakers, not the 12V outlet which might be used to recharge? I have a couple of Creative mp3 players, and hesitate to use them now in my Prius. I have connected them to Creative external speakers (the small tabletop type) without any problem. The speakers come with a connecting cable. Perhaps the problem is the cable?

Yes, I am talking about the AUX jack, I bought the connector cable from Radio Shack when I bought my docking station. The Docking station I bought last year was for an IPOD, but you can just buy the AUX cable and work any MP3 player off it. I just took that AUX jack cable and now have it in my Prius. Actually the Docking station is an actual stereo, with the IPOD connection, CD player and AM/FM radio. My Creative has been plugged into that Stereo for a year with the charger cable always on charge and it plugged into the AUX jack on the stereo with no problems ever.

[Dawveed]

I don't mean to gripe but...

Since a two-year old device is that much obsolete to where they don't have replacement batterries, I would be upset at Creative Labs for not getting it right in the first place. I had a Dell player for one week and had the thing crash several times in that weeks time. I sent it back and got an I-pod. Though an I-pod might cost a little more, I have never had the thing lock up, crash, nor have a phantom battery problem. My next computer might be a mac for the same reasons. Just a thought.

[freshmtt]

Originally Posted by Dawveed

I don't mean to gripe but...

Since a two-year old device is that much obsolete to where they don't have replacement batterries, I would be upset at Creative Labs for not getting it right in the first place. I had a Dell player for one week and had the thing crash several times in that weeks time. I sent it back and got an I-pod. Though an I-pod might cost a little more, I have never had the thing lock up, crash, nor have a phantom battery problem. My next computer might be a mac for the same reasons. Just a thought.

Well, I found out, they do have replacement batteries but they will not replace them for you.. the battery is an internal battery and it must be sent in to someone to replace. I found a few places on the internet that do it. I did a search on yahoo for creative repair and found some sites..

However, when I came home today I check my player again and low and behold it was all charged up and working just fine

So, I don't know what the hell was wrong, after 13 hours it did not charge one bit, the flasher was working showing it was charging but it did not charge at all. I left it plugged in when I went to work today and when I came home tonight at 5pm, I checked it again, and IT WORKS!!!!

So, I am extremely happy that it is NOT broken, and YEAH the Prius did not kill it,

That was my first though because it normally charges up fully in 4 hours, after 13 hours of not charging at all even though the indicator was showing it was charging made me believe the battery was toast!! But I have no idea what happened that all of a sudden it charged up fully today while I was at work.

[narf]

Maybe you have an intermittent open circuit on your charger.

[freshmtt]

Originally Posted by narf

Maybe you have an intermittent open circuit on your charger.

Ummm, excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is that??

[Speedwing]

This is how it is supposed to work per wilkipedia! It all makes perfect sense based on what you have told us!!!! Yours was in deep discharge state.

"A unique drawback of the Li-ion battery is that its life span is dependent upon aging from time of manufacturing (shelf life) regardless of whether it was charged, and not just on the number of charge/discharge cycles. So an older battery will not last as long as a new battery due solely to its age, unlike other batteries. This drawback is not widely published.[15]
At a 100% charge level, a typical Li-ion laptop battery that is full most of the time at 25 degrees Celsius or 77 degrees Fahrenheit will irreversibly lose approximately 20% capacity per year. However, a battery stored inside a poorly ventilated laptop may be subject to a prolonged exposure to much higher temperatures than 25 °C, which will significantly shorten its life. The capacity loss begins from the time the battery was manufactured, and occurs even when the battery is unused. Different storage temperatures produce different loss results: 6% loss at 0 °C (32 °F), 20% at 25 °C (77 °F), and 35% at 40 °C (104 °F). When stored at 40% - 60% charge level, these figures are reduced to 2%, 4%, 15% at 0, 25 and 40 degrees Celsius respectively.
Under certain temperature conditions, the batteries have a tendency to become damaged and can sometimes never fully recharge again. In certain situations where the temperature is too cold (below the recommended battery temperature) the battery will still hold its charge but cannot be recharged as a result of the cold temperature. This is most common in smaller batteries such as cellular phones and handheld devices.
As batteries age, their internal resistance rises. This causes the voltage at the terminals to drop under load, reducing the maximum current that can be drawn from them. Eventually they reach a point at which the battery can no longer operate the equipment it is installed in for an adequate period.
High drain applications such as powertools may require the battery to be able to supply a current of (15 h-1)C - 15/hour times "C" - the battery capacity in Ampere hours, whereas MP3 players may only require (0.1 h-1)C (discharging in 10 hours). With similar technology, the MP3 battery can tolerate a much higher internal resistance, so will have an effective life of many more cycles.[16]
Li-ion batteries can even go into a state that is known as deep discharge. At this point, the battery may take a very long time to recharge. For example, a laptop battery that normally charges fully in 3 hours may take up to 42 hours to recharge. Or the deep discharge state may be so severe that the battery will never come back to life. Deep discharging only takes place when products with rechargeable batteries are left unused for extended periods of time (often 2 or more years) or when they are fully discharged so often that they can no longer hold a charge. This makes Li-ion batteries unsuitable for back-up applications where they may become completely discharged.
A stand-alone Li-ion cell must never be discharged below a certain voltage to avoid irreversible damage. Therefore all Li-ion battery systems are equipped with a circuit that shuts down the system when the battery is discharged below the predefined threshold.[12] It should thus be impossible to "deep discharge" the battery in a properly designed system during normal use. This is also one of the reasons Li-ion cells are rarely sold as such to consumers, but only as finished batteries designed to fit a particular system.
When the voltage monitoring circuit is built inside the battery (a so-called "smart" battery) rather than the equipment, it continuously draws a small current from the battery even when the battery is not in use; furthermore, the battery must not be stored fully discharged for prolonged periods of time, to avoid damage due to deep discharge." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery

[racerbob]

My Zen battery did not last 2 years. I replaced it myself. Check this site. They have lots of Creative Labs batteries. Batteries for iPod, Palm, HP, Zen, iRiver, Asus, Blackberry, Casio...

[audiophile]

There is a warning label on nearly every piece of electronic equipment that states you should not leave it exposed to heat (eg, sunlight, in a hot car) for long periods of time.

Leaving your mp3 player in a hot locked car for three weeks can in fact fry it. The audio jack will not. I'm wondering though how you can leave a device in your car for three weeks without charging it. If you're charging it in a hot car through the car outlet, you definitely fried it on your own.

Just remember your device is made of metal and plastic: two things that do not mix well with heat.