iPod destroys laptop battery?

Serendipity

So - yesterday I plugged in my iPod Classic 80GB into one of the USB ports on my laptop, and the laptop battery instantly went from 70% to 0 and the laptop turned off.

I have a 12-cell, 6-hour battery that usually gets me through a 3.5 hour class and a 90 minute class so I depend on the battery greatly.

Why in the world would an iPod do this to a laptop battery? Now even at full charge the laptop is only good for 4 hours, no more.

Knucklehead

was your laptop plugged into the wall? I dont think USB ports were designed or meant to "re-charge" other devices especially running on battery back-up. Good Luck!

bobman1235

USB ports are limited in the amount of power they can supply. It's physically impossible, if your laptop is functioning correctly, for a USB port to drain 70% of your battery "instantly." COmpared to the power drawn by the rest of the PC, pumping out 2.5W (500mA @ 5V) to the USB port is nothing. It sounds like your battery was on its way out or something else went horribly wrong that happened to coincide with plugging in your iPod.

Serendipity

bobman1235 wrote: »

USB ports are limited in the amount of power they can supply. It's physically impossible, if your laptop is functioning correctly, for a USB port to drain 70% of your battery "instantly." COmpared to the power drawn by the rest of the PC, pumping out 2.5W (500mA @ 5V) to the USB port is nothing. It sounds like your battery was on its way out or something else went horribly wrong that happened to coincide with plugging in your iPod.

My laptop battery gets me through 5 hours of class a day and has been like that for years. Right now the battery's life is much less, yesterday at full charge I could only get four hours out of it and today it's more like 3.5 hours.

BTW, "instantly" was a matter of seconds - the machine just shut off without going into sleep (it usually does that at 3%)

SKsolutions

All things considered, the USB wire itself is a likely suspect, there could be a short. Swap the cable out and see what happens.

Serendipity

Knucklehead wrote: »

was your laptop plugged into the wall? I dont think USB ports were designed or meant to "re-charge" other devices especially running on battery back-up. Good Luck!

No, it was not plugged into the wall.

I believe the laptop was trying to recharge the iPod while on battery.

What took me by surprise was that the laptop never went into sleep mode, it ALWAYS does that when the battery gets low.

Serendipity

Also, the clock on the laptop is wrong and I got an "Updating ESCD data" message on startup. I set the clock and that went away...for now.

bobman1235

appadv wrote: »

My laptop battery gets me through 5 hours of class a day and has been like that for years. Right now the battery's life is much less, yesterday at full charge I could only get four hours out of it and today it's more like 3.5 hours.

BTW, "instantly" was a matter of seconds - the machine just shut off without going into sleep (it usually does that at 3%)

I understand that it's broken, I didn't say you were wrong that it is. I'm just telling you that a normally functioning USB port could not provide enough power to cause this type of problem, or damage your battery. So something was broken in your laptop and plugging in the iPod just exacerbated the problem.

Do you know anyone with a similar laptop to you that you can swap out the battery to see if it is the laptop's fault or the battery?

ShinAce

As mentioned above, USB is current limited. Even a shorted cord would cause the computer to disconnect it internally.

I don't see why you can't charge USB devices from a laptop running on battery.

Something triggered the laptop to self destruct. Maybe plugging in the ipod started the chain, but the ipod itself is not fully responsible, nor do I think it is necessarily defective.

Serendipity

Just swapped batteries and these are the results:

shadowofnight

appadv wrote: »

My laptop battery gets me through 5 hours of class a day and has been like that for years.

Having dealt with hundreds of laptop batteries....if that battery got you through 5 hours of class a day for years ....you had one kick **** battery. It's common for a single cell in the pack to go and cause those exact same symptoms you described....I wouldnt sweat it...you were long overdue to replace it.

I have cracked open the battery cases before and replaced individual cells, but only on really uncommon hard to get ( And really expensive when you do ) packs....but its not worth the time or effort involved.

Actually with some laptops being sold for so little nowadays, a 50 to 150 dollar pack can be as much as a 1/3 of the price of just picking up a new laptop.

Serendipity

The picture on the left is not my battery - it holds a charge.
The picture on the right is my battery - it drops in battery level very fast.

Shadowofnight - I got the laptop back in 2005. So it's been about 4 years.

shadowofnight

appadv wrote: »

Just swapped batteries and these are the results:

HA...I was typing......how much did you get the new battery for ?

Serendipity

I didn't. That's the battery from my mom's laptop. It has been working for a few years too.

brettw22

Your laptop battery is due for replacement. Please don't let this turn into a 6 page debate on whether your battery should/shouldn't have made it this long.

Serendipity

Okay, so I guess the iPod killed my battery. End of thread.

bobman1235

Sigh. You need to work on reading comprehension.

ShinAce

bobman1235 wrote: »

Sigh. You need to work on reading comprehension.

We need more sarcasm tags. I hope he's kidding, otherwise we should pitch in for some reading glasses.

shadowofnight

Oh well...we tried.

Kinda like when my mom swore that my AC/DC VHS cassette killed our 80 pound top loading VCR.

I kept that sucker just so I could fix it at a later date...a few years later while in electronics school I mailed for the schematics ( No stinking internet then ) and fixed that sucker...was the tape end sensor had gone bad...cutting power to the reel motor. Damn AC/DC tape........

F1nut

There's always the same common denominator.

Serendipity

bobman1235 wrote: »

Sigh. You need to work on reading comprehension.

If you read the first post, you would see that the battery was holding a charge BEFORE the iPod was plugged in.

Sure, the battery might have been on its way out, but I still believe that the iPod killed it.

Serendipity

Note: This was the first time I plugged the iPod into this laptop, too.

Will see what happens with the other battery. From experience batteries usually don't fail like that, it's after repeated charge/discharge cycles that the life decreases.

I have never seen a battery go from 70% to OFF within a matter of seconds.

bobman1235

appadv wrote: »

If you read the first post, you would see that the battery was holding a charge BEFORE the iPod was plugged in.

Sure, the battery might have been on its way out, but I still believe that the iPod killed it.

If you read every other post - there has to be something wrong with your laptop for that to be possible. Yes, the iPod may have been the final cause of your battery death, but for that to be physically possible, something was already broken on your laptop (and is most likely still broken and may kill future batteries).

Serendipity

I see that. The fact still remains, this battery was getting me through 5 hours of class daily before the iPod was plugged in.

I would expect the battery to slowly lose its life, not go dead instantly. There may be something wrong with the laptop.

Serendipity

Uh-oh. The iPod plugged into a Dell desktop PC makes the Dell turn off!!

WTF?

Serendipity

Even worse, the Dell won't turn on with the iPod connected.

The fans on the Dell spin for a split second, then everything turns off.

shack

appadv wrote:

Uh-oh. The iPod plugged into a Dell desktop PC makes the Dell turn off!!

WTF?

It's a obvious plot by Jobs to destroy any non-Apple device. Plug it into a Dell...turns the machine off. Plug into an HP...melts the motherboard. Plug it into an IBM and the damn thing explodes. Your only hope is to plug it into any machine running MS and it does nothing because Gate's world domination programs are better than Job's.

Serendipity

You guys are all wrong! It was the iPod.

When plugged into any PC, it causes the PC to turn off. You can't power on the PC unless the iPod is unplugged from it.

polkatese

swap the ipod USB cable?

I replaced my ipod video 5th generation battery, a couple of weeks ago. Got it from ipodjuice.com

Don't know if it is relevant here, but ipod battery supposed to start acting up after 3+ years, which mine is.

Serendipity

polkatese wrote: »

swap the ipod USB cable?

I'm going to buy one tomorrow.

On another note, that Dell desktop made a strange sound when you tried to power it on with the iPod. Kinda like the sound of a capacitor discharging. The fans would also spin for a split second, then stop.

Serendipity

SKsolutions wrote: »

All things considered, the USB wire itself is a likely suspect, there could be a short. Swap the cable out and see what happens.

It turns out it was the cable, shorted out every PC it was connected to and made the PSU switch off.

The end.