BlackBerry® PlayBook™

[knottyrope]

So my son left a few apps running and went to bed with out putting it on a charger. we also have a few vacation pics on it too and I tried everything to get it to boot up. I even hooked up a amp meter to see if it was taking a charge at all. there was no red LED at all and it is out of warranty too. do not do this if it is in warranrty.

first I used a credit card to open the back of the playbook open. real easy to do from the charge port side and run it around.

I looked at the battery connector and my meter showed 2 volts. thats less than the 2.8 seal voltage in this KB BlackBerry PlayBook Power - Battery charge and discharge characteristics

I had it on a charger for over 4 days with no LED still and needed to try something that i do with my tractor all the time. Jump start it!  Since the battery is too low to start the playbook, why not trick it into thinking it is at proper voltage.

I hooked up the OEM playbook charger to the playbook and then with a spare USB cable cut open I hooked the ends of the wires to my playbook while connected to a OEM Torch cube charger. Mind you that I did test the polarity with a meter and know that the black is negative and red is positive on my USB cable. I snipped the singal wires off since they would not be used.

Warning this can cause an explosion if not done right, dont try it unless you know the polarity is correct and know that lithium batteries are dangerous at this low level. have sand not water near to put it out. I am not reponsible if you try this. dont do it unless you know what + and - means.

I then touched my powered and cut USB cable to the two points in the following pic for a few seconds and I had a red LED for 10 seconds and my amp meter showed current flow (.02) and stopped. Then tried it again and held it there for about 3 min and then the playbook LED turned on again with green 5 flashing times and now a steady current draw is shown on my meter.

the two arrows show where 5 volts from a standard torch or bold charger was applied with wires. I only held them in place by hand.

ok so now after charging for about 10 min, i removed power and battery shows 2.8 volts and playbook now shows charging screen, going to leave it a bit this way and check back in a while.

My son it litterally jumping up and down with excitment as we are going on a 3+ hour drive for camping in two days.

will post back in a few once it powers up but since the battery voltage is rising it should be good to go.

[knottyrope · Accepted solution]

success

my meter was showing .01 to .02 when slow charging and now shows .10

I have a happy son now and this will be a nice trip.

again, dont try this at home unless you know what you are doing

[Lost_at_Sea]

Would you post your address please so we can send your our dead PlayBooks and you can get them going? Pretty Please?

[knottyrope]

it is against Terms of service to post an address and I would not want to risk breaking some one elses playbook or be blamed for the unknown that can happen with a repair like this

[John_Clark]

Did the Engine Degreaser help?

[knottyrope]

That was used to remove the crud on the otterbox, it was filthy from his use.

[sam81]

Nicely played knotty. I wondered if something like this would work if needed

[xeozus]

Great.. and congratulation of your efforts..

[cas118]

Nice one.

Who the man? Knotty the man!

[JSanders Resident Expert]

Good work! When you told me you were doing this, I prayed "Oh God help him!"