# My K2i's battery died while not being used with whispernet off



## s0nicfreak (Jun 10, 2010)

What's up with that? I thought it didn't use battery power except to change pages when whispernet was off?


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## slkissinger (Jul 29, 2010)

I don't know for sure, but as an electronic device, it will use a teensy bit just to be powered on.  How long was it between you looking at "hey cool, full charge, I'll turn off Whispernet and put K2i in a drawer", and looking at it again?  

I would expect to get at least a week or two, maybe even three, of a K2i just being there with no activity; to go from a full charge to losing all charge.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

It was probably indexing books - that's the usual source of significant power drain when you aren't reading & wireless is off.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

It might not have been indexing books.  My kindle (a DX) also went down to no battery when not being used for about 3 weeks.


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## Pushka (Oct 30, 2009)

This happened to my husbands k2i yesterday. It hadn't been used for maybe 3 weeks as he had the k3 and I wanted to swap my older one for his, which had only been purchased in July. And it was completely flat and not indexing. But it has charged up fine, just took a while.


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## G. Henkel (Jan 12, 2010)

Devices like these will always have a certain amount of power draw. Otherwise it would not even be able to recognize when you turn the power switch on or get it out of sleep mode with the keyboard. This drain will eventually empty your battery, no matter what. In addition, even it it were completely turned off, the fact that there is electrical resistance against the battery will very slowly drain the battery. The only way to prevent that would be to remove the battery, which is not that great an idea.

So, battery drain like that is absolutely normal. However, unlike other devices with LCD displays, the most significant power draw happens only once when the page is first rendered and then it is reduced to a minimum wheres in an LCD display it remains constantly high. The common explanation that it uses power "only" to turn pages is in fact not accurate.


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## Jacina (Sep 21, 2010)

Additionally every battery loses power continually. With the low power draw of a "sleeping" kindle this would also be a factor.

What is completely deadly is if you let a battery drain completely and then let it lay around for another month or two...


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## s0nicfreak (Jun 10, 2010)

Thanks for the answers! It wasn't laying unused for long, but it was pretty low when I laid it down.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

PS: There's really no reason not to keep the battery topped off. These new rechargeable batteries are not like the old ones which did not hold as much charge if you did not let them mostly discharge before recharging. There's really not much reason not to plug it in to the charging cord when you're done reading for the night -- maybe order an additional cord if you want to keep one by the computer and one on the nightstand.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

NogDog said:


> maybe order an additional cord if you want to keep one by the computer and one on the nightstand.


I have one by my computer in my office, one by the bed, and one in the family room. . . .the three places I'm most likely to be when I feel the need to charge my Kindle or my Phone. . . .they both use the same connector which is convenient. 

If I'm going to be home I don't worry about the charge level, but I always top 'em up before I go out and about.


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## Pushka (Oct 30, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I have one by my computer in my office, one by the bed, and one in the family room. . . .the three places I'm most likely to be when I feel the need to charge my Kindle or my Phone. . . .they both use the same connector which is convenient.
> 
> If I'm going to be home I don't worry about the charge level, but I always top 'em up before I go out and about.


I have so many of these charger cords. I usually buy the charger for Australia each time I buy a kindle, and these chargers ship separately from the kindle so they all have a cord, plus, each kindle comes with the cord anyway! The cat likes to play with them anyway.....


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## s0nicfreak (Jun 10, 2010)

Well my reason is that I usually don't plan to be done for the night when I set it down, it usually just turns out that way... and when I do plan it, I always forget to plug it in


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## vermontcathy (Feb 18, 2009)

Guido Henkel said:


> Devices like these will always have a certain amount of power draw. Otherwise it would not even be able to recognize when you turn the power switch on


Hate to nit-pick, but this isn't true. Many devices are truly 100% off and they "know" when you turn them on. A computer for instance. The power switch is a physical device that turns the computer on - the computer doesn't need to already be using power to know when the switch is pressed. My flashlight doesn't need to be constantly drawing power in order to "know" when I turn it on.

The image displayed on a kindle (such as a screen saver, or whatever text you are reading) will stay there even if you ripped the battery out all together. So it really shouldn't be using any power when it is off. But batteries will lose power over time even if not being used.

Also, Lithium-Ion batteries supposedly prefer to be stored at 40% full, not 100% full - http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm. Keeping them constantly at 100% can shorten their overall life (the number of years they last).


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## G. Henkel (Jan 12, 2010)

I knew someone would have to nitpick on this... but here goes. Switches that physically separate a device from the circuit have mostly gone the way of the Dodo about 10 years ago - even in PCs. The only thing that still does that that I can think of are light switches in our homes. Even if some ancient left-over PC still has such a switch, and in particular none of the modern "devices" - which were the subject of this conversation - do have such a hard switch. Not a single one! They are all soft-switches that trigger a circuit and do not physically separate the power form the device.


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