[P3300, MDA Compact III  upgrading etc.] softinker:
Got an XDA orbit two days back and it won't boot. Once when booted, it got stuck in the splash screen saying O2 and showed the protocols:

It didn't go past this screen and a 4-sec press on power button switched it off. Any number of soft resets wouldn't solve the issue and there was this peculiar problem of the screen going dull and then fully dark, but u can see that the device is not off coz the screen is letting out a dull glow. Resetting switched off the phone.

Thinking it might be a battery issue, plugged in the USB power, but then there was no indication that it was charging. After sometime tried switching on and the unit was dead. Pulled out the battery and reinserted after

arnd 10 mins and did a hard reset. (Pulling battery out and reinserting was done so many times that I'd from now on refer to it as BOutReIn-10min;10min being the time it stayed out)Booted after the hard reset and it

started showing charge indication-orange, green n all.Then after setting the preferences, worked for abt 2 mins and the same problem of screen going dull and black gradually. Soft resets, hard resets, trying bootloader mode - nothing works. Just a brick with a nice thumbdial and trackball.DEAD.

Downloaded the Original O2 Uk ROM Image ARTEIMG.nbh

BOutReIn-30min and tried flashing the ROM from PC.75% and the same

dimming of the screen, but in another pattern of going up from the bottom.

BOutReIn-5min and tried flashing from SD card.

After the "Reading from Sd card" message, while installing first OS, it showed same problem.

Finding that the timing of the problem is connected to the time the battery is out (or the time the unit is not being used), BOutReIn-6hrs and tried SD card flashing which went successful, but when the unit reset after the process, it got stuck in bootloader.Oh Oh! More problematic? Donno..Another reset, still BL.One more, still in BL, but the the screen went dull after 2-3 secs. It hasn't come out of the BL since then.

Gotta be something inside which gets heated up or cuts out. So opened it up and cleaned the whole interior and this guide, alongwith commonsense, came handy.

Then i found a small button cell soldered to the board. The presence of this really caught my attention coz i have had bad experiences with such things in older mobile phones and GPS units. My eTrex Vista went bad after some days of non-use and I found a leaking internal rechargeable cell just like this(3.3v), soldered to the board and it served the purpose of powering the memory where the system settings are saved. That GPS unit didn't come with a flash memory; tho Garmin learnt it fast and switched to Flashroms. Actually the only way of saving such things in GPS units is keeping operational batteries in the unit always and checking them frequently.

A quick check gave the cell voltage as 0.65v which is too low for such chemistry. Then connected the USB charger to the board and measured at the terminals and it was the same. it showed that it is not getting any

supply. Also, there was slight corrosion on the button cell body, which indicated that it might start leaking anytime, if not already. Cleaned up the body, brushed the whole area clean of any impurities and recharged it

using 2 duracells connected to the +/_ terminals and the voltage climbed to 1.7v. Kept it like that for sometime and checked the voltage once more, which showed 1.5v. This showed rapid voltage falling and that is not good news. The battery surely is on its last leg.

Not wanting to give up, and to test really whether the cell contributes to the system settings (otherwise, what is it there for?), connected everything rt back and did an SD card flashing which was successful and the unit booted after reset and started charging and everything was going smooth. Showed splash screen and when it was about to get into the customization phase, the screen began to dim...:(..

Sad, but I think that's at least some point to start. The board is having problems and that's why it doesn't charge the internal cell and the Artemis worked while the cell still had charge. When kept on working, the internal cell has discharged enough and more and that can be the beginning of so many problems which show up in bricked units (mostly Artemis).

No power

No charging

Stuck on bootloader

unit hanging when using

Now I don't think I can service the board successfully myself.Even professional servicing would be very costly. An alternative would be to replace the board.

Now i would like to know if such an internal rechargeable cell is there in other HTC devices. If so, then it is the culprit. If this is there in only Artemis-based PDAs having GPS, then it may or may not be the problem as it might be there just for the GPS, just like in older Garmins. Also, if that is the case, new GPS PDAs won't be having that cell too, after learning from such a mistake.

Let the discussion begin!!!

Hi-Res pics are here:

Internal Rechargeable cell

Close-up of the cell