Pinebook's battery flat on arrival

[MarkHaysHarris777]

Since I bought my Pinebook I used it for a few times. After a day of use with the battery, I turned it off and now when I try to turn it on I have red battery icon. I followed the procedure 2+ hours (one night) of charging, removed and reinserted the power cables (12 times) and charging for another 1-2hrs, but still no boot. Someone can help me? The battery is gone?

No, the battery is not gone;  however, the PMIC "believes" that its gone !

...  you need to open the pinebook up (yes, I'm serious, ten tiny screws, then pop the bottom cover off ).

Carefully unplug the battery with the unit power adapter plugged in;  count 5, plug it back in  (wait a few minutes)

^  Repeat

Sometimes you have to repeat that many times;  what you'll be doing is "shocking" the battery UP to about 3.5 - 3.6 vots... then, the PMIC will "see" it and start charging.

The cause of this is that when you shutdown the system halted, but the unit didn't actually power off -- known problem.  If the unit does not power off, force it off with a very long press 12 seconds of the power button.  If the battery runs all the way flat, you'll be right back here again !


Also, to ensure that the unit more reliably powers off, when you shutdown do so by pressing the power buttom to pull up the shutdown dialogue instead of selecting shutdown from the menubar, or elsewhere.