PSP Battery issues

[Edmond Dantes]

So, I have two PSP Batteries. One is the one that is included with my system. The other is a supposed-five-hour battery by Hyperkin.

Now, neither battery really holds up as long as they're supposed to. The regular battery seems to be anywhere from 30min to 1 hour while the Hyperkin one is 1-2 hours.

Lithium Ion cells naturally degrade and lose their ability to lose full charge. I was wondering if its possible to fix this, since buying replacement batteries is getting less and less possible and will be outright impossible in five years? I read of a solution for laptop batteries (which involved buying replacement cells, and doing a lot of soldering)--will something similar work for the PSP?

Thanks in advance.

P.S. I have a 3000 model and am NOT using custom firmware.

[dcharlieJP]

How are you recharging the batteries?

[Edmond Dantes]

Using the PSP itself. The batteries charge whenever its plugged in.

[dcharlieJP]

right, i meant whether via the USB charger or the power pack so i assume via the powerpack.

I had some battery weirdness with the USB charging and i also had some issues with a defective powerpack where i could leave the thing charging over night and it would barely last 30 minutes (i was on CFW so i was somewhat paranoid that running overclocked was killing performance)

Do you have any one who could try charging your battery on their charger?

[gct]

At this point you don't need to buy genuine batteries, just buy a bunch of knock-offs from dealextreme or something and they won't be much worse than the old ones you are still using now. I doubt they'll fail catastrophically, so you'll only be out a few dollars if they don't last.

[Edmond Dantes]

What's the point of buying a third battery that's as problematic as the two I have?

If they're not gonna last, I might as well not ever unplug the system and just treat it as a console.

[dcharlieJP]

yeah, buying a new battery doesn't seem like a great idea - especially the same type!

It seems unlikely your PSP would be draining the battery quicker so either it's something with the charger or charge mechanism or theres a short somewhere on the battery or the PSP connector. Given that you're seeing a problem on multiple batteries then occams razor suggests you might want to clean the connection points on the PSP (and then the batteries).

Good luck - hopefully a blast of air and a bit of a buffing of the conencts will help

[shmuppyLove]

You might want to try running a CFW and ripping your games to ISO then run them from the MSPD instead of the UMD. It's stupid easy to do on the 3000 and there's no risk. I did this just so I could have a bunch of my games with me without having to carry around or swap out discs.

Yes I have a CFW installed and I'm not pirating! GASP

I guess some basic battery tips apply, hopefully you've checked these already:

- Reduce screen brightness
- Switch off the WLAN connection

Do you have the volume turned up really loud? Do you live in a really hot or cold location? How old are these batteries? Do you often leave the PSP on the charger for long periods of time (like overnight)? Are you playing on the system while it's plugged in and charging?

You don't have to answer all the questions, just some things to consider.

In conclusion, PLAY MORE MARS MATRIX

[dcharlieJP]

In conclusion, PLAY MORE MARS MATRIX

and, lol, totally playable and -very- good results on a CFW PSP ! so YES, PLAY MORE MARS MATRIX (ON THE BOG!)

[gct]

What's the point of buying a third battery that's as problematic as the two I have?

If they're not gonna last, I might as well not ever unplug the system and just treat it as a console.

Likely, your batteries are just getting old.

You could do a cell replacement - I expect the process is the same as the laptop thing you described, except these batteries come in little pouches instead of cylindrical cells. And any pouches you are able to source would probably be the exact same ones that you would find in knock-off batteries. So just buy the knock-offs and save yourself some trouble.

Look at it this way. If the replacement batteries don't last, you are no worse off than the way you have it now. If it turns out they do work well, then you have several sets of fresh batteries.

[Ganelon]

Is that with full brightness? Are you running anything processor-intensive or just letting the system sit there? My PSP-2000 still lasts 6 hours playing a digital game (no disc-reading) on default off-adapter brightness (3rd brightest).

There would have been a lot more complaints from PSP owners if the system batteries started dying this early. Unless you used your PSP extremely heavily early on or something, something seems odd here. It's hard to judge anything from your unofficial battery though. 3rd party batteries have a reputation for being garbage; Cheap pandora batteries, for instance, had a reputation for giving out quickly.

[Edmond Dantes]

Brightness: I think its at full. I don't like it to dim. Can't see when its dim.

Charger: Just using the standard PSP AC adapter, leaving the battery in the PSP. I'm not using USB anything.

Volume: I adjust this as the situation demands, but usually its at 75%

I'm playing all my games from the UMD, but its never been an issue before.

I'll try cleaning the contacts--switching out the batteries might be the issue (a note about the Hyperkin one--it had a problem where it would give the wrong power level when I checked battery status... this became a problem when one time it said it had an hour left, but then immediately went into sleep mode after just five minutes of gameplay... on Gradius of all things. the Bacterian Empire won that war)

My home has been incredi-cold lately, but its been warming up. I live in the American south.

I'm pretty sure I have the WLAN turned off.

Look at it this way. If the replacement batteries don't last, you are no worse off than the way you have it now. If it turns out they do work well, then you have several sets of fresh batteries.

I'm not made of money. I'd rather somehow fix the batteries I've already got than take a financial risk on something that might be junk.

That's why I'm curious about replacing cells. The PSP itself will go out of style, but Lithium Ion cells themselves will likely be around for another couple of decades, so I know I can always get factory-fresh ones.

[ZellSF]

Both my regular PSP batteries still last longer than that on full display brightness (btw: you're not getting that without CFW), overclocked to 333mhz and running from UMD.

It shouldn't be impossible to find a cheap official PSP replacement battery. Used if need be, just not used as badly that yours must have been.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

When I bought my USA region PSP-1001 back in April of 2005, eventually I bought one of those bigger 1st-party SCEA PSP battery packs with the 3.6v 2200mah rating spec just to have longer playing times if using arcade emulation (with the CPU overclocked to 333mHz) -- a modest improvement over the standard 3.6v 1800mah sized PSP battery that was packed in a typical PSP-1000/1001 bundled set. When SCEI released the PSP-2000 series, they re-released the official PSP 2200mah battery pack with an extra battery cover (so the PSP-2000 & PSP-3000 could accomodate the larger sized battery if it needed be).

However, if I use the Sony 1st-party external boxy but compact PSP battery charger setup (that plugs into the wall), it doesn't hold as much of a charge (even with the larger official Sony PSP 2200mah battery packs) than if I were to use the included Sony PSP AC brick charger setup that originally came with the 1st-gen PSP bundled sets.

I realized that, eventually, those 1st-party PSP 2200mah batteries would be discountinued at retail and ended up buying a 3rd official 2200mah battery that's still new & sealed. So altogether, I've got the original PSP battery pack that came shipped with the initial PSP bundled set and two of the 2200mah batteries packs + a 3rd 2200mah one (just in case the need/situation arises).

It's a given that the PSP-1000 and PSP-1001 are extremely notorious for draining batteries even if they're shut down properly (or even sleep mode for that matter) -- aka battery sippers indeed. For example, stick in a fully charged official Sony PSP 2200mah battery pack in a PSP1-1001 that's completely shut down, it'll be completely drained within a two to two & half weeks time -- it never fails. At the very least, the PSP's RTC/calendar functionality is still running correctly during that time -- it's a given.

The 3rd-party peripheral manufacturer, Datel, made such a PSP battery pack that used three "AAA" alkaline-based batteries to power up a PSP-1000 series setup, but Sony's own internal PSP battery countdown GUI (an off-shoot from it's famed camcorder battery indicator technology) would give off false battery readings if going with this particular battery setup -- it'd indicate a full 100% charge all the time with the higher 4.5v spec rating in place. Is an alternate way to power up a PSP "on-the-go" if it needed be. Or by using three "AAA" sized Ni-Cad based batteries rated at 1.2v (with 1000mah rating or higher) each, it'd be at the given combined 3.6v rating spec as usual. The only minor issue with using Datel's alternative powered "PSP-Go!" battery pack is, it's a bitch to remove once installed.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~