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title: Replacing the
Battery in a Palm Zire date: 2024-10-01
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Becoming Portable Again
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When I first opened up my brand new-in-box Zire a couple of weeks
ago, I was pleased to see it power right up when plugged into it's
accompanyhing AC adapter. Unsurprisingly though the battery didn't
hold a charge and it would immediately power off when removed from
the wall outlet or USB.
This put a damper on me using the Zire in it's intended fashion as
a portable device I could keep in my pocket alongside my iPhone,
and is crucial if I want to continue this challenge through
October.
Thankfully replacement batteries are relatively easy to come by,
and I found a 650mAh replacement battery on Amazon [1] for the same
price as the Zire was on Ebay. It has a slightly higher capacity
than the original 600mAh, and eyeballing it's dimensions it seemed
like it would fit without any issues.
The battery took about a week to show up, and once it did I watched
a video from 2017 [2] to get the general idea on how to take the
Zire apart and swap in the new battery.
The Zire itself is relatively easy to open, just take out two
screws at the top, then pry it apart carefully around the edges,
being careful not to stretch the speaker wires.
The original battery is stuck on the main PCB with some adhesive,
and after using a plastic spunger, slowly pushing in to release the
adhesive and not cracking the PBC it will detach.
Zire with original battery
The battery is soldered onto two connections at the bottom of the
PCB. Using a soldering iron to melt the solder makes it easy to
remove the wires. I did the positive (red) wire first, then the
black to fully remove the battery.
The new battery has a slightly different wire placement, and it
took me a few minutes to figure out how I wanted to arrange it so
the wires were in a good position - not to stretched out but also
not too much slack.
Applying a bit of new solder to the pads and then soldering on the
negative (black) wire followed by the positive (red) was quick.
During the process I heard some faint noises from the Zire,
indicating that it was powering on while soldering on the new
battery, so there must have been some charge in the new battery.
Zire with new battery
Before I could put it back together I wanted some way to stick the
new battery in the original position so it wouldn't move around. A
few globs of hot glue did the trick.
Getting it back together was the trickiest part, as there is a
small piece of support plastic that can pinch the wires if not
routed properly. I eventually got everything into position and was
able to snap it back together.
I plugged it back into AC power and turned it on. It worked at
first, but was stuck on the Palm bootscreen and never went any
further. After a few minutes I used a push pin on the small reset
button on the back and completely reset the device, which then
booted up into it's onboarding. After setting it back up again and
letting it sit for a few hours, unplugging it showed that it had a
100% full battery
Zire fully charged
Now that it has a fresh battery I can take it anywhere, and expect
it to last multiple days between charges, which is more than I can
say about my iPhone.
Overally replacing the battery was relatively simple if you have
some basic soldering skills. It also gave me a look inside to see
how the Zire was built and to appreciate the device more.
Links
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1. Replacement Battery
2. Palm Zire 21 Battery Repair Video
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