iRiver H320 doesn't work after battery install

[Pirato]

My iRiver H320's battery recently ran down, and would no longer hold a charge. The last time I played it, it died in about 2 hours. So, I bought a new battery, and very carefully changed it, following some step-by-step videos I found on the web.

Although I took great care to follow all of the instructions exactly, the iRiver doesn't work anymore. It won't turn on, and when I plug it into the computer, it's not recognized as a hard drive. When I plug it into the recharger, I get the iRiver boot screen and "Charging..." screen, but no matter how long I leave it plugged it, it never gets finished charging.

Is it possible I plugged the battery in wrong? I have the red wire at the top and the black at the bottom. I made sure that the battery was firmly plugged in, too. The new battery is 1700 mAh where the old one was 2200 mAh, but as far as I can tell, that only affects battery strength (i.e. how long the battery holds a charge). What could I have done wrong?

[CrowdAds]

[lebellium]

AFAIK, many replacement batteries for H3x0 come with a reversed polarity, you should check that:
http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=19321.0
Or maybe you just got a poor quality battery.

I personally don't trust cheap batteries for sale on ebay so I gave more money to get a good one: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=64466 : no reversed polarity and good battery life

[Pirato]

So, I've done a little more reading, and it sounds like I need to reverse the polarity on the battery (basically, switch the wires around)? Is that right? How can you tell if the polarity on the battery is correct? (The misticriver link on that post didn't work.)

It also sounds like I could have killed my player by installing a battery with the wrong polarity.

[lebellium]

The polarity is right on the original battery so you just have to check if the polarity of your new battery is the same. Probably not.

If the polarity is not the same, just switch the black and red wires.




In the end it should look like that.
Pictures taken from http://forum.generationmp3.com/tuto-...ie-t29291.html

I can't confirm you if that could have killed your player or not. I just cross the fingers for you

[Pirato]

Thanks a ton!

Okay, I got it open again. Next question is...how do I switch the wires? Just yank them out, and then push them into the opposite slots?

[Syndrome]

Sometimes that will work, sometimes they are crimped in. It depends on the style of connector. Really you just have to look at it and see. If you cannot pull them out then you can cut them and switch them. After that solder them together. If you don't have the stuff to solder then you can twist them very tightly and use electrical tape, this will work but is not a permanent solution. You really need to solder them. I've soldered simple connections like this with a lighter instead of a soldering iron, you just need the solder for a good permanent connection.

[jumbuck]

Heres some pictures taken from Dennys guide from misticriver.


The PDF of the whole guide can be downloaded here. http://www.fieldsnet.com/wp-content/...eplacement.pdf

[Pirato]

Awesome! Thanks a lot, it worked!

I had no idea that the battery would actually be harder to replace than the hard drive.