Power Button Flashing

[kes601]

Was charging the A500 today and saw the power button was flashing white instead of glowing amber like it should be. I pushed the power button and the screen said it was charging. After unpkugging and replugging the cord it changed back to amber.

Any idea what the flashing white means?

Sent from my A500 using Android Tablet Forum

 

[spexwood]

This happens to me too, so you arent the only one. Unfortunately, I too dont know EXACTLY what it means, but I have a very good guess:

When I plug my CELL PHONE into its charger (it is also Android, but it probably doesnt mean anything in this case), its LED light will stay on and orange/amber if the battery is pretty low (I think below 50% or so?). If the battery isnt very low or if it has reached its full charge, then it will be green. So maybe on the tablet, flashing amber means that the battery is pretty drained and is charging, while flashing white means that it is still charging, but has a good amount of power (maybe 75% or more?). I just glanced at my tablet right now, which has been charging for several hours and now has a full (100%) battery. The light is a steady, non-flashing white, so maybe that means that it is fully charged.

That is my educated guess. It makes sense, but I have nothing to back it up with.

 

[smallpapio]

i can tell u this much. as long as the power buttion flashes amber and white it is not charging. i left my charger on like that for 5 hours and the battery life went down instead if up. in my case i have to keep unplugging the charger every minute or so to charge it up. or else it will start to flash again. i dont understand why i have to keep unplugging and replugg it back in to charge it. i got tired of acers lame excuses of the problem. so i just deal with it that way, if anyone knows how to fix it i would like hear it. i think its a defect, but since im out of warranty this is my fix. to bad they dont have recalls for defects like they do in cars.

 

[Icebike]

White means it is accessing the internet or some similar task.
Its perfectly normal to see occasional white flashing while charging.

If your battery went down after 5 hours of charging you either have a bad charger, or you have some high demand task running in the background.
But it would have to be a really aggressive task to out run your battery charger.

If you see the white on more than the amber, wake the tablet and find out what is running, force close any high CPU tasks, put the tablet in airplane mode
and see if its better.

 

[Technica1]

while this is an old post, I experienced the same problem where the indicator light flashed when the charger is connected, the a501 reported that it was charging (ac) however the battery continued to discharge.
I split the a501 open and noticed that the DC socket and plug where very hot, this indicated a bad connections contact. I unsoldered the DC socket and pushed the wires through the hole where you would normally connect the charger, I then soldered a 2.1mm DC docket to the protruding wires observing correct polarity. the problem was immediately resolved.
I have seen many reports of this problem and many suggestions that blame a faulty battery or charger however I feel that the small DC socket from factory can not handle the required current (is heats up) and caused voltage drop which made the charging circuit misbehave.
That's my take anyway hope it helps.

 

[Technica1]

i can tell u this much. as long as the po buttion flashes amber and white it is not charging. i left my charger on like that for 5 hours and the battery life went down instead if up. in my case i have to keep unplugging the charger every minute or so to charge it up. or else it will start to flash again. i dont understand why i have to keep unplugging and replugg it back in to charge it. i got tired of acers lame excuses of the problem. so i just deal with it that way, if anyone knows how to fix it i would like hear it. i think its a defect, but since im out of warranty this is my fix. to bad they dont have recalls for defects like they do in cars.

yep, same problem here, see my other post. in my case it was the poor selection by Acer of the DC connector, can't handle the required current thus causing voltage drop which prevents charging circuit from working.
The Acer A501 is the last Acer product that we have purchased and never will again, poor support, lame excuses and obsolete OS version