Inaccurate battery meter?

Hey.

I recently got the play and charge kit for my xbox 360 and charged the battery about 4 days ago. I charged it right to its full, and then left it to continue charging.

Now im getting the alternating diagonal pattern of lights on the guide button on the controller (i presume this means that the battery is going flat), however in the dashboard battery meter it displays 3/4 bars full.

Whats the deal? is the xbox360 battery meter just stuffed, or has my battery REALLY got three quarters of its charge remaining?

Cheers

ahk cool.

Its on its FIRST charge, but seems to be runnign really well. The very first charge i did, it hadnt finished so i turned off the console (so that it was in lower power state to continue charging) and it charged it within a minute of turning off the 360 and then shut down everything automatically. However, i wasnt sure how charged it was (i thought i might have stuffed it up), so i plugged it back in that night and left it for about 6 - 7 hours i think, while i played.it fully charged that night within about 5 mins, but i left it anyway.

So does everything seem ok? i read somewhere that the battery lasts for about 55+ hours so i guess if its reading 3/4 full, it may possibly be THAT full?

Im just new to all of this, so im not sure if i should be concerned or not, haha.

Thank you for replying so far anyway :)

let it fully die,then charge your it on your xbox and leave it on for awhile,6-8 hours(id recommend while you sleep)

and mines been acting weird lately,maybe a month or so now. i think its either the 360 or the cable.with me lately its been messing up,and ive only had it for 2 months.i charge it once a week.so my problem:my remote goes to the dying phase,turns off and whatnot.so i plug it in,and i turned my xbox off forgot it was charging(wont charge if xbox is off) so i turned it back on and 5 minutes later it went green like it was full....what?it was turning off on me cause was dying,and i only charged it for 10-20minutes?said it was fully charged and didnt wnat to charge,so i had to play for a little bit to get it dying again,then plug it in.something is wrong with the 360s play and charge.so word of advice,when you charge it,leave your xbox on for awhile till it goes green.This happends to 3 of my friends also,we all tested it.so yeah,this new update better fix this.

cool, so this is normal?

oh and as a side note; when the battery gets low, does the controller vibration begin to fade in order to save battery power?

cheers

I've not noticed any change in amount of vibration as the battery fades.

I usually play until the battery is totally used and then fully charge it. Rechargeable batteries usually take longer to charge fully on their first charge.

As for flashing patterns of lights, it does that whenever it is on less than full for me. you can check by pressing the guide button and seeing the battery indicator at the top left, and it is usually fairly accurate for me

....it charged it within a minute of turning off the 360 and then shut down everything automatically.....it fully charged that night within about 5 mins....FPS_Addict

Wow, I wish mine charged that fast! My batt takes forever (1-2 hrs) to fully charge, even when I'm not playing. It's only 8 months old. And I don't recharge mine until it's flashing.

cool, so this is normal?

oh and as a side note; when the battery gets low, does the controller vibration begin to fade in order to save battery power?

cheers

FPS_Addict

For me it does, which makes it annoying to play with low battery.

Wow...most of the posts in this thread are horribly inaccurate..

First and foremost the 360 rechargeable pack are NiMH...NOT NiCD...huge difference.....NiMH are not nearly as memory sensitive as NiCD's...In fact even worrying about it is a waste of time..NiMH packs do not need to be fully discharged to optimize it's charge....In fact if you discharge a NiMH past 98% of it's capacity ..it's a good chance it will not recharge...

TC all I would do is charge the battery whenever you can..10min... 1 hour..etc...it does not matter..... If you are not seeing approx 15-20 hours of playing time before the 360 automatically disconnects the controller......take it back for a fresh pack..

ahhh, thanks masiisam :D

yeah i didnt think the batter pack had this 'memory' thing going on. Like most new battery's, they use NiHM which are pretty versatile to say the least. I mean, considering that not everyone that uses technology is 'tech savvy', they arent going to put in something that only works to its full potential if you know 100% how to use it. They have to make it user friendly for sure.

But this battery meter thing? i still havnt charged my controller, and now its dropped down to two bars. The light pattern on the guide button keeps flashing every 2mins or so, so im sure its going to die. However the battery meter still says its half full :?

Im just playing it out now to see what happens when it dies, to see if the battery meter does end up being accurate after all (sorta doing this littl test to confirm it with anyone else thats concerned about this). Apparently a popup will come up during play, letting me know that its close to running out of power, but can anyone confirm this?

Anyway thanks heaps for the posts so far guys :)

When its only 2 of the 4 bars, then it needs to be recharged as it will shutoff soon afterwards. Kind of stupid though, whats with the 2 bars even being there if it means its almost dead and needs recharge.

ahhh, thanks masiisam :D

yeah i didnt think the batter pack had this 'memory' thing going on. Like most new battery's, they use NiHM which are pretty versatile to say the least. I mean, considering that not everyone that uses technology is 'tech savvy', they arent going to put in something that only works to its full potential if you know 100% how to use it. They have to make it user friendly for sure.

But this battery meter thing? i still havnt charged my controller, and now its dropped down to two bars. The light pattern on the guide button keeps flashing every 2mins or so, so im sure its going to die. However the battery meter still says its half full :?

Im just playing it out now to see what happens when it dies, to see if the battery meter does end up being accurate after all (sorta doing this littl test to confirm it with anyone else thats concerned about this). Apparently a popup will come up during play, letting me know that its close to running out of power, but can anyone confirm this?

Anyway thanks heaps for the posts so far guys :)

FPS_Addict

No problem...

Well the way I it run is...I have two 360 packs and one 360 pack charge station....I run one pack in my controller while the other is on the recharge station..anytime I see a flashing light I just switch out the pack for the fresh pack....I never look at the bars..so I really never tried to see how accurate they are...

As to the automatic disconnect of the controller....MS implemented an a safety catch on the discharge of the pack....the controller will shut down so the cells do not fully discharge...If the cells fully discharged ...again there is a good chance they would not recharge....So they just shut the whole thing down before it get to that stage..

When the disconnect happens.... a screen will appear asking to "Please reconnect controller"...

Hope it helps

hmmm, i tried testing the meter for accuracy and then just gave up. It was pretty annoying to be honest; constant flashing green lights on the guide button, vibration for some games not working. The battery meter/gauge however, remiained on 2/4bars.

Anyway, i plugged in the play and charge kit, charged it for about 3 hours, then got bored and tried the whole 'turning off the console and charging in low power state'. Within 2mins of turning the console off, the green light appeared to say its fully charged and everything powered down.. It cant be FULLY charged within 2mins? haha.

So that mustnt work as microsoft planned. After that, i turned everything back on, hooked the play and charge kit back up, and it said it was still fully charged (according to the kit's light). Unconvinced, i left the controller to 'over-charge' for a further 4 or so hours :P

Dunno whats happening here. I might invest in one of the quick charge kits at some stage, but can anybody else confirm any of these issues/bugs with the play and charge kit?

Cheers

It kills the meter's accuracy when you recharge too early. I know there's usually an issue with iPods where out of the box the meter is not accurate (was the case with my Classic). You have to "train" the meter so it knows what 0% and 100% relate to in relation to the charge it reads. What you needed to do with iPods is charge fully, then let the battery run completely dry. Recharge to 100%, and repeat the process 2-3 more times. This resets the battery level guage and results in an accurate display. Otherwise your controller is going to start flashing when the dash has two bars or you'll charge the battery overnight and wake up to see 3 bars in the dash.

I've only done this once on my iPod and it isn't perfect yet but definitely displays a more accurate level. I am now in the process of trying this out on one of my 360 recharge packs. I hope it works because I've got two packs that won't display correctly (both seem to stop at 2 bars and never go beyond 3 with a full charge. Both packs also get disturbingly hot to the touch after only an hour of charging.

i noticed that my two battery packs were running out really quick, i mean after about an hour, and that they were charging up again in about 10 mins (indicating they were not actually empty)

i changed my wireless controller for my spare (which has hardly been used) and its fine now. i think my pad was broken (it is about 3 years old and has been dropped more times that i care to remember)

hmmm, i tried testing the meter for accuracy and then just gave up. It was pretty annoying to be honest; constant flashing green lights on the guide button, vibration for some games not working. The battery meter/gauge however, remiained on 2/4bars.

Anyway, i plugged in the play and charge kit, charged it for about 3 hours, then got bored and tried the whole 'turning off the console and charging in low power state'. Within 2mins of turning the console off, the green light appeared to say its fully charged and everything powered down.. It cant be FULLY charged within 2mins? haha.

So that mustnt work as microsoft planned. After that, i turned everything back on, hooked the play and charge kit back up, and it said it was still fully charged (according to the kit's light). Unconvinced, i left the controller to 'over-charge' for a further 4 or so hours :P

Dunno whats happening here. I might invest in one of the quick charge kits at some stage, but can anybody else confirm any of these issues/bugs with the play and charge kit?

Cheers

FPS_Addict

I'm having this same problem - it's quite annoying.