[NTLK] Weird eMate behavior - I need a tip

[Frank Gruendel]

Hi gang,

I'm aware that some eMates have a problem with battery discharge when they
are turned off by closing the lid. Some of them lose more than 50% of a full
charge within 24 hours.

Normally, this problem can be worked around by switching the eMate off by
means of the power key and closing the lid afterwards.

I currently have an eMate on my workbench that is different. It ALWAYS
looses almost 80% of a charge overnight when the lid is closed, regardless
of whether the eMate is turned off by the lid or by the power key. It
doesn't loose ANY charge if the lid stays open while it is off.

Moreover, it does something that I have never seen before. If the lid is
closed overnight, the eMate will greet me with the following message when I
open it in the morning:

"Newton does not have enough free memory right now to do what you asked.
Restarting Newton may fix the problem". 

This message is familiar, because the eMate shows it when it doesn't have
enough memory left for what it is supposed do do. But this is a freshly
brainwiped eMate with nothing whatsoever installed other than what's there
after a brainwipe. I haven't even set the clock. And the eMate doesn't need
to do anything when I open the lid except power up...

I thought that maybe there was some problem with a system update, so I
brought the eMate back to factory conditions by powering it up temporarily
with a Newton ROM installed. However, this did not change anything (other
than, of course, the OS version).

It seems that the lid needs to be closed for a minimum time for the message
to appear. If I cancel it, close the lid and open it a minute later, the
message does not appear.

Other than that, the eMate works hunky dory.

Has anybody ever seen this weird problem? Were you able to fix it?

Thanks

Frank aka "The continuously puzzled service technician who pretends to be a
programmer"

-- Newton software and hardware at http://www.pda-soft.de