I charged up the Epson HX-20 that I bought on Sunday, and it doesn't seem to like me. The screen flickers out after a minute or so of use. This seems to indicate a bad battery, but this hypothesis does not appear to be borne out by lab tests. Therefore, a lab report: PURPOSE: To determine if the battery pack from subject computer is defective. APPARATUS: Battery pack in question (4xsubC, 4.8V) Fluke 73-III handheld multimeter Hewlett-Packard 6060B DC electronic load Miscellaneous cables 47-ohm and 100-ohm resistors PROCEDURE: 1. Measure open-circuit voltage of battery. Reading is 5.16 VDC. 2. Wire battery directly to load. Power on. Display reads 5.14 VDC, 0.03 A. Load is set as follows: Range 6.0000 A Input Off (htf do you turn it on?) Short On (same) Tran Off Freq 1000 Slew .50000 Duty cycle 50.0 Mode Current 3. Dial in current at assorted amperages. Results: Current Actual requested (A) current (A) Voltage (VDC) 0.000 0.03 5.14 0.100 0.11 5.09 0.150 0.16 5.08 0.200 0.21 5.06 0.250 0.26 5.04 0.500 0.52 4.98 1.000 1.00 4.98 0.000 0.01 5.09 4. Try some resistance values. Resistance (O) Current (A) Voltage (VDC) 5000 -0.01 5.11 1000 -0.01 5.11 500 -0.01 5.11 100 0.03 5.11 50 0.08 5.09 25 0.18 5.04 10 0.48 4.98 5 0.97 4.89 5. Connect a resistor across the battery terminals, and measure the current. Resistor: 100 ohms (spec) 102.3 ohms (measured) Current: 47.3 mA Resistor: 47 ohms (spec) 46.3 ohms (measured) Current: 98.0 mA CONCLUSION: This battery pack doesn't look too defective, although I really don't know too much about what the characteristics of a functioning pack are. Could someone who knows these things tell me if this pack is indeed okay, as these tests seem to indicate, or if it is indeed bad? -- Brad Ackerman N1MNB "...faced with the men and women who bring home bsa3(a)cornell.edu the pork, voters almost always re-elect them." http://skaro.pair.com/ -- _The Economist_, 31 Oct 1998