A VIEWER sent me this FAULTY CAT T20 Tablet | Can I FIX it?

Many thanks to Rich for sending this Caterpillar T20 tough tablet over to me.
It's completely dead, and will not accept a charge.
Let's crack it open and see if we can work out what's wrong!
Hope you enjoy!
Steve
PS. I'm not an expert in repairs at all. I do this for fun, and it may not be the best or safest way to go about repairing broken stuff. I'm pretty good at melting plastic though. Please don't copy me - I'm an idiot.
SUPPORT ME on PATREON: bit.ly/ssf-patreon
ONE-OFF DONATIONS: www.paypal.me/...
MERCH: stezstixfix.com
AMAZON WISH LIST: bit.ly/ssf-wish
SUBSCRIBE HERE: bit.ly/ssf-sub
FOLLOW ME on Facebook: bit.ly/ssf-fbook
If you want to make a device donation to the channel, please use the following PO Box. PLEASE NOTE that this is not a repair service, and all items are non-returnable.
PO BOX ADDRESS: StezStix Fix?, PO Box 415, BOLTON, BL4 4AZ
Please only use this service if you are a UK resident and using Royal Mail, otherwise they'll probably lose it.
Some of the magic things I use to break stuff;
My soldering iron: UK amzn.to/2Isf360 US amzn.to/3dfq8Xe
My hot air station: UK amzn.to/3kPxaBQ US amzn.to/3xo0SoM
My microscope: UK amzn.to/2VP3msU US amzn.to/3DmDgED
My desoldering gun that goes "moo": UK amzn.to/3HHt73P US amzn.to/3QHJOkb
My multimeter: UK amzn.to/2LjBgnN US amzn.to/3qEiSHy
My blue mat: UK amzn.to/48ZgkI8 US amzn.to/3LcZUkI
Filming equipment;
My camera: UK amzn.to/38IdR7s US amzn.to/3BiwyNg
My 2nd camera: UK amzn.to/3Rfjn6U US amzn.to/3BGOB1i
My microphone: UK amzn.to/3rCriPc US amzn.to/3QJwWtS
VOS's mic: UK amzn.to/3pz2c1L US amzn.to/3Lc7aO1
Links are affiliated where possible to help support the channel. Nice.

[@ISquishWorms]

"If it explodes I will keep the camera rolling" 🤣🤣

[@sleptiq]

That's what she said.

[@Doc_Fartens]

I love those battery charger boards. Would never have thought to use capacitor/resistor legs on them though. Great tip, thanks!

[@askjacob]

That "sipping a trickle of power" may have been the charge circuit trying to revive the low cells. Many chargers do a VERY slow charge on low cells until they finally rise to a safe charge voltage, then they will switch over to the normal charge rates. This can take hours if at all though, so opening up and manually charging can also help. Any cells run super low are likely to have lost considerable capacity and likely to puff up over a short time.

[@5c0u53]

Theres only 1 'cell' , its a 3.7/4.2v lithium battery. Depending on the quality ( which will be low) it should be fine down to 3v as resting the battery will raise the remaining charge a little. Personally if it goes below 3v with no load id bin it as its not worth the risk.

[@Jenisonc]

I binge your stuff on Sundays while I'm trying to get motivated.. then this drops.. I guess I'll be a little later to get going than I thought :) Much love from across the pond!

[@firenyth]

really liked the music on this one!!

[@woogaloo]

I had a problem with Ryobi batteries doing the same. They would show as defective, but if you gave them a jumpstart they would work again. You just always had to make sure you didn't run the battery down to 0% or you'd have to jumpstart them again.

[@nullbyt]

Idk how to feel about stuff like this. I'm glad you saved it from the dumpster but jeez imagine all the stuff that's just been thrown out for no reason lol

[@Not31337]

Yep. It's not unusual at all for a device like that (tablet, phone) to get so low that a person thinks it's totally dead and unfixable, when many times you just need to leave it plugged in for a few hours to even see activity.

[@tonymannion5743]

The devil, as regards to lithium batteries, is definitely in the detail.

[@MrTomWins]

There was a similar issue with the old Nexus tablets. Sometimes you had to plug/unplug them a few times to get it to take enough charge to get the battery kickstarted. Then it would take a charge eventually. Sometimes unplugging the battery for a few mins would work too. We had so many come back faulty at the place I was working at the time.

[@jabezhane]

This reminds me of the 1st gen Framework laptops. They had a tiny rechargeable BIOS battery that if you didnt use your laptop for a week or two it would run out and refuse to turn on. Really handy.

[@yotoprules9361]

That's a very major design flaw.

[@jabezhane]

@@yotoprules9361 Yeah cause a real stink when myself and a few others mentioned it on the forum. We had a lot of push back then all of a sudden loads more had it and they had to admit it was an issue and find a fix. It only affected the 11th gen ones.

[@Okurka.]

They must've copied Dell; they refuse to boot when the CR2032 is flat.

[@jabezhane]

@@Okurka. Not really. The CR2032 lasts years and isn't recharging. That's not a problem.

[@ScottMadeAThing]

Congratulations on your best rap yet* *there are some old videos I’ve not got round to watching yet so may be wrong

[@StezStixFix]

😂 thanks Mr Thing

[@joestiff3689]

Yes I agree I thought it was one of his best yet

[@theaerospacecrab237]

You hear about this potential issue in lots of vids but I've never actually seen one where the battery just needed a Kickstart. Quick vid but you've finally proven it's existence to me, so cheers 😊

[@Herkzero]

I think your diagnoses is correct. I've come across charging systems that refuse to charge because the voltage is so low it doesn't recognize the battery as a battery. Don't want to start a fire by dumping voltage into a ground fault or something I guess.

[@MatthewRutledgeTaylor]

I had a old android tablet that didn't turn on. When I plugged in a power adapter it didn't seem to charge. After a few minutes it was still completely unresponsive (no battery charging indication etc.) However, after leaving it plugged in, it eventually started charging after a few hours. It must have been "trickle charging" at first, a phenomenon that others have mentioned. The lesson is that if you have an item with an internal battery that seems completely dead, let it charge for a very long time, maybe 24 hours, before deciding that it needs extreme measures to repair.

[@johnavery15]

I had this with a tablet I owned. Googling gave the advice disconnect the battery internally and reconnect. After doing this the battery took a charge. Pain in the a*se having to ho inside to do it mind!

[@wisher21uk]

Great quick fix well done Steve 😊

[@danhitchcock727]

I've had a couple of things that done this (phone and old iPod). I heard it's because the devices always draw a little power to recognise when a charger gets plugged in, even after the device shuts off as a flat battery, this can make a battery completely dead. I used to put the device on a radiator or get it a little hot, it normally gave a very very slight voltage to the battery, enough to recognise a charger and start charging.

[@mrsmw2020]

How many devices get ‘binned’ when there’s nothing wrong with it! Well done for getting it going again.

[@Enjoymentboy]

I've had this happen to various devices. The power control circuitry in both the device and charger aren't intelligent enough to prevent back feed of power from the battery if it's left connected to the charger but not to power. I had a phone die on me like that years ago when I left it to charge in the car overnight while camping. Didn't consider that the power socket would go off 10 minutes after the key was removed. Woke up to a brick. Always been able to bring them back by manually charging the battery to reset the protection chips.

[@GeorgeHelmut]

Dear Steve, just to mention: You connected the charging board the wrong way. Battery should be connected to B+ and B-. But anyway, congratulaton for your success.

[@srenschjdt2864]

This is my new fav Channel on youtube

[@infin1ty850]

I always love finding out if the week I'm going to be mentioned in the rap. I can never remember, lol.

[@jonathanmartin3375]

You should call that battery Han, because it's So-low

[@cypresscustoms]

Stez got the flow today!!

[@dri3r]

AFAIK you should connect the battery to module B- and B+ pads.. great content!

[@gergoo_ic]

I was shouting the same thing at my screen too😀

[@sinatra2007]

This happened with a gameboy sp I was working on when I plugged it in absolutely nothing but when I plugged it and unplugged it several times it kicked the battery into action and now works fine

[@robertsaw841]

damn, best tune yet. bass line!!!

[@risex1594]

5:09 you connected the battery on the output voltage of the module. The battery goes to the terminals labeled as B+ and B-. The other ones are for the load or the device you want to use the battery.

[@Mobin92]

It will trickle charge eventually if you just leave the normal charger plugged in for like a day or so.

[@TheCustomFHD]

Hey Steve! You connected the battery Charging Connector wrongly! You hooked it into the OUTPUT of the Board, used to Drive Electronics from the Board (that one has Battery protection for

[@meetv7700]

Cam here to say the same, I was expecting an explosion at that point. 😂

[@joebrackenborough1051]

I had the same point to say and thought I had been doing it wrong all this time. Lol 😂

[@michaleus]

But he fixed it without exploding. Well done!

[@bigdaddyuk6669]

just did a double take myself and came to say the same thing

[@enchantededition6879]

Ask many questions you do , The force is strong .

[@guns102]

yeah sounds like a battery issue. The switch has the exact same issue, as once the battery is worn out it won't charge fast enough to charge the device so you get a black screen. Most people suggest in that case to leave it charging overnight and hoping.

[@3dhYT]

You are The Master of The Universe.

[@exidy-yt]

Steve I had an Ipad from work that was the very same: refused to charge and had sat in a shelf for months until the battery was down to sub-zero. I had to take the hairdrier to it, and warm up the battery. That finally allowed it to start taking a charge and recover. Interesting to see it happen on a Windows tab, I wonder if it's something to do with the form-factor or just the design of a Tablet battery?

[@paultasker7788]

Things can go very low if not used for a while. My switch put a charging symbol on for a long time and would not switch on booting and immediately going back to battery symbol. Only drawing 0.4 amps. Tried different charger and no different. After 15 minutes it suddenly powered on and drew 1.6 amps. Even then only on 1 percent! So it might charge really slowly and allow it to work when it hits a certain voltage.

[@martinkretschmer1512]

My guess would be, that there is some kind of protection circuit on the battery which disconnected the battery due to low charge. The tablet did not charge it, because it saw no battery at all (no voltage) - but the usb-c charger just started pushing out voltage/current, which usually resets those protection circuits. I have had a couple of badly puffed up cells, and even those at least showed roughly 1v under no load, so 0 volts just screams protection circuit...

[@AndyBeez]

Kudos to the engineer who designed a throw away Windows device. I suspect the capacity of the 2017 battery is so low, it will fail/bulge/fart under heavy CPU load. Anyway, nice👍

[@dtharmo]

Loved the song !

[@bytesback.]

I think you need to get a Big Clive approved explosion containing pie dish, just in case.

[@Okurka.]

This is too complicated for Clive.

[@oldschooldude8370]

I've run into this with lead acid batteries. A smart charger wouldnt wake them up. A traditional charger was needed. That lion is likely on its way out however.

[@PixelatedH2O]

I have a Samsung tablet that over the summer I hadn't used in several weeks. When I went to charge and use it it took like an hour just to even acknowledge it was charging. Until that point I thought for certain it was broken somehow.

[@-fazik-3713]

It will work just fine. Probably a safety measure kicked in when safety was not required.

[@juaniiito]

in Lov3 with the Rolling exploding stupid cover of Limp Bizkit. Nice!

[@tirokopita]

Nice.

[@UncleMort]

Sometimes you just need to leave it on charge overnight and that small draw you had at the start will eventually give the battery enough power to boot the Ipad up.

[@TripleR12]

Steve could u try converting a PC into a Chromebook?

[@freddiemaller]

At 4.40 I had to listen til Kim Wildes Kids in America, and then watch the rest of Your video👌🏻😎

[@jonathaningram4672]

I've had a few things like that where the battery got so low you thought it was goosed but if left on charge long enough it does start charging. Though some devices now have an intelligence chip (stupid chip) that locks the battery from ever being charged if the voltage falls too low, even if it's brand new!

[@samuraidriver4x4]

It is a safety feature, a damaged lithium battery can have a low voltage and trying to forcefully charge it can make it catch fire. That would cost millions if not billions in claims. If it's a new device or still under warranty simply return it.

[@Mr._Sandman]

I've got a BlackBerry Playbook with a similar issue, and I assume a lot of devices do this as a protection measure. The charging circuits refuse to charge undervolted batteries because it assumes the battery is bad altogether (that, or the residual charge of +~3.5v supplements the charging/standby function)

[@TalmiiorFixesStuff]

I noticed quite often with batteries with a charge controller built into them that they don't always give you a voltage, and instead you need to measure them from the raw battery terminals. That may be the case for this one, or I guess it is possible the battery is really just super flat

[@darkr2109]

It's the same with power tool batteries if the get too low the charger won't charge them but if you use a 12v battery charger and trickle charge them for 30 mins they will then be recognised by the charger

[@dodgydruid]

I'm playing with a queen of multimeters at the mo, GPO 12c/1 which has a definite brandy and cigars aura, off down the golf club in ones Alvis whilst remembering there is two "i"'s in aluminium... :P

[@chase2para]

i have had plenty of kindles which have done the same thing

[@Mike2321x]

i probably would have still checked the the barrel jack to be sure it wasn't damaged though.

[@SephYuyX]

Bruv, this intro was bangin.

[@gentle285]

The rap was fire 🔥🔥🔥

[@wesleybilly8097]

Pronouciation of Huawei made me laugh. Easy win for you. Good video my friend.

[@jaimecosta2966]

Similar thing happen to my surface RT many years ago

[@colincurrie9151]

I was looking forward to lots of bodging and melted plastics 😁Ohh well, maybe next time.

[@tollietime]

used to be a windows update that binned your battery around this era (just as windows 10 launched) it would software lock your option to charge cause the battery was a bit old

[@OriginalSithMonkey]

I've found that when a device like this won't turn on, plugging it into a pc port for a bit seems to jump start it for whatever reason. Works on dead handheld gaming devices anyways.

[@portland-182]

Same for dead phones too. Just leave them charging for a long time - sometimes half a day. Eventually most come back from the dead - like zombies...

[@Cobalt-Jester]

If it has ca LiPo battery they it's very possible that it was stored without being charged. LiPo batteries normally have a control chip built into them. If they discharge beyond a certain voltage the chip that controls the charging will sometimes no longer recognise a voltage in. You have to force in a charge bypassing the controller chip and then it will work as normal. LiPo batteries are one of the best but you need to treat them with care and never let them run down and store them without a charhe.

[@wizzardoffuzz]

Masterful names wrap today vos. Hats off to you.

[@Robcomments]

Unplugging the battery could have drained all residual of charge which could have caused a safety feature to cut charging. Once circuit board completely drained it would reset everything. Also charging the battery separately most likely help. Iv had many pc start back up after I drained the motherboard.

[@crtgamer2355]

Why does Cooie Jingus always stand out during the rap? Get outta my head!! WOOOO!!

[@MikeB_UK]

This is an issue with all modern hand held devices that have a soft power button. The electronics uses a bit of battery all the time when switched off to check the power button. So they go totally flat eventually. Phones, tablets, game controllers, you name it - leave them unused for too long and the battery manager declares them toast.

[@ekens6344]

it is a common issue but it's not all of them, usually there's some kind of undervoltage protection on the battery itself or on a charge controller chip that cuts the battery output if it gets too low. if the protection circuit is inside the battery you can actually get a voltage reading of 0 volts on the battery terminals when this has cut off even if the internal voltage of the battery is higher than this, and as soon as the mainboard applies charge voltage to the battery again this should reset and start voltage output again. Even the TP4056a charger board steve used to charge the battery has this function provided by the small DW01 chip and mosfet

[@mojoblues66]

You obviously only used cheap crap and never used an iPad.

[@MikeB_UK]

@@mojoblues66 I repaired electronics for 30 years and have had ipads as well as iphones like this. Leave your Apple stuff totally flat in a drawer for about 12 months after being flat and the units BMS won't allow it to charge again as it sees the battery as then too low. Lipos continue to lose about 2% a month just connected to nothing. Sony playstation controllers do it after about 12 months of being flat, as do Nintendo Pro controllers.

[@mojoblues66]

@@MikeB_UK I have iPads and iPhones laying around for more than 12 month and they do spring back to life after being connected to a power sources for about 5 min.

[@MikeB_UK]

​@@mojoblues66Well good for you. In about 10 years before I retired I had to sort dozens of iPhone 4's, 5's, 6's, 7's and 8's that would not come back to life without opening and either shunting power to the battery or replacing it. I had Samsungs, Huawei, Amazon, you name it. In every case the customer had run it totally flat them put it away for months as not wanted, then tried to get it working to give to family or friends. Every lipo in anything has a BMS that controls the charging and they stop usually lower than 3v per cell. Once the lipo self discharges to this you have to bypass that to jump start the cells back to over 3v each - and then the cell is pretty dodgy. Please don't send me any more on this. I was paid to fix hundreds of lipo dead devices. I suspect you have never done so as a job.

[@pepethefrog7193]

You are supposed to wire the battery on the B+ and B- terminals of the usb-charging board, not on the output pins. This is safety critical !

[@0ButterBall]

169 Days since last melted plastic. Nice

[@rimmersbryggeri]

I had a simular problem on an asus tablet it wouldnt charge using the supplied charger but when I used a quickcharge that I got with my phone it did charge even though the tablet patently didnt have quickcharge.

[@magnusandersson6858]

The first diag with sporadic charge was trickle charge By leaving it to trickle for a while it would have started

[@krahwinkel9503]

Some battery management systems react unpredictable and prevent the battery from charging.

[@emmabentley7945]

Windows 10 had such a good interface for tablets, similar to 8 but not identical

[@HankPanky]

Not exciting, but quite interesting.

[@vremennyi]

That barrel plug cable might be the wrong size, which is why it is so loose

[@TimeShrike]

Banger track! Quickfire raps and all!

[@leecollins5698]

Take the easy W Steve. Nowt wrong with that.

[@bLock_c1pher]

Take the W! take care my Dude.

[@enchantededition6879]

Dub step Stez 🔥🔥🔥

[@devttyUSB0]

"They" should make it easier to replace batteries. And provide proper, affordable, replacement batteries of course. Stupid fix. Cool video though. :)

[@sdHansy]

For some reason companies, even when its an terrible idea, will copy Apple.

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

CAT S22 flip Android flip phone has replaceable battery why not this!

[@scragar]

Replacable batteries were popular when smartphones first became popular. But the number one reason for your phone getting slow as it gets older is that the battery performance becomes less reliable and the phone automatically underclocks to reduce load on the battery. Why sell a phone that can be made good as new for $20 when you can charge $100 for a service tech to replace the battery(probably also make up other faults or just claim it's unfixable forcing them to buy a new phone). Same reason IMO they've started going for the notch(which IMO looks horrible) and edge to edge glass, it drastically cuts reliability of the screen, and if the screen breaks 2 years in you're paying out of pocket to get it fixed.

[@nickk6518]

I have an e-bike battery that needs kick-starting, or a kick up the charge socket. Heeeelp!!

[@coondogtheman]

I need to find some of those lithium ion charger boards they seem to be very handy. Since you fixed this tablet now what? Does the person want it back or can you keep it and play games on it, like Minecraft.

[@Inugamiz]

I do have a tablet with that problem... could it be the same issue? Need to buy a charging dongle first...

[@tokul76]

It does not work with power supply connected (when battery is dead) and 7 year old battery probably can't hold a charge. How fast battery will drain?

[@david3199]

Some batteries have voltage protections, and will stop functioning.

[@markjames3328]

now that is a lot of screws for a blooming Android tablet

[@WorldOf3DPrinting]

Let it deplete fully then try charging again to see if that's the problem

[@jamiecottrill7316]

Great vids Steve 👍 Can I ask what was the backing track you used for the dismantling rap please?

[@CubbyTech]

I'm guessing the main board is made by CHUWI - I have a ~8 year old tablet that has the exact same charge LED behavior. HUAWEI - HUWAA-WAY :)

[@franckozon]

Nice

[@chillzwinter]

Maybe patience would have fixed it. i.e. leave the charger on for 2 days as it flashes 0.18Amps into battery, and eventually it might have enough charge to charge properly.

[@I_SuperHiro_I]

That Phonk tho 😎

[@gyrenrockz]

2 years ago my tablet got battery drain it wont charge or open anymore so i left it on charge for 1 day and when i get back its working again.. i guess it will take time for it to accept the charge.. you just have to wait a very long time for it to be alive again..

[@green929392]

It seems like the battery isnt doing great so Its possible it'll die again if the battery loses enough charge

[@spinal_cord]

Steve is my spirit animal.

[@plan7a]

I'd have thought 'stupid charging failure'. Could have been more suitable, for the 'stupidity' mention for this one. Just a thought!

[@nirgunapa56]

I always think of The Who song when I see that Chinese manufacturer - 'Who are wei'

[@andysmith1706]

Damn! Thought we were going to get a rendition of 'When I'm Cleaning Windows' with that outro... Nice easy fix. Need to get myself one of those battery jumpstarter things!

[@bobsmarts3074]

What is the correct name for the battery charger board?

[@patrickcraenen5163]

Thanks for the nice repair video. Who with a bit of common sense wants a Windows tablet... :-) :-) Keep up the good work and cheers ;-)

[@stinkymotor]

i'M GONNA LET U HAVE THAT ONE MATE

[@dino6080]

the musics geeting beetr n betr lol

[@j4zzx297]

Rich's manager watches this channel as well. He has now sacked rich for sending a corporate device with company data to a youtuber 😅