[dpastern]

Hey guys,

Just went to power up my AK 120 II for some listening and it's DEAD. As a door nail. At first I thought that perhaps the battery was flat, but it had 3/4 battery left when I last used it 4 or 5 days ago, so I was suspicious that this wasn't the answer. Plugged it into the charger, and nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I can't tell if it's the entire unit is dead or just the LCD screen.

To be entirely honest, I'd have expected a 5 year old, lightly used, well kept and protected unit to last a LOT longer than 5 years. Very disappointed. I am not in a financial position to get it repaired or replaced (currently not working).

Has anyone else had their AK unit just die without warning?

Cheers,

Dave

edit: the unit was used on a daily basis for around 1.5 hours per day during working days as my main source of entertainment travelling to and from work (around 1.5 years of travel before I became unemployed - total around 600 hours)). The past 3 and a bit years, it has prolly been used less than 30 times, on average around 1.5 hours per time, so roughly 45 hours of usage over the past 3 and a bit years.

 

[mathi8vadhanan]

I think I had that happen to me, when it 5-6 months old. I could see the screen was ON, but displayed nothing. Looked like it was frozen/stuck during boot-up. Did the hard reset as mentioned below and it sprung back up.

Reset Function
1. In cases of unexpected device failure or freeze, press
the power button for 12 seconds to force a shutdown.
The device can be restarted normally after a shutdown

 

[dpastern]

I think I had that happen to me, when it 5-6 months old. I could see the screen was ON, but displayed nothing. Looked like it was frozen/stuck during boot-up. Did the hard reset as mentioned below and it sprung back up.

Reset Function
1. In cases of unexpected device failure or freeze, press
the power button for 12 seconds to force a shutdown.
The device can be restarted normally after a shutdown

Thanks for the suggestion. I actually tried this last night (but prolly only for 10 seconds) - nothing. I just tried it now for 12 seconds and nothing. I can't see anything on the screen at all, it looks dead. I did charge it overnight too btw, but nothing. Usually, it shows the charging icon on screen when you plug the USB micro cable in at first, but nothing.

The odd thing is, the unit has displayed no warnings at all prior the failure. It was last powered on 4 or 5 days ago without issue. No fading on screen, no flickering of screen, no hesitation in turning the unit on etc.

My guess is that it's either:

PCB
Cabling/connector
battery
LCD screen

I strongly suspect that it's the LCD screen - my experiences with old mobile phones with dying batteries has told me that they usually display the battery charge icon even when the battery is near dead. MY AK 120 II is showing nothing at all.

Battery life over the past year has been typically around 4-5 hours. I found the unit was never super great with battery life in the first 18 months, averaging around 7-8 hours of usage before needing to be charged (I think the product information originally stated 10 hours, which imho is absolute utter lies).

I will try and ring the place that I bought it from tomorrow (minidisc Australia), but I doubt they'll help me as they were forced to stop selling AK products by the Australian distributor a week after I bought my unit. Yes, they were selling genuine, Australian sourced units, i believe that there was a dispute between minidisc and the Australian distributor.

Thanks again for the reply.

 

[mathi8vadhanan]

I'm pretty sure it's just the battery. They're probably completely flat and not taking a charge at all. The Li-Po batteries do fall off a cliff like this (experienced it with my original Hugo).

You can try ordering this replacement one. Also, it looks like they're using standard connectors, no soldering required.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/340...echargeable-Accumulator-Pack/32964884152.html

 

[dpastern]

I'm pretty sure it's just the battery. They're probably completely flat and not taking a charge at all. The Li-Po batteries do fall off a cliff like this (experienced it with my original Hugo).

You can try ordering this replacement one. Also, it looks like they're using standard connectors, no soldering required.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/340...echargeable-Accumulator-Pack/32964884152.html

Interesting - cos my iPhone 6 had issues with the battery leading up to Christmas 2017 and it was a gradual decline, worsening over the last 3 months of its lifespan before become really bad (going from 60% charge to no charge in the space of a few minutes of usage). The AK 120 II unit was not showing any similar behaviour at all. Battery has consistently lasted around 4-5 hours for the last year or more.

I also doubt that it's had enough charges to go bust either - unlike with my phone, I have let the battery in the AK unit basically go completely flat, or very near to flat before charging it, which should prolong the lifespan of a LI type battery as far as I understand (I come from a background in IT/support). At an estimated 750 hours of usage since I bought the unit, and say, an average usage time of say, 6.5 hours, that's around 115 charges. My IPhone 6's battery survived for 3 years on daily charging (so near 1200 charges, many of them mid cycle charging, which is never good for a LI type battery).

My gut instinct says the screen is dead. I will try the battery solution though, it's cheap and I can afford it (just!). How easy is the battery to change in the AK unit? Do you have any links to HOWTO guides? My eyesight is not particular good these days, so small stuff is hard for me to see, even with glasses. Yeah, welcome to old age lol...(I'l be 50 in May but I feel a LOT older cos of a variety of health issues).

 

[mathi8vadhanan]

- This is for AK240, AK120 II is not much different. Any phone service technician at the mall should be able to do this, if you're not comfortable.

 

[dpastern]

Thank you! I watched the video, it seems pretty easy, although I don't have any of the tools. I'm a bit stuck at what he's trying to do at 0:50 though with the Blue tape...it'd be nice if they had a voice overlay describing what they were doing.

 

[mathi8vadhanan]

The battery is secured using an adhesive tape at the back. When prying the old one out, do not use metal spudgers, use those plastic guitar pick thingies. I think the new battery comes with the adhseive strip pre-installed (blue tape). If not, you can use regular double sided tape.

You can order this tool set along with battery. It hs everthing you will need for the swap.
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/2hYkTM8

 

[dpastern]

The battery is secured using an adhesive tape at the back. When prying the old one out, do not use metal spudgers, use those plastic guitar pick thingies. I think the new battery comes with the adhseive strip pre-installed (blue tape). If not, you can use regular double sided tape.

You can order this tool set along with battery. It hs everthing you will need for the swap.
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/2hYkTM8

Ah! Thank you. I shall save my pennies now (will take me a month or 2 to be honest as money is very tight for me) and hopefully all it is the battery.