Beo6 dead?

[CharlieWednesday]

I tool a risk with a cheap Beo6 on eBay ‘for parts or not working’, and sold without a dock.  I have a Beo5 dock already though (which I understand is the same?), so I thought that since it was going cheap, I might as well risk it.

I’m getting nothing from it though, even when on the dock. Does anyone know if it should, or would a dead battery prevent any function, even when on the dock?

• This topic was modified 1 week, 4 days ago by CharlieWednesday.

Location: Liverpool
My B&O Icons:

[matador]

Hi,

I can’t remember if a totally dead battery will prevent the remote to start when on the dock: I believe no.

Anyway, you will find a lot of litteratue on pseudo-dead Beo6 on BWII especially from founder member Keith Saunders, Member Heinrik (can’t remember his nickname) and myself.

The general rule is that if your Beo6 wasn’t crushed by a trailer running on it, it may still work.

Two difficulties, one of them being quite funny though:
– Find a reliable battery is a lottery,
– Programming is a whole (not so complicated) knowledge to learn, but once you’re used to it, you can do marvels with only one touch.

Everything is on the forum.

Good luck.

Location: Paris France

[CharlieWednesday]

Thanks – I realised that the Beo5 and Beo6 have the same charger and the same battery, and I have a faulty Beo5 already (it has a display issue) which has had a new battery in the past, so I thought I would try and swap the battery.

I gotrthe Beo6 open and got the battery out with considerably difficulty – it’s a tight fit and it does not come out easily!  I could see as soon as I removed it that it seemed to be the original battery, B&O labelled, and showed obvious signs of leakage.  Luckijly though, so signs of damage to the inside of the Beo6 itself.

I tried to take the battery out of my faulty Beo5 but I could not get it out – I didn’t want to risk cosmetic damage to that Beo5 (I’m hoping I might one day be able to fix the display issue) so I sat them side-by-side while still opened up, and connected the battery of the Beo5 to the Be06 board.  The display and keypad lit up, so it seems it does work!  I’ve ordered a new battery for it on eBay.

I have been able to figure out the programming for my Beo5s (I bought a cheap Win7 laptop from eBay for that specific purpose), so hopefully I’ll be able to figure out the Beo6 too, once the battery arrives and I get it all reassembled.

Location: Liverpool
My B&O Icons:

[matador]

Thats a good thing!

Please keep track of the battery you’ve ordered on ebay and let us know how they work.

It’s always a problem to source good batteries for this remote.

If you’re handy with photoshop, I must have posted a script somewhere on BWII to make full screen pictures if you fancy.

Cheers.

Location: Paris France

[Stoobie]

You can see here on the oroginal Beoworld :-

Removing Beo5 Battery

And searching “removing beo5 battery” on google brings up some suggestions for difficult to remove batteries.

Once you start programming DO NOT rely on the USB connection to your PC to charge, it is not strong enough. Especially with the Beo6 because if you drain the battery and the remote goes dead, it is very difficult to revive. I always leave the dock plugged into the mains, and only plug into my PC for putting the file on to the remote to test, then connect back to the mains.

Stoobie

My B&O Icons:

[CharlieWednesday]

matador wrote:

Please keep track of the battery you’ve ordered on eBay and let us know how they work.

Will do – when it arrives and is installed, I’ll monitor its performance and leave an update here.  The one I bought was this one.

Stoobie wrote:

You can see here on the original Beoworld :- Removing Beo5 Battery And searching “removing beo5 battery” on google brings up some suggestions for difficult to remove batteries. Once you start programming DO NOT rely on the USB connection to your PC to charge, it is not strong enough. Especially with the Beo6 because if you drain the battery and the remote goes dead, it is very difficult to revive. I always leave the dock plugged into the mains, and only plug into my PC for putting the file on to the remote to test, then connect back to the mains.

I did damage the Beo6 battery in the process of removing it but that wasn’t important as it was clearly dead (acid leakage) anyway.  I do have the service manual for the Beo6 from this site and it shows how to remove the battery.  I used that manual for guidance, but even after removing the base, they keypad and the battery holder, the battery is still jammed in really tight, and very difficult remove.

Still, it shouldn’t matter too much now as the damaged battery is out, and inserting the new battery (when it arrives) should be a lot easier than removing one!

And yes, I do use the mains adapter rather than PC connection to charge my Beo5s, so will do the same with the Beo6 once it is (hopefully) up and running.

I currently have B&O equipment in two rooms but have ended up with 6 remotes! Beolink 1000, Beo4 Mk1, Beo4 Mk4, two Beo5 (one is faulty though, see here), and now a Beo6.  I love all of my B&O stuff but especially the remotes – so unique.

I’ve just realised I omitted to start this post in the Beo5 and Be6 subforum by the way – admins; please feel free to move it, if you can.

Location: Liverpool
My B&O Icons:

[Stoobie]

Just to clarify, I meant that I only plug the charger base into the PC while actually transferring my file. Just transferring it a couple of times in a row, without fully charging in between, can run the battery right down. I think I recall that if you leave the remote connected while you design your setup, it seems to run the battery down too.

I have 2 Beo5’s and 2 Beo6’s, all set up so I can control the system and get to settings etc, but each remote has a button my partner can use that goes to a setup that is really simple to use.

The WiFi is turned off on the Beo6’s as I don’t have a compatible system. I don’t know how it would affect the battery charge if it was on and connected to a system.

Stoobie

My B&O Icons:

[CharlieWednesday]

Battery from eBay arrived (this one), installed quite easily in the Beo6, and I’m happy to say it works.  I left it to charge for a couple of hours then took it off the charger.  I’ve also had it connected to my PC a couple of times to configure it, but after a few hours with a little bit of use, it’s still showing an almost full battery.

I was also quite pleased that once I first configured it and the software was updated to 3.40a, I was able to connect it to my Win11 PC rather than having to use an old Win7 32-bit laptop I had bought specifically for programming my two Beo5s.

I did in fact buy two Beo6, not one, but the other ones does appear to be dead – once the battery was fully charged in thew working one, I added it to the other Beo6, but got nothing from it.  I did get them very cheap though so it was still worth it for the one that I did get working, and the other one can do for parts – they are both in fantastic cosmetic condition.

After I have been using it for a little while and can give a more thorough report on the battery reliability, I’ll post again.

Location: Liverpool
My B&O Icons:

[matador]

“Dead Beo 6” is a pure construct of the mind. That doesnt’ exist IRL.

Location: Paris France

[Stoobie]

I was just about to say that it may be worth persevering with the non working Beo6.

One of mine took about 6 attempts to coax out “death”. This is from the 2012 – 2022 forums :

Dead Beo6

There are loads of other posts on there talking of success.

Stoobie

My B&O Icons:

[CharlieWednesday]

Ah that’s interesting, I might try some of that with my ‘dead’ one then, before I give up on it.  Thanks for the link.  I have put it onto the dock which is connected to my PC and the PC is not recognising it, but I won’t give up just yet.

As for the working Beo6 that I bought the battery for, still working, and the battery is still showing about 85%, so it’s looking like a good battery so far.

Location: Liverpool
My B&O Icons:

[B&O Orlando]

I woke up a boot-locked BEO6 recently. Unit had a new battery but would not power on or show any signs of life on the charger. Config tool would not see it plugged in either. I had to use VirtualBox to emulate Windows 7 with the config tool and it woke right up. All signs pointed to completely dead but it just needed the right connection to the config tool.

Location: Winter Park, FL
My B&O Icons:

[CharlieWednesday]

You may be onto something there.  I got out my old Win7 32bit laptop which has config tool 6.84 already installed, connected the dock, and connected the ‘dead’ Beo6.  To my surprise Windows made the ‘device connected’ sound, and the config tool recognised it and created a new profile for it.  The Beo6 itself however did not light up, then after a couple of minutes on the dock, Windows made the ‘device disconnected’ sound, and I’ve had nothing since.

I tried installing the earlier 5.12 version of the config tool but got nothing from that, and I tried opening it up and disconnecting the battery (as recommended in B&O’s service manual fort hr Beo6), then putting it back in the dock, but got nothing from that either.

The battery I got for the restored Beo6 was quite cheap though, so I’ll buy another and see if I can get any further with it once it has a new battery in it.  The fact that it responded at all when I first connected it to the old laptop is telling me that there’s some life still in it!

Thanks for the advice.

Location: Liverpool
My B&O Icons:

[B&O Orlando]

I tried a few Amazon/eBay batteries with no success. As soon as I installed the official part from B&O it worked right away and I’ve had no problems

Location: Winter Park, FL
My B&O Icons:

[CharlieWednesday]

The new battery I got from eBay has been in my working Beo6 for just over a week now.  I do use it every day (although admittedly not all that much), and it has spent a little bit of time in its dock connected to my PC when I have decided to alter the buttons once or twice, but the battery is holding up well – showing 75% now.

I ordered another one of the same battery to see if it will help reinvigorate my other ‘dead’ Beo6 but it hasn’t arrived yet.  I’ll let you know how I get on with that.

I did go to a B&O store on Saturday by the way, and asked about their ability to fit new batteries in a Beo6 (and also my Beocom 2).  They looked at me like I’d asked for a new wax tube for an Edison gramophone.

Tell you one thing though – I always thought the Beovision Theatre looked a bit ugly in the photos on B&O website but it isn’t when you see it for real. It really isn’t.

Location: Liverpool
My B&O Icons:

[matador]

Something important to specify when talking about (third-party) battery reliability is how the remote is configured:

Some non B&O commands (namely Apple Remote IR commands) drain two of my Beo6 in five to ten clicks – Power Off, reboot, charge warning.
Same remotes last longer if I stay in the “Like no Other” universe.

Location: Paris France

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