kcherpj1

I had exactly the same problem... except my issue was right out of the box new. My unit was on the shelf new, and the battery was completely dead. After trying to charge it, I saw the same 1 second of charging LED time, then off. The charger was connected for about 20 mins before I started fiddling (and searching on the Internet) - which led me to this forum. After reading about the "kickstart" approach, I sat there for about 30 seconds and pulled out/reinserted the barrel plug into the charger bracket about 25 times (this was with the battery not in the radio). No change. I then connected it to the radio and tried again. No change. I then searched around a bit more and found the boot-to-diagnostic sequence. On my 530HCX, that means pressing the power button, then letting go and pressing the ENTER button shortly after, while the unit is booting. My diag screen showed a "charger" voltage of 9.50V, and a "missing" battery voltage. Not even there! The temperature reading was also null. So I powered off (using the button), and noticed my LED on the charger was now staying ON! Apparently my little foray into the diagnostic screen "changed" something. Your guess is as good as mine as to what... but my unit was now charging. As a test, I removed the charger plug and reinserted, and it stayed charging (LED on). My percent charge indicator climbed to 1%. Out of curiousity, I went back into the diagnostic screen, and now instead of a null value, my 'battery' voltage was 3.93V, and climbing (reading 4.27V now, a few minutes later). Also showed a temperature value of 27, climbing to 30 now. So it looks like some VERY low battery voltage (perhaps @ 3.8V maybe?) makes it appear that the battery is not connected. This sequence "appears" to have made a difference, although who really knows? Maybe it was the heat from my hand that warmed up the cells a bit so that there voltage rose up to the threshold value on their own? Anyway - seem to have success. Your mileage may vary. Once the battery is fully charged (if it does ever get there), that would be good evidence that a REALLY dead battery can still come back to life. I'll try to remember to update this post with my results..