[edwood]

I have a BB Curve 8310.

When the battery is getting low, the only indication is the blinking of the led on the BB, unless I am talkling on the BB, then there is a low volume beep.

Is there any setting on the BB so that it will produce an audible beep much like the beep for SMS text messages or MMS messages?

The same thing would apply to missed calls or voice mail messages. Again the only indication is the blinking led. I would like an audible notification.

Thanks,
Ed Wood

[JSanders]

Not that I know of.

I would NOT let the BB get that low that often (to 15%). It is not good for the battery. Give it a 10 minute charge boost during the day in the car or wherever.

[jsconyers]

I agree with JS.
In addition, when your battery gets too low, it shuts off the wireless. Meaning no voice or data until you charge the device again.

This may be useful to you Maximum Battery Life - BlackBerryFAQ

[edwood]

While your advice sounds good on the surface, I understand that if you don't let a rechargable battery run almost completely down, it shortens the charge cycle. In other words, the battery "remembers" the level of charge. Let's say if you charge a battery that has 50% charge left for 10 minutes, the battery remembers that point, and sets that as the new battery capacity. You then lose much of the battery's capacity.

I have always been informed that letting the battery get down to 5% to 10% of charge left before recharging it would give it more storage capacity. If you will notice, most laptop/notebook computers do not shut off until the battery capacity reaches about 8% to 10%. You then get a "low battery" warning and are instructed to connect to an external power source.

Thanks for your suggestion, though.

Regards,
Ed Wood

[jsconyers]

Take a look at the link I provided above.

You DO NOT need to break in the Li-Ion BlackBerry battery. On BB Models 71xx, 81xx, 83xx, 88xx you will be using a Lithium-Ion battery. These do not require "conditioning" as you might have experienced with other cell phones and batteries.
Note: Don't get in the habit of fully discharging the battery every time -- to prevent wearing it out -- lithium batteries can be damaged with excessive deep discharges like a car battery can be.... When breaking in the battery, make sure you keep it plugged in long after the battery says it is fully charged (i.e. overnight), you really want to trickle-charge your BlackBerry to top-off your battery.

[arieltf]

FWIW, Battery University is a good website about batteries.

In it, some guidelines for prolonging the life of lithium-based batteries, are:

# Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the battery. Several partial discharges with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one deep one. Recharging a partially charged lithium-ion does not cause harm because there is no memory. (In this respect, lithium-ion differs from nickel-based batteries.) Short battery life in a laptop is mainly cause by heat rather than charge / discharge patterns.

# Batteries with fuel gauge (laptops) should be calibrated by applying a deliberate full discharge once every 30 charges. Running the pack down in the equipment does this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate and in some cases cut off the device prematurely.

--Ariel

[JSanders]

Ed Wood,

You haven't read that link yet the jsconyers offered you.

Discharging complete is bad for the battery.
Charging and topping off a charge is good for this battery.

[edwood]

Thanks guys, I stand corrected.

I was unaware of the difference between the NI-CAD batteries and the Lithium-Ion batteries. I will start an overnight recharge of the battery now, regardless of the power level shown in the battery.

I still would like to be able to set up my BB so that I can receive an audible notification of missed calls, and voice mail waiting. Is there any setting that allows this?

Thanks again,
Ed Wood

[JSanders]

For notification of missed calls and voicemail, set your missed calls to be logged in the message list (Phone > Options > Call Logging) and for voice mail notification, set your SMS to alert you with an audible alert.

If you need continued or repeated alerts of either, look for BBAlerts at Handango.com