[Ivan]

Algorithm,

that’s the problem, because for me one of the main drawbacks and downsides of Cube Mix Plus is really short battery life (for sure it is below average) and so if it is your main Windows device after every 4-5 hours you need to wait 2 hours to charge it… or you can work all the time on AC charger (as I actually did).

So the question  is how you can extend battery life, especially if you don’t need high performance and use this tablet for office work. One thing I know is to limit maximum processor state in Power Options>Change plan settings>Change advanced power settings>Processor power management>Maximum processor state. I really noticed that the tablet runs less hot after limiting to 65% or less, but unfortunately I can’t say that battery life becomes significantly longer after that. May be battery drains mostly because of screen and not because of CPU, I don’t know, because I heard that if you connect it to another external screen  and tablet’s screen is switched off the battery life is longer.

Is undervolting helping to extend battery life? Do you know any other ways to increase battery life? (especially if your performance needs are the last thing to worry about)

[Ivan]

Well, even here in my own city all this repair process has taken over 3 weeks and now I have some issues with screen (which I hadn’t with my previous Cube Mix Plus), not critical, but on lower brightness level (<75%) screen is really twinkling, I read it is hardware problem, it’s called PWM (Pulse With Modulation).

Daved, as I understood MOSFET (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOSFET) it is just some type of transistor (located in motherboard), so they really haven’t specified the issue and what caused it, I asked for it a lot of time and spoke even to repair technician which is not usually the case. However I asked it on other forums and there were ideas may be it was caused by permanent high workload on power supply (because I was working during last 2 months not on battery, but on charger, sometimes worked simultaneously when tablet was charging), as well as external HDD, which was connected via micro-USB 3.0, I was downloading on it big torrent file (because current is rather high in external HDD connected via USB). But nobody told me real reason )

[Ivan]

Technician in the service center told me MOSFET was burnt in motherboard.

So my new tablet (as they told me in service center, only SSD from broken tablet was reinstalled) is working, but I have problem with slightly blinking screen when brightness is lower than 75%. I didn’t have it on my previous Cube Mix Plus. What it could be and is it hardware or software issue, should I go to service center again?

[Ivan]

@Virgo

Yes, but I paid almost 150$ more for that, I bought this tablet for 550$ in February-March 2017. But turned out it was worth)

[Ivan]

Hi!

Only today I got some information about my crashed Cube Mix Plus, sorry for delay, but it didn’t depend on me really.

So I called this warranty repair service by myself, because they didn’t get back to me with any information and 2 weeks already passed, which was the time they promised to solve my problem. Receptionist on phone informed me that some problem with motherboard was detected (breakdown or failure of motherboard bridge, I am not sure how to translate correctly, but anyway I don’t think she used correct definition). She didn’t know any details, it could be caused by power surge/voltage jump in electric network or other reasons (because of my actions or may be not), but anyway it is unrepairable and they gonna to provide me another tablet (I hope new), only SSD from broken tablet will be installed in new Cube Mix Plus (it was my request, because I need all the data and everything as it was before the breakdown). Next week I will go there and inform you details, I hope to speak to repairing technician about this situation and how to prevent it in future, because my warranty will end in 2 months.

Now I am thinking was it overheating or USB type C charger that caused this breakdown or anything else… And how to be sure it will not happen again. If it was overheating, I am wondering why temp sensors and throttling haven’t prevent it. I think it is better to make thermal modding and undervolting now and maybe some other customization, but warranty will be lost then.

Meanwhile I have another question, does anybody know what’s the difference between Cube Mix Plus models i18, i18-L, i18-BL, i18-DL? I read somewhere that i18 is the oldest one and others updated in the order I wrote, but haven’t seen anywhere explanation what’s the real differences and updates between these models.

[Ivan]

Thanks for your input, Carl!
I was using my Cube Mix Plus for 10 months without any serious issues in the way, which I described above in my posts. The only possible difference is that last 2 months I started to use it much more actively (5-10 hours per day, working from USB-C charger, which I bought 1-1,5 months ago or much less often from AC charger) and also worth to mention that in the moment when fatal emergency shutdown happened, all the USB ports were busy (external HDD, external cooler, smartphone Xiaomi MiMax 2 charging through USB) and power management mode was “Maximum performance”, a lot of pages (more than 100 for sure) opened in browsers and at that moment I was playing Asphalt. I haven’t change any settings in BIOS or using special software and never opened this tablet.

However, that’s good, because yesterday I gave it to repair service (1 year warranty), as soon as I will have their conclusion I will write it here. Receptionist told me it will take near 1 week.

And guys, another thing I wanted to write here, I am not sure if anybody posted anything about this device on Techtablets (I know that Chris created this website primarily and first of all for Chinese tablets). I’ve read about it and love this thing: Eve V, just look at it if you didn’t know before what it is. This is for sure the Windows tablet I would buy instead of Cube Mix Plus.

[Ivan]

FUCKTECHTABLET wrote:

A 60W charger is a hulk waterfall to the battery. It surely degrade the power component over time faster than usual

@Virgo, regarding 60W charger, I am very far from being specialist in electricity and I was afraid of 60W too, but when I asked experts and what I found that in any case device will consume not more than it is designed to consume, because of controllers. Another problem could be heat, but I can’t say that I feel more heat on back cover when tablet was charging through USB type C to compare it with AC charger (I saw feedbacks on  forums, that it is vice-versa: more heat on AC charger). Also in my previous posts I attached photo of this USB type C charger and its manual and it’s written there Output: USB-C port DC 5V/9V/15V/20V 3A (MAX) and so there are different modes and I think the mode is chosen automatically, depending on connected device. Also there are compatible devices listed there (tablets and smartphones), which have the same power specs (or even lower) as Cube Mix Plus.

But again, I am far from electricity expert, so main factor for me were positive reviews and user experience feedbacks about using USB type C chargers (and specifically about this charger Udoli 60W which I bought) with Cube Mix Plus.

[Ivan]

Well, thanks for your thoughts, that’s quite unfortunate and inconvenient if you can’t use Cube Mix Plus working on AC line for longer time, because if it’s no need to use battery and you use it then constant battery use and charge/discharge cycles will result in its degradation.

I can say from my experience that after I worked all days long (during last 3-4 months) on AC with fully charged battery and only once per 1-2 weeks deliberately using battery, still when I checked my battery with diagnostic tools (AIDA, Battery Care) it showed full capacity and 0% wear level. So that’s why I concluded that at least on my Cube Mix Plus battery and power circuitry works correctly (of course, if you can trust results these tools show).

[Ivan]

Also I don’t want to mess this topic with other questions and issues I have in mind about Cube Mix Plus, but as I have a lot of questions about battery life/health in this tablet, I will shortly recollect some of them:

• considering overheating problems, and as I read Li-Ion and Li-Polymer battery working temperature range is 0-30°C, so in case you will make thermal modding and heat will go on back cover and dissipate not only in the left part (notably at the top, where CPU is located), but over all the surface of back cover. And battery is degrading much more, if it’s working temperature is higher than 30°C. It also depends on different types of thermal modding, I think. But that’s the reason of my uncertainty how thermal modding will influence battery health.

• Another issue is working from AC line, if it’s good for battery to keep it 100% charged inside tablet and work from AC line all the time. I haven’t find any information about battery health management in-built features in Cube Mix Plus and if such even exist, like the possibility to limit battery charge level to 60-80% and work only from AC line, which is better for Li-Polymer and I didn’t find any software solution for it. This features should be in-built and even need some controllers inside battery itself, if I understood correctly from what I read about battery management. You can find this feature in Lenovo, Dell, Samsung devices, for example.

• Another question: if it’s possible to work on Cube Mix Plus with removed battery, just hypothetically to imagine such situation.

So all these kind of questions and I have more of it, because I’ve read a lot of information in the internet with different opinions and I am completely confused now how should I manage and behave with battery in Cube Mix Plus to keep it safe and healthy longer time. Generally, most thoughts I’ve read that it is safe to keep modern devices with in-built battery all the time working from AC line as controllers and software is smart enough to manage it.

But again, let’s not mess this topic with other questions, as this dead tablet issue is much more urgent problem for me. I will create separate topic about battery management or may be it was discussed somewhere here already and I will add there my questions then.

[Ivan]

Hey Daved, Algorithm and Virgo,

I think it’s too early to decide that the reason was USB type C charging. As I said I was using this charger last 2 months and no issues till this incident. 95% I worked from power supply and not battery, because lately I was always  near  AC line and didn’t want to use charge/discharge cycles of battery in vain. Once per 1-2 weeks I tried to work from battery to keep it healthy, usually after that I was working and charging battery simultaneously. Before I worked the same way, but with Chinese AC charger, which I received in the box with Cube Mix Plus, no big difference to be honest between these 2 chargers, I can’t say charging was quicker on USB type C (may be 15-30 minutes full charge, not more, but I didn’t measure it, my impression timing is the same, at least if you are charging and working simultaneously). May be such intensive use of AC line results in degradation and fusing or short circuit or other failures of power supply circuitry inside tablet.

The reason I bought and started to use this USB type C (Power Delivery compatible) charger is all the positive reviews and user experience feedbacks about this charger on 4pda.ru (good topic with a lot of information about Cube Mix Plus and other mobile devices, in Russian, but I think I saw some English translated mirror of the forum or at least this topic) and information that original Chinese AC charger is crappy and bad quality (that was my impression as well).

Below I added photos of these 2 chargers.

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[Ivan]

Algorithm wrote:

You mentioned that battery was fully charged and that it was still plugged into the charger. Usually this should not be an issue but perhaps somewhat the battery overcharged and shut off as protection (and battery circuitry is not allowing it to be turned on?) Some of the cheaper devices have major issues with battery charging (inaccurate reading, stuck at 50%, undercharging, overcharging, battery circuitry fusing if using other chargers etc)

@Algorithm, thank you for your answer, may be that’s the case. I got the same idea at other forums where I asked: as power and charging sensor doesn’t work and never light up after this emergency shutdown, it should be some problem with power supply lines or battery charging circuitry.

Regarding problems with battery charging, well, I didn’t observe any and I read a lot of positive feedbacks about charging Cube Mix Plus through USB type C.

Algorithm wrote:

Temperatures also seem to be on the safe side (85c max you mentioned). You can try holding down the power button for 20 seconds or/and reset hole. Another alternative is that you open the device and disconnect the battery and reconnect again (but this may void your warranty, so better to get it replaced I guess)

I don’t know precise temperature at the moment it happened, so can’t exclude overheating, taking in account also that thermal modding wasn’t done, but to be honest I think this game Asphalt was the highest workload, mostly I used it for browsing and videos.

Itried to press and hold power button and/or reset button and nothing changed. I think it is better wait for service on Monday as this tablet fortunately is still covered with 1 year warranty, so I won’t open it to check and reconnect battery.

I am just worried if it could be motherboard or CPU or SSD issue and also if warranty will cover this case.

[Author]

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