Harmony Remotes

[rhachey]

If your Battery cover is hard to get off, it is possible that the battery has expanded

[Seminole66]

My HE890 is only 10 Months old and stopped recharging.  I found that my the Li-Ion battery was swollen so badly that it broke the plastic hinges on the battery cap.  I purchased a replacement battery and cap.  I have now found that the charger is not working even though the light on the cradle is illuminating.  I have ran through the testing steps as listed in the manual and nothing is working.  As we can all see from most of these posts, there is something inherently wrong with these chargers.  Please offer some satisfaction to this problem as I have a $240.00 remote that I am now using for a paperweight.

[rhachey]

Try cleaning the contacs both on the charger, the remote and the battery contacts inside the remote.

[MattMunich]

"My HE890 is only 10 Months old and stopped recharging.  I found that my the Li-Ion battery was swollen so badly that it broke the plastic hinges on the battery cap.  I purchased a replacement battery and cap.  I have now found that the charger is not working even though the light on the cradle is illuminating.  I have ran through the testing steps as listed in the manual and nothing is working.  As we can all see from most of these posts, there is something inherently wrong with these chargers.  Please offer some satisfaction to this problem as I have a $240.00 remote that I am now using for a paperweight."

This is the same that happened to me.   Battery all swollen, battery door broken.  Logitech customer support was nice enough to send me a new battery, and th door mostly works, but it will not beep when I put it on the cradle.

Guess I'm going to have to call back tomorrow...

[JEfromCanada]

Unless I missed it while reading this thread, there is one more "trick" that worked for me.  The three contact points in the base are spring loaded (or are springs themselves - I didn't pry the base apart to check).  My point is that these are not fixed contacts, but rather floating ones, and over time, they can fail to spring back enough to make contact with the remote.

I found that by VERY CAREFULLY using a paper clip of the tip of a narrow knife, I was able to get under the contacts and slightly raise them up.  Breaking the contact is definitely NOT a good idea, so be gentle.  However, once I pried the contact points a bit higher, my charging issues disappeared for good.

This is probably analagous to raising the contact points by dropping a solder droplet on it, but I don't own a soldering iron.

[reef]

After months of poor and sporadic charging that eventually led to no charging, I came up with something that works and thought I would share. I had already tried cleaning the contacts and pulling up the contacts on the base and that helped a little for a very short while. What I ended up doing was taking an old steak knife and gently scraping the tip back and forth across all contacts on both the remote and the charger. Put it in the charger and boom, full charging. I'm sure not a solution that will be endorsed by logitech, but it worked great for me and hope it might work with others.

[vexhold]

I found that my 890 advanced remote also had the swollen battery issue. I purchased it almost 2 years ago and knew that the warranty was out, I purchaced a new battery. When I got it, it still did not work and would not power up on the USB cord.

I called Logitech support last night and explained my issue (a long shot)

The 1st tech i got did the ole troubleshooting steps and all failed. He politely informed me that my warranty was expired and the best they could do for me was give me 50% off a new model.

I told him this was not good enough and he replied that again, that is the best he could do.

He also informed me that the REASON that the battery buldges is that people keep the remote always on the charging base. I asked him if there was a warning against doing that in the manual and he said no.

I too work in a support department and support a product, so I know how it works. I held him on the line for almost 45 minutes, not being rude or agressive, but very persistant on my dissapointment.

I finally asked to talk to a supervisor and was told he was on another call and would call me back. I agreed.

Knowing the closing time of thier support line, I called back 10 minutes before they closed asking again for the supervisor.

They told me he was still on the phone and I said I would wait for him.

He finally got on the phone and I again stated my frustration of the product and reiterated my dissapointment in the failing product. I think being the last person he had to talk to that night made him bend easilly and he agreed to replace my remote. He also started talking boxing and wanted to chat about the Manny Pacquiao fight.

7-10 days till my new remote gets here. YEY!!

[mistamista2000]

Purchased a new battery online and it still didn't charge my 890. Tried the solder on the three base tips trick and it worked perfectly. Thanks for great advice! 

[top cop]

I have tried to get the folks at the support center to help and all I get is the company line and a big run around.

I have the Harmony 890 Universal remote and after a two year period the thing stopped working it won't hold a charge and I would often get the a mode failure notice before it just quick freaking working.

I was told time and time again to down load a "firmware" upgrade.

I've grown older trying to find that SOB.

So anyone have any ideas.

My only solace is that I finishing my basement and plan to add an complete system guess what remote I will not be using.

I am beyond frustrated with these people.

Top Cop

[rhachey]

If you cannot find where to get the Firmware Update, click on the  Download link at the top of the page after you have logged onto your Account.