Battery replacement for Kobo Glo

My Kobo Glo sometimes suddenly restarts. I’ve had it for so long that I did not know for how long, but it turned out I bought it in 2013. So it, and its battery, is about 10 years old. The battery seemed still fine – okay runtime and voltage does not significantly sag under load (maybe drops 0.1 or 0.2 Volts). I still replaced the battery, because another issue I had with the device is that it’s SD card got corrupted somehow, a few times, and “vague problems are power supply issues”. (Also: eat your veggies, kids!)

Now I hope this fixes the restart issue and perhaps prevents another case of filesystem corruption, but even if it doesn’t, maybe this blogpost can help someone else who wants to replace their Kobo Glo’s battery.

In the first picture, the screws I removed are placed next to the ereader in the same positions as they where removed from. Pictures can be clicked to enlarge them.

The new battery I used is a Cellevia LP405063. It’s connector does not fit the e-reader, so I cut the wires (One by one! And deliberately to uneven length as to reduce the risk of shorts) and soldered them to the e-reader circuit board.

A few tips:

  • Discharge the old battery before replacement.
  • To remove the battery from its glue /tape, push a plastic card under it (or something similarely insulating and blunt – as not to puncture the battery or shortcircuit anything). Try not to bend it. It might be easy-est to remove the circuit board first to have more room to work. Maybe add a bit of cleaning alcohol to help the glue unstick – I did, but then had to wait for it to evaporate before re-assembly.
  • Insulate the wires on the old battery before disposing of it. Do not throw it in the trash but hand it in for whatever is the proper kind of recycling in your country/region. (NL: Mik ‘m in een batterijenton of apparatenton, maar ook om die reden moet ‘ie dus eerst netjes helemaal leeg zijn.)
  • Careful with the FPC-connectors. It should take no force at all.


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2 responses to “Battery replacement for Kobo Glo”

  1. Hennie Jalink Avatar
    Hennie Jalink

    As for the problems with the SD-card “SD card got corrupted somehow”:
    After 10 years it is possible that the SD-card itself gets worn out…

    All the software and e-books for the Kobo-Glo are stored in the small micro-SD-card (size 2GB) in a holder on the print.
    After I did a complete shutdown of the Kobo, I removed it, put it in a card reader of my desktop Windows PC, and made an “image backup” of this card using the program called “Win32DiskImager”. Remove the original card and put it somewhere safe (as a fall back).
    I took a new, fresh micro-SD-card (size 4GB is good) and restored this image on it with the same program. Put this new card in the holder of the Kobo. Start the Kobo and all was well…

    1. Lucas Avatar
      Lucas

      I did something similar, but with dd (Linux) and a 8 gb card. After a restore of a copy I made early-er all was well for a while, but not permanently. Tried another card too.

      When synchronising to get new books I bought, it also updates its software and it’s like after that issues started. At one point it got stuck in a bootloop, even. Might be coincidence, it is all a bit vague.

      What seems to have fixed it for now is a restore using the kobo desktop software. Can’t remember if I took a new disk image after that, probably should…

      At least I know the battery is good and fresh now.

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