EE 4GEE WiFi Osprey issues

[Helmheid]

I'm on my sixth Osprey now. Time after time the batteries swell up, the whole unit bulges like a bad pot of yogurt and eventually starts misbehaving and dies.

Is my luck that bad, or are they just so bad? On top of that, EE refuses to just exchange them in the shop, so each time one goes wrong, they ask me to leave it with them and take a week or two to deliver a new one while I still have to pay my bill...

Are there some better alternatives than EE? In my circumstances broadband not tied to an address is the only option, but EE seems to give the most data for what you pay.

[Helmheid]

Re. Please move to Networking, something went wrong here! Not sure why this ended up in Graphics!

[peterb]

Re. Please move to Networking, something went wrong here! Not sure why this ended up in Graphics!

Moved as requested.

[smargh]

Unless there is something common between all of them, for example the same faulty USB cable or charger, then it sounds like the battery management code/circuit is not charging the battery safely. Lithium batteries must be charged using a specific charging profile (as specified by the battery manufacturer), usually controlled by either firmware or a dedicated charging controller chip.

Or *all* the batteries are duds, but that's probably less likely that the charging system misbehaving. It's also possible that the battery discharge protection system might not be working properly, if you let it run "flat" regularly.

If a firmware update can't fix the problem, then the devices might need to be recalled, which would be pretty bad publicity for EE considering the previous Power Bar recall programme.

I suggest emailing as many details as possible to EE HQ, and then if you have no success with that, send the full story to either The Register or Hexus editors for them to decide whether to do a story on it.

It might be possible for someone to tear down an Osprey - if the battery specs are public, and they usually are, then someone can monitor the charge profile to find whether that's definitely the problem. If you're happy to dispose of your current Osprey, then perhaps consider starting a thread on the EEVBlog Forum and offer to post it to someone to investigate.

[Helmheid]

I usually have it connected to my pc via USB. Each device came with its own cable so I always swapped these out too just in case. But they all do the same. Get pretty hot, swell up, malfunction, in that order.
I need it on USB as that's how it delivers the glorious internet (alternative being wifi which is the first function that goes when the overheating starts)