Bose N123 will not charge battery - works when plugged in

Hello, All -

 

Can't seem to find an answer to this problem....I have a Bose SoundDock Model N123 that has, for some reason stopped charging the battery.   I have a brand new battery (two of them, as a matter of fact), and the unit works fine when plugged in, so I'm thinking the power supply must be good, but the unit won't even turn on when I try to use it on battery, regardless of how long it has been plugged in and supposedly charging.

 

I've read something about replacing the "charging port", but I don't find a part by that name.

 

Bose product name

SoundDock N123

Country

 

Firmware Version

(1.0.7, 4.8.1, 1.7.0, etc.)

App Version

(4.1.1, 13.0.2, etc.)

What devices were you using that were affected and what version are they on

(Samsung Galaxy S9 on Android 11, iPhone X on iOS14, etc.)

Detailed description of the issue and steps to reproduce

As described above.

 

Where do you run into the issue?

 

When did you start to experience the issue? Did it work correctly previously?

 

Any troubleshooting steps you took

Replaced battery twice, with no result.

 

 

Hey drwob, 

 

Thank you for your post and welcome to the Community! 

 

I'm sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues charging the battery on your SoundDock. I'm positive we can find a resolution for you!

 

Can you confirm that you have the SoundDock Portable? If so, I would recommend that you follow the troubleshooting steps HERE, which should help.

 

Let us know!

Hi Jessie -

Thank you for the response and the suggested  troubleshooting steps. I followed those steps and got no improvement.

 

However I remembered that we do have a second identical system in the house so I began swapping things out to see if I could isolate the problem. Turns out that the power supply for the second system will indeed charge the battery on my original system so I'm suspicious that my power supply has failed.

 

However, I'm not entirely sold on this solution because it doesn't make sense to me that a power supply would work when plugged in but fail to charge the battery. Does this make sense to you?

 

Thanks,

Thanks for coming back to us drwob, 

 

This does sound strange. When you began to test with your other system, did you move the battery to your other system? Or did you change out the power supply?

 

This will give us a better understanding of the issue. 

 

I look forward to your response.

 

  • Sorry I wasn't clear.

My testing procedure was as follows:

 

I connected the second systems power supply to the original system and found that I was able to charge my original battery and use that system both when plugged in and on battery alone.

 

Then, just to see if I could duplicate the original symptoms, I took a spare battery, never charged, and attached it to my original system with my original power supply . As before, after charging overnight, I was able to use the system when plugged in but the system would not even power up on battery alone. I assume this means that the battery never charged. My next step is going to be to take that brand new but never-charged battery and see if I can charge it on the second system with the second power supply. This will not tell me anything about whether my original power supply is bad, but at least it will eliminate the possibility of a bad new battery.

I appreciate your interest and your help.

 

Thanks,

 

Bob

Thank you for clarifying drwob. 

From what you have described it does sound like the power supply is the issue and it will need replacing. I would recommend contacting your local support team so that they can aid you in getting a replacement sorted out for you. 

You can find their contact information by clicking here.

I hope this helps! 

Thanks for your input and assistance.

 

I will look into replacing the power supply.

 

Thanks,

 

Bob