Battery problems with Freelander PD20

[genterminl]

I've got a fairly new Freelander PD20 (ICS 4.0.3) which I"m pretty happy with in terms of functionality. However, the battery life is just killing me. I haven't yet gotten it to last over an hour, but it's not just draining evenly. If I unplug it at 90% battery, it will slowly and evenly drop, maybe to 40%, but this is over 10 or 20 minutes at most, just changing apps or browsing over WiFi. Then, somewhere around 40% it just clicks off. Today, it clicked off trying to watch any video (which all play fine when plugged in) starting at 50% battery, with repeated tries finally getting the battery down about 25%, at which time it wouldn't even complete booting before turning off again. Now here's the other side of the problem - when the battery shows under 25% or it won't boot anymore, I plug it in and turned it on, and the battery is already (less than a minute) over 50%. It's just getting the wild, sharp swings in battery %, and cutting off for no apparent reason, at values as high as 40%. I once got it down to about 2%, but rarely below 20% before I can't even boot it fully without pluggin it in.

I've tried to tell this to the vendor, and I'm not sure if they don't care or don't understand, but their suggestion is that they will reimburse me for having it repaired locally. I suspect any repair will cost more than I paid, so I'd really rather troubleshoot myself before deciding what to do. It just doesn't seem like the battery is bad, but more like a problem with the charging circuit or perhaps the power management (motherboard?) Also - under settings, it says "Battery usage data not available" and although I've googled this, I can't tell if it's just a deficiency of the kernel in the build or a real problem.

Are there any apps that anyone can suggest to help track down the problem? Any suggestions on how I would find someplace that would even be capable of troubleshooting/repairing a tablet? I'd rather not have to return it (to China) and I'm willing to open it up to check the battery voltage directly, for example, but only if there's something I might actually be able to do.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Android: 4.0.3
Kernel: 3.0.8-tcc zxp@kf-mid #124
Build number: full_m805_892x_evm-userdebug 4.0.3 SXZ-PDX0 eng.zxp.20121628.112038

 

[genterminl]

I'll expand the question just a bit. The vendor agreed to send me a new battery, but apparently did so before figuring out they might not be able to actually get one. So - does anybody know what battery I can use? The specs for the PD20 Great Version say 3000mAh, but the battery in my tablet says YT 358092, 3.7V 2800mAh. On a sticker on the battery is 048095P and some Chinese writing. The battery is about 5 x 80 x 90 mm with a black, red, and yellow wire soldered to the PCB. So far the only batteries that even look like they might possibly work I would have to order from China, but I don't want to ge tthe wrong thing and waste two weeks waiting to find out it won't work.