About this replacement
Archos Gmini 400 Series — 3.7V Li-Polymer Replacement Battery (ARCHOSBATT)
This is a 3.7V 1400mAh Li-Polymer cell replacing the original battery in the Archos Gmini 400, Gmini 402, Gmini 402CC, and AV402E portable media players. Original cells in these units are now 15–20 years old and commonly hold less than half their rated capacity. This replacement restores the device to its original power spec.
- Gmini 400 series compatibility: The 400, 402, 402CC, and AV402E share the same battery bay dimensions and connector pinout. All four models run the same 3.7V power rail to the decoder and display, so a single cell spec covers the full group without modification.
- Bench tested on actual hardware: We cycled this cell through charge and discharge on a Gmini 402 unit. The BMS held a stable cutoff at 3.0V on discharge and accepted a full charge to 4.2V without thermal event or false termination.
- First charge after installation: These players frequently enter deep-discharge protection after years of storage with a depleted cell. Connect the charger and leave it for 30 minutes before attempting to power on — the trickle charge stage must complete before the device will boot normally.
Battery percentage jumping after cell swap on the Gmini 400
After fitting a new cell, the Gmini 400's fuel gauge often reads erratically — jumping from 80% to 20% or showing full charge immediately after a short charge session. The onboard voltage-threshold indicator calibrated itself to the degraded discharge curve of the old cell. It takes two to three full charge and discharge cycles for the gauge to remap to the new cell's actual voltage curve. Run the player down to auto-shutoff, then charge fully, and repeat — by the third cycle the percentage readout stabilises.
Playback cutting out before the battery indicator shows empty
The audio amplifier circuit in the Gmini 400 draws a short current spike when driving headphone output at higher volumes. Near the end of a discharge cycle, cell voltage sags under that load spike and drops below the BMS cutoff threshold before the display indicator reaches zero. This is not a fault in the replacement cell — it reflects the tight voltage window the original hardware was tuned to. Keeping playback volume below 75% during the final portion of a charge cycle avoids the sag-triggered cutoff.