very early on someone said that support says that putting the "hold" switch on slowly drains the battery. Could that be the situation here?
IMHO, from a logic perspective, that makes no sense. That would imply M-Audio engineers programmed something that would drain the power, no?
There will always be some draw from devices that get turned on by 'button' actuation instead of a power slide/toggle type switch. Usually the power draw when 'off' is very, very small like a watch's operating power measured in microamperes, but 'power off' power draw in digital decks is usually greater than found in electric watches for the most part.
All batteries have their own internal leakage that eventually drains down the battery's capacity after some period of time.
Rechargeable batteries have way higher 'self-leakage' than non-rechargeable or disposable types. Usually lithium batteries, like that used in the Microtrack, have lower self-leakage than NiCAD/NiMH types, but there are several types of lithium chemistries, and each lithium manufacturer produces versions of these batteries that may be better or not with self leakage issues. The lithium batteries are made in China at lowest possible cost. Also consider the lithium batteries found inside the Microtrack are NOT individually pre-tested for capacity or self discharge quality, and this may be the main cause of why some decks lose power quickly sitting on the shelf in the 'off' mode.
Also, there may be some variations in the Microtrack itself and might have a wider range of 'off' power draw where the battery is drained faster with some, and less with others as the 'keep-active' (electronics that monitors the power button) may have variations in power consumption depending on the 'grade' of circuit components used in any particular run.
Since quality control with Microtrack production (CHINA) seems in the same condition as the 'beta' firmware (too much is untested, spotty QC methods, and playing catch-up in after-the-fact found problems), variations and potential issues are not accounted for and further adds to the deck's 'not-designed-in' shortcommings.
The Microtrack may have been a good design when it left the USA, but (in China) implementation of circuit board design, and production quality control seems to suck way too much at this point.
So, expect the battery to slowly or quickly drain when in 'off' depending on all these factors.
Also good to remember that the deck will NEVER turn off the constant 1/4 ampere power draw when USB power is being applied, even when the deck is 'powered-OFF' and the internal battery fully charged up, and even with the display going blank. Power will continue to be drained at high 'recording operation rates' from whatever USB powering source is connected to this deck.
