Develop Bugs

Battery not recognized by BA

Hi
I'll try to explain my situation.
I have an Imate PDA2k that I wanted to revive.
I bought an extended battery from ebay (item number 360240003003)
When the battery arrived, I placed it in the phone and tried to charge it. Nothing happened. The phone's led did not turn orange or green.
I figured maybe because the battery is over 2x the capacity of the original, the phone may not be able to charge it.
Ok no problem, I'll stick the battery on the separate battery charger.
The light turns on (indicating that it is charging).
After the battery was charged, I put it back in the phone and the phone turns on. Problem is the battery meter does not measure how much power is left and automatically turns off the screen within 30 seconds regardless of the settings i put in.
I've tried increasing the time to turn off the screen to 5 minutes, nothing.
I've tried reflashing the phone with different versions of WM, (I tried wm2003, wm6.1, wm6.5) nothing.
I even tried Qtopia linux. That one did not recognize the battery but it did obey it's own configuration regarding when to dim and turn off the screen. (Then again it locks up after a few hours which is a problem for a different discussion)
So my question / request is: Is there a battdrvr.dll or battery.dll that can report to windows mobile that the battery is full?
At this point, I really don't care if the report is accurate as long as windows doesn't turn off the screen after 30 seconds. I'd be satisfied if the battery reported 100% all the time (hard coded in there).
Thanks in advance,
anubis_2003

anubis_2003 said:
Hi
I'll try to explain my situation.
I have an Imate PDA2k that I wanted to revive.
I bought an extended battery from ebay (item number 360240003003)
When the battery arrived, I placed it in the phone and tried to charge it. Nothing happened. The phone's led did not turn orange or green.
I figured maybe because the battery is over 2x the capacity of the original, the phone may not be able to charge it.
Ok no problem, I'll stick the battery on the separate battery charger.
The light turns on (indicating that it is charging).
After the battery was charged, I put it back in the phone and the phone turns on. Problem is the battery meter does not measure how much power is left and automatically turns off the screen within 30 seconds regardless of the settings i put in.
I've tried increasing the time to turn off the screen to 5 minutes, nothing.
I've tried reflashing the phone with different versions of WM, (I tried wm2003, wm6.1, wm6.5) nothing.
I even tried Qtopia linux. That one did not recognize the battery but it did obey it's own configuration regarding when to dim and turn off the screen. (Then again it locks up after a few hours which is a problem for a different discussion)
So my question / request is: Is there a battdrvr.dll or battery.dll that can report to windows mobile that the battery is full?
At this point, I really don't care if the report is accurate as long as windows doesn't turn off the screen after 30 seconds. I'd be satisfied if the battery reported 100% all the time (hard coded in there).
Thanks in advance,
anubis_2003
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, if Windows believes it is about to run out of juice, it will turn off, regardless of how much charge you believe your battery has. My advice to you would be to return the battery since it obviously has an issue (my guess is that whoever made it, didn't follow the pin out diagram properly )
Good luck!

and the capacity of the battery should not matter to the charger. i use a 3600mah battery that charges just fine (except that it doesn't go in the cradle, neither front, nor back, because it is too thick)

Thank you for the replies folks.
I've had the battery for too long, so I can't return it (been stubburn trying to figure it out)
Is there a way to hard code a value in the battdrvr.dll file? So that way I could break the battery meter in essence and hard code a value to satisfy windows (i don't care if the power runs out without warning at this point)?
anubis_2003

anubis_2003 said:
Thank you for the replies folks.
I've had the battery for too long, so I can't return it (been stubburn trying to figure it out)
Is there a way to hard code a value in the battdrvr.dll file? So that way I could break the battery meter in essence and hard code a value to satisfy windows (i don't care if the power runs out without warning at this point)?
anubis_2003
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not to my knowledge... I don't know if Chef may have something to add, but rather than messing with drivers, I would simply buy a new one off eBay (much simpler fix). Keep in mind that if it isn't wired properly, it might end up damaging your BA... personally, I wouldn't risk it.

let's assume messing with the drivers would be possible and maybe even easy and you could disable the battery meter and set a permanent number, these are the two outcomes:
1. you'd set the permanent number to 100, device would never switch off (achieved), but it would also never charge! every time you want to charge the battery, you'd have to switch off the device and take out the battery for external charging.
2. you'd set the permanent number to 99, it would never stop charging and so the battery would heat up (remember it is not an original one, even higher risk) and after some time, it could explode! remember the apple battery issues? where users reported, their phones and notebooks would never report a full battery, so it kept charging until it actually exploded, not just breaking the battery (of course) but also the device.
i would agree with egzthunder, that your best choice is buying another battery.

Chef_Tony said:
let's assume messing with the drivers would be possible and maybe even easy and you could disable the battery meter and set a permanent number, these are the two outcomes:
1. you'd set the permanent number to 100, device would never switch off (achieved), but it would also never charge! every time you want to charge the battery, you'd have to switch off the device and take out the battery for external charging.
2. you'd set the permanent number to 99, it would never stop charging and so the battery would heat up (remember it is not an original one, even higher risk) and after some time, it could explode! remember the apple battery issues? where users reported, their phones and notebooks would never report a full battery, so it kept charging until it actually exploded, not just breaking the battery (of course) but also the device.
i would agree with egzthunder, that your best choice is buying another battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow! I personally didn't even think about all that! But Chef is absolutely right, the battery can explode if you charge it beyond its limits.

Well that's exactly what I'm doing now. The phone doesn't charge the battery anyway. I have to pull the battery out of the phone every 4 days to charge it overnight in a separate charger. So option #1 would be ideal for me.
Don't suppose you have any hints on how I could do that?
Although you're right about the 99% scenario. Indeed it would try to charge it past its actual limit.
anubis

[Q] about my battery

ok so i got a problem with my battery
my battery on my phone just going out to fast
for example today
i connected it so it could reload and then
when i disconnected it was 100%
then after 2 hours only that i havnt use the phone i mean havnt touched it even once
i look again on battery life and here it says 36%
and it keep going every day
can some1 tell me why it keep happening???

WOW! That's a major drain in 2hours.
My 2 cents are on a defective battery - since the phone was on standby.
You can try some tutorials on adjusting the power saving settings (like screen brithgness what to turn off and not etc.)
Also you might try caibrate the battery.

there is a thing like u charge it to 100% ,unplug from the charger and turn the phone off ,then plug in again and charge to 100% again... there is a thread about it on this forum, do a lil search it might help u

Dial *#*#4636#*#* and go to battery and find partial wake usage, here the apps are listed that prevent the phone form sleeping and thus causing battery drain. Also check the % under Settings-about phone- battery usage to see what app or process consumed the most battery.

Does it get very hot? I mean - if the battery really contains 1500mAh (which I doubt in this case) and drains completely in 3 hours, that's 500mAh, so 3.5V*0,5A=1,75W continuesly.
You really should notice that while it's in your pocket...

no the phone isnt getting hot
i mean it can sit on my pocket for like 2-3 hours and then it suddenly 3x %
without even touching it

Try these steps:
1. Please connect the phone to the charger with the phone powered on, and allow the phone to charge until the notification LED is green, indicating the device is fully charged.
2. Disconnect the phone from the charger, and power it off.
3. Reconnect the phone to the charger with the phone powered off, and allow the phone to charge until the notification LED is green.
4. Disconnect the phone from the charger and power it on. Once the phone is powered completely on, power it off again and reconnect it to the charger until the notification LED is green.
5. Disconnect the phone, power it on (OPTIONAL: Enter Recovery at this point and Wipe Battery Stats (from Advanced menu), and use it. You need to use this sequence only once.
If that does not solve it you have a defective batterie.

ok i will try it
but can u tell me what the point???
i mean what does it do??

NoneSkillZ said:
ok i will try it
but can u tell me what the point???
i mean what does it do??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The point of that, is to make the battery life longer. And actually it works. I tried when i bought my phone an the increase was significant!
Edit: Just saw in another thread that some newer custom ROMs has some things messed up, and they eat the battery more than normal when the screen is off. You might take a look at it.

yea i did all the steps and its not working
the battery still going down rapidly
so i should buy new one??

Yeah.
BTW, are you on a stock rom?

srry
no idea what stock rom means
but im on miui rom

[Q] Battery worn out?

Hello,
My desire, after:
an inability to restore nandroid backup
a possible corrupted sd card
a usb brick and inability to mount some nand partitions
and finally succeeding in fixing it, now using/running:
2.29.405.5 stock rooted rom
a new sd card (samsung 16GB class 6)
clockworkmod 2.5.0.7
s-off
seems that has battery issues. When it reaches below 30%, it drains a lot faster. In example few minutes ago, the battery was below 30% level and after sending a couple of sms messages the phone, without the "Connect the charger" indication shut down. Not even the battery icon was red.
What should I do?
After flashing the above ROM I ran an app called battery calibration (could this be the culprit?).
I haven't experienced such problems before the whole mess mentioned above.
Thank you for your time.

Well, it seems to me like a "classic" battery meter calibration issue.
TVTV said:
In order to calibrate the battery meter - FYI the battery itself cannot be calibrated, as Li-Ion batteries have a very low memory compared to old Ni-Cd etc. batteries - you have to go through the following procedure:
1) charge the battery to 100%;
2) let the battery discharge until the phone shuts itself down;
3) plug the wall charger into the phone, boot the phone up then charge the battery to 100% without interruptions.
If the above procedure does not yield the expected results, you can try fully charging the phone (LED showing green) with it completely turned off (after completely draining it). Again, the charging procedure should not be interrupted.
Source: personal experience - had to do this twice after installing new ROMs, as the phone was shutting down at ~14% (working like a charm now).
Regarding the matter of battery wear because of complete discharges, Li-Ion batteries do indeed have a lower cycle count than old-school batteries, but the standard charge/discharge number a Li-Ion battery can take is ~350, so you can't damage the battery pack by doing a full cycle per month (required to keep the battery meter accurate).
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Did this work you mate? I have the same issue with my year old batter now... the phone shuts down @ 40% without any warning... and when I charge it, it starts from 0% and as soon as it hits the 58% mark, it jumps to 100% by itself... and i cant seem to figure out what the hell could I do to fix it... I tried calibrating the battery using the awesome method described here http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/11823-battery-calibration-thread 3 times and nothing changed...

bump bump.. i really need help on this guys... :/
Sent from the infinity and beyond...

Weird that after calibration you still get that kind of issues, does this only happen on your current ROM? I have the latest CM in my desire and everything works just fine... Maybe try another ROM if calibration doesn't work to see if it's a hardware or software issue

i actually had issues with MIUI first.. the phone randomly shut down by itself but when i turned it back on, it was perfect... then i switched back to Oxygen and while everything was fine, suddenly one day the phone died at 40% :S and from that day on the phone charges to 58% and then instantly jumps to 100%... and as soon as it gets to 40% it shuts down itself... i guess i need a new battery but i wanted to see wether i can fix this one somehow so i can use it till the new one arrives...
Sent from the infinity and beyond...

same problem
i have the same problem
my phone turns off at 20% battery
calibration does not help....
and battery is not bad - it works fine
i'm sure its the problem with calibration

kshitijgandhi said:
i have the same problem
my phone turns off at 20% battery
calibration does not help....
and battery is not bad - it works fine
i'm sure its the problem with calibration
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
phone turning off at 20% is fine mate because thats the battery guards against any damage
most of the phones ( smart phones) switch off at 20% as going lower can damage the System .

It shouldnt normally..It's supposed to work fine upto 5%

Have a look at this, it worked for me (but you need a compatible kernel, most AOSP are so)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=765609

[Q] Battery not fully charging problem

I have a battery / charging problem on my Gnex. The problem is that the battery won’t charge more then 60 %, drains quick and then the phone shuts down at 0 % ( in about 2-3hrs of use) and wont restart until recharged.
At first, I tought it was the battery so I bought one OEM on ebay. It did the same thing so I returned it and went to Telus store to buy an OEM.
Same thing happened with the new OEM. I then bought an external wall battery charger and charged the 2 batteries I have. When I put the first one back in the phone it said 12%?
I tried the second one which is the new OEM and same thing, its showing 12%.
I did a little test, I had 4.2.2 so I unlocked the phone and rooted (no more warranty anyway) I flashed back the ROM to ICS. No change.
So what I did next is I used the phone until it shut down at 0% and restarted it on the bootloader screen and left it on, on the bootlooader screen.
Well the phone screen stayed on for more then 3 hours, so I know the battery is good because there is no way that a 0% battery could power the screen for 3 hours.
So after it shut down from the bootloader screen, I charged it again, in the phone, and it went right back to 60%, I did try to wipe batt stats from recovery mode and battery calibration apps but no luck.
Is there a way to disable the auto shut down on the phone? The battery meter if definitely showing wrong charge stats. Is the battery controller part of the USB board or the motherboard?
The only thing I did not try yet is a custom ROM and Kernel.
Any ideas?

Sounds like a hardware failure... It's obviously not the batteries
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

I found where the Power Management with Switch Mode Charger chip is, on the motherboard! I wonder if there is some ways to access and modify the values of this.

jackpot554 said:
I have a battery / charging problem on my Gnex. The problem is that the battery won’t charge more then 60 %, drains quick and then the phone shuts down at 0 % ( in about 2-3hrs of use) and wont restart until recharged.
At first, I tought it was the battery so I bought one OEM on ebay. It did the same thing so I returned it and went to Telus store to buy an OEM.
Same thing happened with the new OEM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For what it's worth, the same thing is happening to me. Charges to 64%, and it acts like it's only got a 64% charge - runs out fast. And I also tried a replacement OEM battery with no difference. I'm not completely convinced this is a hardware problem - though I guess it could be. I'm still stock Gnex (with the 4.3 upgrade - and come to think of it, this started some time after that upgrade). I was hoping it was some kind of kernel problem that i could fix by switching to CM. Anybody have any luck with that?

The same thing is happening to my phone, although I'm lucky enough to have it charge to 73%. Only realized the problem when I bought a new OEM battery and it stopped charging at the same 73%. I have a friend who has the exact same phone and will give her both my batteries to charge and see the results (with her phone then once batteries are reinstalled in my phone).
Outside of replacing the motherboard, would anyone know if there could possibly be a software fix? Has this happened to any other phone? If so does anyone know the results?
Thanks,
Stefan

My gt s6312 has charging issue. It never charge over 67-69% in my phone. I checked the battery in other phone its ok.....please help.....
Sent from my GT-S6312 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Sounds like a hardware failure in the phones' charging circuit. Since:
- no software change (ROM or Kernel) fixes it
- no battery change fixes it
Then it's obviously the charging circuit in the phone. Time to get a new phone!

Well I've confirmed for myself that it is my phone charging circuit that's giving me bad info on my battery charge. I installed both my batteries in a friends Gnex and both gave me 100% charge reading on my friends phone. I then re-installed both batteries in my phone and both came back with identical 13% charge reading. So to me this is obviously not a battery issue.
Since my previous post in July my phone has gotten progressively worst. So I have now come to the point where I either have to replace the phone's charging circuit or replace the phone all together. I would much rather do the first as any replacement phone via my carrier would require me to pay more monthly on my contract.
So would anyone know with certainty where the charging circuit is located in the Gnex? Is it on the main logic board or the USB charging board?
Thanks

Annoying Battery Issue

My Note 4 is 14mo old and for the last couple months it just shuts off on me even though I have plenty of power left.
I am a light user and usually have enough power for all day use. I rarely use my phone down past 10-15%. I always put my phone on the charger when I go to bed at night when I have somewhere around 20% charge left. If I notice that I might not have enough power to get me through the day I'll put it on the charger somewhere between 30 and 40%.
Lately, like tonight I got a low battery warning at 30% power while I was on the phone. Not even two minutes later it shuts off. When I turn it back on it starts to boot up but then shuts off again. When I put it on the charger it was completely dead. This only happens 3 or 4 times a month but it's annoying because often it happens at the most inconvenient time.
I've also had it shut off and then when I put it on the charger it starts charging at 28% power.
Please let me know what may be going on here and a solution...
Thanks...

tomfrazier said:
My Note 4 is 14mo old and for the last couple months it just shuts off on me even though I have plenty of power left.
I am a light user and usually have enough power for all day use. I rarely use my phone down past 10-15%. I always put my phone on the charger when I go to bed at night when I have somewhere around 20% charge left. If I notice that I might not have enough power to get me through the day I'll put it on the charger somewhere between 30 and 40%.
Lately, like tonight I got a low battery warning at 30% power while I was on the phone. Not even two minutes later it shuts off. When I turn it back on it starts to boot up but then shuts off again. When I put it on the charger it was completely dead. This only happens 3 or 4 times a month but it's annoying because often it happens at the most inconvenient time.
I've also had it shut off and then when I put it on the charger it starts charging at 28% power.
Please let me know what may be going on here and a solution...
Thanks...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the exact same issue. I had 2 different batteries shutting off at 20-30%!.... Replacing the battery to a brand new one simply fixed it!.... if you are going to order one online try to avoid unknown brands . Also, pay attention there are some fake Samsung batteries claiming to be authentic.
Also if you still have warranty, contact Samsung and they should send you a new one. That's what i also did.

So you think its the battery and not software related? I was thinking software issue because I don't abuse my battery by running it dead and it's an intermittent problem.
I know that the life cycle of Li-ion is greatly reduced by repeated draining to below 10% (my kid's phones suffer from that. Seems like they can't make a battery last more than 6mo) but I've never had a phone battery go bad on any of MY phones including my old Note 2 even after two years. Maybe I just have a bad battery?

tomfrazier said:
So you think its the battery and not software related? I was thinking software issue because I don't abuse my battery by running it dead and it's an intermittent problem.
I know that the life cycle of Li-ion is greatly reduced by repeated draining to below 10% (my kid's phones suffer from that. Seems like they can't make a battery last more than 6mo) but I've never had a phone battery go bad on any of MY phones including my old Note 2 even after two years. Maybe I just have a bad battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't matter whether you abuse the battery or not. Some batteries just go bad faster than others. I also think it's your battery.
A factory reset without restoring apps will rule out a software issue though, but since we can't root, it likely isn't anything messing with your battery percent unless it's just an app draining your battery. But even if it were the latter, your battery wouldn't die then start charging at 28%.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

Pretty sure this is an actual built in feature. Mines always died at ~20% (since the 5.1.1 update) and once plugged into a charger and rebooted all my running apps and clipboard info is still running as if the phone never died.
My battery is brand new (from warranty replacement) and it still does this so this is why I think it's a "feature" to keep you from losing data in the event of a low battery event. Just my opinion.

It's not a feature. Mine goes all the way to 0% before it dies. I once read to take out the battery, hold the power button for 30 seconds (while the battery is out), then put it back in and see if it helps. This supposedly gets rid of any residual power storage. I don't know if this is a placebo affect by after I did that, my battery now goes all the way to 0 before dieing.

jack man said:
It's not a feature. Mine goes all the way to 0% before it dies. I once read to take out the battery, hold the power button for 30 seconds (while the battery is out), then put it back in and see if it helps. This supposedly gets rid of any residual power storage. I don't know if this is a placebo affect by after I did that, my battery now goes all the way to 0 before dieing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not exactly a placebo, but not sure if it truly helps. Doing this would clear all electricity stored in any capacitors in the phone. I'm just not sure how this helps.
And my battery goes all the way down to 0% too. It's not normal for the phone to due at any other % (except maybe 1%).
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk