Battery drains when synced to PC - MDA III, XDA III, PDA2k, 9090 General

Hi everyone, I'm brand new to the PDA world and just bought myself a SX66 from Ebay. I've managed to install Xplode's ROM (Thanks, Xplode!) and lots of other goodies and slowly learning my way around this thing. Whee!
Anyhow, the phone didn't come with a sync cable so I bought one off Ebay. If the battery is at around 75% or less it won't charge from the sync cable when connected to the PC's USB. In fact, it actually drains the battery quite rapidly while plugged into the PC. If the battery is around 76% or higher it WILL slowly charge from the USB on the PC. If I plug the sync cable into the wall charger it'll charge up to full as expected.
The 75% is a bit of a guess. I know it drained very fast when I happened to look at it and it was at 66% while plugged into the PC (and will drain all the way if I let it from past experience), and after charging in the wall to 88% I tried plugging it back into the PC again and it DID begin to slowly charge.
Does this mean the battery is on its last leg, or is there something else to worry about?
If you think it's the battery, what's a good replacement? The case I bought (Krussel leather flip) would allow for a little extra thickness as long as the thickness occurs at or above the IR window. I should probably be looking into getting another battery anyhow.
Along those lines, are there any battery chargers available for these things?
Thanks for any help, and thanks for an awesome community. I'm so glad I found this place or I would've ended up buying some expensive Chinese iPhone clone!

My BA won't charge off USB full stop, the sync cradle supplied has two connections one for the PC and the other for a mains charger, when the charger is connected to the cradle it is quite happy to chrge connected to the PCor not, but it will not charge from the PC alone.
I use mine with an extended battery, it is a 2400mAHr Li-Pol cell that adds a fair bit of weight to the device but is vital for how I use the device (when I bother with it these days as the BA doesn't go out too often) - Mike

Related

New battery....3600mAh...

Hello people,
I bought a 3600mAh battery from eBay and just received it couple of hours ago.
So I plugged in the charge cable... and its been a few hours but the battery level still shows as 0%.
Have I gotten a defective battery, or is there something I can do?
Look forward any comments...
Jay.
nowadays I have seen many of this questions; cradle and usb cannot charge a battery like that; I'm using a 3400mAh battery on my pda; had the same problem.
but it works great with charger.
no, i think usb crade should still charge the extended battery, that is, if you can actually fit it in it charges a lot longer though, that's why i always use charger.
Is that made in china?
I have even seen this on my 1490mah battery. I couldn't keep the phone on and charge at the same when the battery was depleted to zero. I had to turn the phone off and let it charge for about an hour and then it would charge. Don't know if its the same thing for you but you may want to try.

Low on power? What about a solar battery carger ( Mini review )

Hello.
Edit: Read the last line first... not worth the money!
Low on power?
I am currently testing a battery pack with solar panels.
I've taken some pictures and uploaded them to flickr while it's charged my phone.
Click on the pic for more pics.
I did first a charge over night from my phone wall charger (the charger that comes with it has US sockets.
It comes with a 6 plugs for Nokia, Samsung, MOTO, SE, Iphone 3g etc, and the best of all, Mini usb
I do need a micro usb soon... when my new phone arrives. (HTC Desire)
I have no idea how long it will take to charge the device on solar power, but i would guess days... There is not that much sun here yet. I will test that in the next few days.
While it was charging, the phone was downloading music from spotify, wifi on, no 3g on.
I bought the item DX: dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.30011 it cost $13.63
charging process in numbers:
[17:40] level 33 voltage 3692
[18:01] level 41 voltage 3816
[18:23] level 52 voltage 3890
[19:12] level 61 voltage 3829 <-- Stopped charging!
Now the solar charger stopped top charge my phone...
It was cheep, just don't buy this device if you need extra power...
rvenes said:
Hello.
Edit: Read the last line first... not worth the money!
Low on power?
I am currently testing a battery pack with solar panels.
I've taken some pictures and uploaded them to flickr while it's charged my phone.
Click on the pic for more pics.
I did first a charge over night from my phone wall charger (the charger that comes with it has US sockets.
It comes with a 6 plugs for Nokia, Samsung, MOTO, SE, Iphone 3g etc, and the best of all, Mini usb
I do need a micro usb soon... when my new phone arrives. (HTC Desire)
I have no idea how long it will take to charge the device on solar power, but i would guess days... There is not that much sun here yet. I will test that in the next few days.
While it was charging, the phone was downloading music from spotify, wifi on, no 3g on.
I bought the item DX: dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.30011 it cost $13.63
charging process in numbers:
[17:40] level 33 voltage 3692
[18:01] level 41 voltage 3816
[18:23] level 52 voltage 3890
[19:12] level 61 voltage 3829 <-- Stopped charging!
Now the solar charger stopped top charge my phone...
It was cheep, just don't buy this device if you need extra power...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try turning off your phone and letting it sit. it may still charge your phone to 100% but not when your are drawing a charge.
charge in day light not moonlight like 17-19:00
and turn damn wifi off
Thanks for the review. I go camping often and this was a thought, but not anymore.
i would really like to know if you turn your phone off will it charge it to 100%
Id probably find a bigger solar panel i used one like that in some school project lol
josefcrist's test I think reflects the reality for all solar chargers with internal battery, even those with double the capacity.
Maybe I'm a little bit off topic, but since I got the same more or less experience with a similar product, I'd like to say a few maybe usefull words on the matter.
I got a solar charger with 2500mAh battery. The led light on one side shows that the battery is being charged (when it is green). Well, i put it on my office's window and the green light never went off (at least for 3 days that I checked). This means that sunlight is not enough to charge it fully.
Then, one day I tried to charge my phone with it. I charged the gadget first with my phone charger (using a usb mini chord). Then I tried to charge my phone. It worked for half hour and then the gadget's battery was drained, while the phone's battery increased for 10% only.
Maybe I had many losses because I used the phone's long micro usb chord (the gadget had only a usb mini adaptor).
Then, I said "Ok maybe I have to charge it on DIRECT SUNLIGHT in order to see if it is really effective". Hmmmm. Well! I kinda destroyed the solar charger (I think). When I went to pick it up (I put it in my car's screen on a really sunny day IN GREECE) hardly could I touch it and when it cooled off i saw that the solar panel became curved from heat (and stayed that way) while it was plain previously.
Now I cannot figure out whether it works or not. Maybe I will through away a few more bucks buying another similar (OF COURSE NOT THE SAME), just to be sure that these things DONT REALLY DO WHAT WE ALL IMAGINE (OR HOPE) THEY DO!!!! PERIOD.
Thanks so much for this review, I always wondered about these.
i use Arctic C1 Mobile solar charger (http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/power/batteries/44/arctic-c1-mobile.html), i guess it's just similar, but with only 3 connector adapters and greater battery. always nice to have it on the way.
maybe try using another phone to charge.....
Thanks for info! Will gonna try the Arctic charger
Thanks for the review... Overheating a charger on a car dash... I can't believe it failed

[REVIEW] Official Samsung 1300mah Powerpack

I already posted this in another thread by Trbobuick, but I thought an new thread with a correct title would be of better use...
I just recieved the powerpack, and its not very beautiful, IMHO. The cut out spaces for the power button and the volume rockers makes it look a bit odd.
The material (and texture) used for the powerpack sadly doesn't look like anything on the S2. It stains easier than the phone itself, as it seems.
During charging with the S2 in the powerpack, the phone beeped every few minutes that is was fully charged. (Another user reported it did it only every hour). While you may sleep through only one beep, this powerpack will keep you awake all night. (I am on a stock rom)
And then, if the powerpack (disconnected from mains charger) has charged the phone, the phone has the "remove charger" notification, and this (until now) stays and seems to prevent further charging the phone by the powerpack. (Unless you remove and reconnect the powerpack).
Until now this Samsung Powerpack seems a badly (I am mild) designed thing, unless I don't understand the operation of the powerpack.
Its just an external battery, and more or less behaves as such. That there is a phone fitting inside this external battery seems more like a coincidence as intentional.
Not Happy.
See other threads about this powerpack:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1110441
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1167652
I'm not entirely sure how the pack works.... you charge the pack and then the pack charges the phone? So essentially it's a portable charger that draws its power from its own battery?
Yes.
Its just an external battery with a USB pass-through (not all functions of the normal USB plug are passed through, such as HDMI) and this external battery charges your phone.
p.s.
It seems as the powerpack still charges, even if the normal charging icon is not shown.
When I check battery status it (allways) says 4 seconds on battery.....
Gede said:
Yes.
Its just an external battery with a USB pass-through (not all functions of the normal USB plug are passed through, such as HDMI) and this external battery charges your phone.
p.s.
It seems as the powerpack still charges, even if the normal charging icon is not shown.
When I check battery status it (allways) says 4 seconds on battery.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it charges, I got 6 hours of medium use before the pack stops charging the SGS2 and it begins using the internal battery.
Battery meter is useless to measure this tho, it thinks it's still on the charger.
Aaaaaand, I gave up trying to charge the pack while the SGS2 was in it because:
1) It charges so very bloody slowly
2) The wake me up thing I get every hour or so
I charge the case on it's own now, thankfully I have a whole bunch of microUSB chargers. But really Samsung? It's not that you haven't had time to improve on the design, considering the SGS had a battery case too.
Mine arrived yesterday, wasnt exactly what I was expecting in terms of size.
As it adds as an external power source, battery stats are useless.
Ran it from 5pm yesterday and my SGII switched over to internal battery at around 5am.
Now charging as standalone to stop the beeping !!

Something's draining my battery faster than it's charging

I have a dock at work that I place my phone onto every day as soon as I arrive. I noticed at about 11 AM today that my phone was showing 72% battery, even though it should have been fully charged when I left this morning at 9 and had been sitting on the charger since 9:30. More annoyingly, it seems to be staying at about that level--it's not moving up at all. If anything, it's continuing to lose charge even as the icon shows it's charging!
I took it to a Sprint store, where they unhelpfully suggested that I have too many apps installed that are draining the battery in the background. I manually stopped most of them, uninstalled some that I don't really use, and put it back on the charger. It's still not going anywhere. I turned the phone completely off for an hour and charged the thing, and it had gained about ten percent (that seems pitiful, but at least it's charging?). It's back on the charger, still not really moving anywhere.
So what are my options at this point? I've never calibrated the battery, so maybe I need to do that. Other than that all I can think is that either the battery is going bad (but I have a feeling Sprint is going to insist "It's still charging" if I take it back to them and refuse to give me another battery), or perhaps the dock is not supplying the right voltage and hence it's not charging fast enough to overtake the power consumption.
What's bugging me is that I haven't installed anything in the past week that should be affecting my power consumption like this. Last week I had plenty of apps installed with GPS and bluetooth always on, and as long as the phone was docked it would eventually reach 100%. Now I have pretty much everything off, several apps I usually have running turned off, and several more uninstalled (including Lookout Security), and the battery is barely making any headway. I keep the screen on to a desk clock (because that's the whole point of a freaking dock), but that alone shouldn't be draining it faster than it can charge.
Any suggestions?
Sounds to me like its not getting enough voltage. When you charge it at home does it charge reasonably fast?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
I never really monitor it, but I would say so, yeah. All I really check is that it's fully charged in the morning before I walk out the door.
The culprit might be my dock. It says it's designed specifically for the GSII but the cable itself looks to just be your standard USB-to-microUSB dock, other than a little bump at the bottom so that it's clearly aimed for bottom-charger phones like an iphone or SGSII. I suspect it might be supplying less voltage than the charger that came with the phone.
Is there anything I can look at (app or internal setting) that can tell me what kind of voltage the phone is receiving?
EDIT: Should also note that it's sitting on the dock now and it is at least making positive gains on the battery, albeit at maybe 1% every fifteen minutes. I really don't remember it being this slow before. Perhaps the dock's cable is cheap and is just crapping out over time.
USB charging is about half the speed of regular, wall socket charging. Invest in an OEM charger or one that has similar specs to an OEM one.
Sent from my Galaxy S II, AOKP style.
do you have the dock connected to a USB port on a computer/laptop or wall outlet?
USB charges at 150mah while most ac adapters charge at between 750-1000mah.
Well, when I used the my generic LG USB cable it took about 5 hours to reach from 0% to about 40% while shut. So, I changed the cable and viola, charging to full in less than 3 hours while working on it.
So, it seems that the charger is bad quality. Try using the original cable (if possible) or may be the original charger plug.
I guess that's the only solution, because there is no way that the phone is discharging at a faster rate than charging, except when it is connected to an external display. This is the only thing that I encounter where the phone goes dead after a while despite it is connected to the charger...
Yeah, that dock is a POS. I'm not surprised it charges slow as balls too.
Amusingly, my phone has been running on the battery since leaving work for about four hours with the screen off, and it's only at 92%! I must have uninstalled whatever was draining it so quickly.
Thanks, guys.
If you think it's an application draining it, try better battery stats in the market. Might not be the problem but it does help.
Sent from my iPhone killer.
ahmadshawki said:
Well, when I used the my generic LG USB cable it took about 5 hours to reach from 0% to about 40% while shut. So, I changed the cable and viola, charging to full in less than 3 hours while working on it.
So, it seems that the charger is bad quality. Try using the original cable (if possible) or may be the original charger plug.
I guess that's the only solution, because there is no way that the phone is discharging at a faster rate than charging, except when it is connected to an external display. This is the only thing that I encounter where the phone goes dead after a while despite it is connected to the charger...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's right. Use Original cable came with your phone.
I've experienced same thing when I tried to charge my D710 over LG micro usb charger thru AC outlet. The charging indicator was showing flash but actually it was not charging or charging speed was not enough to follow the battery usage.
I charged the phone all the night but in the morning it was empty!
Charging through the original Samsung micro usb cable, it never failed. But charging thru LG micro usb failed couple of times.
You can easily check a couple of things -
try to connect micro usb cable to your PC and set the USB mass storage mode.
If we use LG micro usb over samsung phone, it's not perfectly fit and data communication frequently fails. More importantly, Don't even try to odin your phone using LG micro usb.
It's not the issue of charger. It's the cable issue.
Do not use LG Micro USB cable for data communication, but if you want to use for charging, be sure that you hear the connection sound from the phone. If there's no connection sound, the battery won't last long even battery charging status shows the flash.
Hope this help.

New Charger Won't Charge S III?

Hey everybody. I have a Galaxy S III from Virgin Mobile and it's been great... so far. Question is... my phone, battery, and charger have been going a little crazy. Lately, the battery has been charging slow, wouldn't say extremely slow but when I first got the phone, it charge pretty quickly. Now, it takes (I'm guessing here) about three hours just to charge to about 40-50% on a dead battery versus when I first got it, it would charge to near 80% to full battery in that same amount of time (again, just guessing but trying to paint a picture of what I mean). In addition, when I go to plug the USB in like normal, sometimes the phone would make the charging beeping noises continuously until I unplug the charger. When I leave it overnight, for the most part now, it won't even charge to 100%. When it did charge to 100%, it quickly drained to 75% in only one minute! I'm hoping it's not the port because nothing really happened to it (no drops, etc). I thought it was the port so in order to test it out, I used my brother's micro-USB cable and charger and it worked without the continuous beeping but still charged slow, which led me to believing it might be a software thing and the Android OS for some reason crapping out and "misreading" the actual battery level.
In a semi-related thing, I thought it might be the charger dying so I went out to Target to buy a Belkin Home Charger and ChargeSync Cable. This cable supposedly supplies 2.1 amps of power to the device, however, it won't even charge my phone even though Belkin says it works with Galaxy S3s right on the box. Never had problem using other micro-USB cables until now. The Belkin charger is the 2nd one I've used and it hasn't charged. Maybe too much amperage is going into the device? The other charger was a Rocketfish charger with the same specs. I figured it might be the USB cable itself because I paired the OEM cable with the Belkin charger and it worked. But I find it strange that identical micro-USB cable can and cannot charge the S III because I've switched cables in the past and it worked.
Sorry for the tons of info. Just trying to be as informative as possible. :angel:
Battery could be the problem
Charge the phone as high as it will go, then let it discharge all the way until it powers off, then leave it off while charging it all the way it will go (hopefully 100%).
If you are rooted, download "Battery Calibration" and "Rebooter". Run the first, then the second (a normal reboot often undoes the first - it deletes a file that often has stale data, but it gets written back on a normal reboot).
You can order a new battery from Amazon. It cost me about $8. Good to have a spare and you'll know if your battery was the problem if the above doesn't fix it.

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