Develop Bugs

[Q] How should I troubleshoot my (allegedly) battery related issues ?

... before I try to send the phone out for warranty.
Turns out, I bought a docomo samsung galaxy nexus (from negri). I have not received for a while (out of the country) but finally got my hands onto it last saturday. I booted the device, no simcard, just load the configuration. For any reason, it stayed on my desk all week discharging.
Yesterday I tried to unlock the thing and it was dead. I remove the battery, fired it up and still nothing. Then I connect the wall charger, it is from my current phone, a galaxy s2. It charged for two hours or something, i then tried to boot, but it was stuck. I performed the boot on recovery mode, and it finally solved the issues and here we go, the phone booted correctly. I unlocked the phone, just to see that the battery information is 0% and the phone just went off as I saw the power usage statistics. And this time for good, its been sitting charged but nothing happens. I tried the legacy s2 charger, my car charger, and the original nexus charger that was sent on the box.
Since is a new phone for me, I do not know how what to expect. For example, in my s2, if its charging even with a depleted battery there is this led notification. In the nexus there is nothing. No led, no on screen animation. How can I discard is just a battery issue and not a general fault in the device ? Connected to the charger, is it possible to do something with no battery ?
My intention is to discard the battery issue first, so I might bite the bullet buying a new one, because dealing with the warranty (outside the us) might be a pain.
Thanks in advance.

[Q] Strange charging problems/MTU data Doesn't work

Ok here's the rundown:
Found out about the fast charging feature of Franco's kernel.
Flashed Winner's build onto my phone.
Flashed Franco's Milestone 2 build
Purchased/played around with multiple fast charge togglers. Decided to just let Tasker do it when the phone went into car mode.
Tasker did a good job of turning on fast charge but was sloppy in turning it off.
Several days later while playing GTA I had to plug it into my computer, fast charge was on. Shortly afterwords my niece and daughter get into a fight and I put my phone down, break up the fight and take my daughter outside to calm her down (She's 14 months) forgetting about the phone.
Phone sits on the computer's USB for about an hour maybe hour and a half.
Come back, it's at about 86% realize fast charge is on and turn it off.
That night the phone won't charge.
Now, here's what I have figured out.
Phone will charge in a powered-off state.
Phone will usually charge after a battery pull.
Phone will not connect to Windows 7 machines or XP machines except to charge when off or after a battery pull. (Device not recognized, latest Samsung drivers installed)
Phone will not connect in recovery mode.
When the phone does not charge it does maintain the current battery level unless I'm using up more battery than it can replenish.
Flashing multiple roms doesn't work.
Re-flashing Franco's kernel doesn't work.
Manually entering fast-charge commands doesn't work.
Oh and when I say it doesn't charge that is on either AC or USB.
I'd send this thing back to Verizon but I can't stock and lock it.

I would guess there are at least 20 threads here with this exact issue.

Yea, sorry about that. I did look around but besides 1 or 2 threads of people doing the usual rom swapping and just going out to get a new phone. I just wanted to start a thread for real diagnostics of this problem.
Oh yea, I also found the phone while plugged in will maintain the charge on the battery but will not actually charge the battery. Next time I'm in the car I'm going to see if the charge script will enable fast charge (Maintain) off of a USB connection.

This is the real thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1427539

I did read that thread, I don't think that is the same problem I'm having. I actually had that issue before (Shorted contacts) and had my previous Gnex warrantied.
To tell you the truth this will be the last samasung phone I'm ever going to get. Samsung is great on glitz but short on substance. My previous i760 was the same story. Fantastic out of the box but once it was 4 months old it was a royal pile of junk. It's pretty bad when you send the things into warranty enough to where the call center people get to know you by your voice. We currently have 4 of these things in the enterprise I have had to call in on them 6 times already.
Edit: well **** on a stick, it is related. Good I can continue ranting on the absence of the 3 pin dock(s) with more vigor than before. Now off to Ebay to find a replacement charge board.

I know, Samsung has not handled this problem well. I have read threads where they claim water damage on this exact issue, and refuse to fix the problem under warranty. After so many issues with it, they REALLY should have fixed it under warranty.
After having this issue twice, and after replacing my USB charging board twice I know that you have the same issue in the sense that it is the USB charging board that it failing.
You really should star/comment here if you have not: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=23789

Galaxy Nexus sporadically not charging, fast battery drain

My wife and I each purchased a Galaxy Nexus from the Google Play store last July. Recently, my wife's phone started only charging sporadically when connected to a charger. The symptoms don't line up exactly with any other situation I've found described online, so please bear with me while I type out a full report.
I tried removing the battery and using a precision screwdriver to "nudge" the micro USB port "tongue" toward the screen. I thought it had fixed the problem as the phone started charging immediately after I plugged it back in, but when I checked it ~30 minutes later, it had stopped charging.
I tried taking the battery out of my GNex and putting it in my wife's phone; I put my wife's battery in my phone. That seemed to fix the problem, though, again, it was only temporary. I was able to get both batteries to charge to ~80%, then swapped them back. Again, my wife's phone charged the battery, but only for a short while. I swapped batteries twice more to rule out a bad battery; the same symptoms persisted, so I can confirm the battery is not the culprit.
I tried cleaning the micro USB port by removing the battery and using a needle and 91% isopropyl alcohol to clear any dirt or dust from the contacts. I waited for the alcohol to evaporate, reinstalled the battery, and plugged the phone back in to the charger. Same result as before: Phone charged for a little while, but stopped charging before reaching full charge.
We tried 4 different USB chargers: The charger that came with my wife's GNex, the charger that came with my GNex, the charger that came with the Droid RAZR MAXX that I use for work, and the charger that came with my wife's Verizon Jetpack. Same results on all chargers.
Now for some oddities:
The "charge for a while, but stops charging after a while" persists whether the phone is on or off. I turned off my wife's phone at bedtime one night, plugged it into the charger, confirmed that the charging icons appeared (a lightning bolt, then an animated charge meter). When I woke up, the phone was still turned off but only had 13% charge.
Whenever I plug the phone in to my Windows 7 laptop, I'm able to access the file system every time (100% of the 4-5 times I tried). The Battery settings page will say "Not Charging," but I can view and modify files using Windows Explorer without issue.
And now, for a note from my wife:
Unless my memory fails me, I think this was one morning when the charger felt warm on the adapter where it plugs in. Pretty sure this was the day I took the charger with me to work. I had the phone turned off and plugged it in and later turned it on to check the charge and it had been charging. I left it on and it continued to charge. I had to unplug it on three separate occasions and I plugged it back in and it did ultimately charge fully. But when unplugged, the battery did drain quickly, and I had not previously had a battery life issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone will sometimes get warm--not hot, but warm--around the area under the camera when charging. (I'm guessing it's near where the battery makes contact with the phone.) The charger itself will also get warm sometimes.
Sometimes, even though the Battery section of Settings will say "Not charging," the battery would charge very, very slowly (as in, an increase of 1% charge over the course of 15-45 minutes). When plugged in, the battery would sometimes hold charge (e.g. stays level at ~45%) but not charge or discharge.
When I called Samsung support, I waited less than a minute to talk with a person, explained the situation and symptoms, and was told, yes, the phone is out of warranty (by two months, which I admit is aggravating), but I could send it in for repairs for a total charge of $70.63. That includes shipping both ways. Total repair time would be 5-7 business days. Add 2 days for shipping each way and my wife would be without a phone for 9-11 business days if we were to send it in. It's good to know that the repair are (in my opinion) reasonable because I was hoping to hold on to my phone for at least 2 years before upgrading (and I'd prefer to wait at least 3 years).
I've since got an old iPhone 3GS working on Straight Talk (which was its own ordeal) so my wife has something she can use if and when we send in the phone for repairs. (Side note: My wife really misses Swype.) She plans on backing up her data tonight so I can wipe and reload her GNex and attempt to rule out software and OS as the root cause.
In advance of wiping and reloading my wife's GNex, I had a few questions:
Do you agree with my hunch that the root cause of this issue is hardware, not software? I'd love to be wrong, but all evidence points to a hardware fault.
What ROM do you all recommend for thorough testing in this situation should I encounter the same problems with a clean Android 4.3 stock install?
Are there any other possible fixes you all could recommend before I drop 70 bucks on repairs and my phone has to tolerate the iOS on-screen keyboard for 2 more weeks?

I've had this problem once, I even changed ROMs and it never went away. I changed my charger and it still did the same thing. I don't know what fixed it, but it just started working normally again.
What caused was that I was using it and my device got really hot because I was downloading things, browsing on the internet and playing games on it all while I was charging it. My phone got really hot and a little "CLICK" sounded off and my phone just shut off. It wouldn't turn on until I removed the battery. Cooled it and charged the battery overnight. Although my phone was working now my charger was crazy.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4

Galaxy S3 (Telus - Canada) Charging Problems

Hi all,
I am hoping you can help. I am having a problem with my Galaxy S3 and I am trying to figure out what the problem is and how to solve it. Around the time of the 4.3 update I started noticing that my battery started to drain very quickly. Initially I just assumed that there was an issue with one of the apps or something in the 4.3 update causing the problem. I then started to notice that my battery would not charge past 51%. Here is the list of things I have tried to fix the issue:
- Different chargers and USB cables. I have tried charging from different power sources in my house and at work, also using my car charger and other peoples chargers that have a S3 that have had no issues.
- I have tried 2 other batteries which I purchased new, one official Samsung Battery and a 3rd party long life battery
- I have done a factory restore multiple times on the phone and also tried rooting and installing a custom ROM to eliminate software.
- I have checked the micro USB port for dust or lint and tried my best to clean out the connection. I haven't been to rough with it because I am worried about breaking the connection.
- I have tried charging the phone without the otter box on and I was worried that might be causing the charger not to go in completely and give a bad connection.
I have GSam installed and when the phone reaches 51% and you look to see the time till charge it always says - Calculating please come back later.
At no point when I have the usb cable in for charging does the charging light go off. Even after the battery hits 51% the charging light stays on but does not charge past that point.
If I leave the phone charging overnight I wake up in the morning and it says 100%, but as soon as I remove the charger it immediately drops back down to 51%. The outcome is the same with all the batteries I have, the only difference is the amount it charges up to. It seems to range from 48% to 51%. I have also tried charging with the unit off and on and can not get it past 51% on any of the batteries.
Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated!

I am having an issue myself with charging my S3. I ran into the same problem as you initially and ended up using ODIN to go back to stock. That fixed the drain/charging issue. However now mine wont stay connected. I believe the charging/USB port is going on it. I saw a lot of Samsung phones on Ebay with the same problem so it must be an issue with them. IDK if that could be your problem as well. I tried calling AT&T for a warranty replacement but they wanted me to pay the insurance premium ($200) for a phone that came out in 2012! The S5 will be out soon, they're nuts if they think I'll pay that now for a S3. The only way for me to get a full charge over night is to plug in my phone, then put my high school yearbook on the charger to apply pressure until the green light goes on. It sounds funny and honestly it is, but I'm cheap and don't want to pay the $200 until it's actually dead or I get my tax refund HAHA but then I'll probably just get an upgrade.
I was thinking of buying an extra battery with a external charger to see if that would help. Maybe if you get the external charger, charge it up then put it in your phone it will charge all the way.

Thanks for the reply. I haven't had an issue with the charge light not coming on but I am starting to think it might be a calibration issue. Somehow the issue has changed slightly. It still says 53% when i take the charger out but sometimes the battery life will increase while it is not plugged in. I am assuming that it is reading the % wrong. I am in the same boat with sending it off to repair. They want $150 as a base cost and I am worried that it might turn out they say No Fault Found and I am back to square one, and $150 shorter. I know what you mean about the S5 coming out soon, so I might try and wait it out until my contract is almost up and upgrade to the S5.

[Q] Can't identify source of power problem

Hi,
I am a long time lurker and big fan of the community. Here is my problem and steps I tried to do to fix it. My S3 was working fine on Thursday morning and I received some calls, sent some texts, etc. The phone was on my desk and all of a sudden wouldn't turn on. It had original battery in it that is 2.5+ years old and it worked well. Within last 2 weeks I noticed the battery would drop charge from full to 55% quicker than before but it was still performing. I tried charging it from PC usb, wall charger, USB power block, different USB cables and nothing worked. I read several posts here on XDA about similar problem that others experienced and tried connecting USB, getting red light and plugging battery after that and still nothing. What I was able to observe that while connected to power the phone would be able to turn on for a few seconds. Typically I would see only Samsung boot up logo and sometimes it would go to 2nd screen of Samsung Galaxy S3 and flicker and shut off. It would frequently show me empty battery sign. I also read a valuable tip about stores having old batteries before they send phones for repair and had someone call 6 stores and none of them had them.
Since the phone is able to boot up for a few seconds I did not think it was the phone and assumed it had to be the battery. I joined Amazon Prime and was able to order 2 batteries from them and had them delivered yesterday (Sunday). I also added standalone battery charger to my shopping cart but it would not be delivered in time and I removed it. I wanted it to add just in case there was a problem with USB connection on the phone and charge batteries externally. So last night I got the batteries and it is exactly the same thing, not charging and still boots up in similar fashion. One thing I was able to observe twice last night was that during one of my plug in cable, put in battery routines or maybe it was by pressing up volume & power. During two attempts instead of empty battery sign I saw a full green battery sign.
I am out of ideas on what to do. I am planning on making 2 hour round trip to Chinatown and walking around from store to store trying to find S3 standalone battery charger. Does anyone have any ideas what component could be causing this problem? Do you agree with me that USB cable must be pumping some power since the phone turns on?