Develop Bugs

So why is my battery draining while charging?

I've noticed this happening any time I tether via USB or use GPS navigation while plugged in. Even though I'm connected and charging, I slowly but surely discharge. This weekend I used Google Nav for 2 hours and lost 20% of my battery while charging! On Juice Plotter, I notice the green charging glow at the bottom is a more transparent shade of green (as opposed to solid green when solely charging). Any ideas what causes this or how to avoid it? It seems to be recent.

TheBiles said:
I've noticed this happening any time I tether via USB or use GPS navigation while plugged in. Even though I'm connected and charging, I slowly but surely discharge. This weekend I used Google Nav for 2 hours and lost 20% of my battery while charging! On Juice Plotter, I notice the green charging glow at the bottom is a more transparent shade of green (as opposed to solid green when solely charging). Any ideas what causes this or how to avoid it? It seems to be recent.
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Let me guess, you're charging off a USB port in your laptop, or using the data cable that came with the phone in your car charger?
Not all USB sources (or cables, for that matter) are created equally. Most PC/laptop ports put out 500mAh, half of what the Evo is designed to take (the factory AC adapter, the wall plug, is 1000mAh, aka 1amp).
Since it's only getting half the draw it can't quite keep up with how much power you're sucking away from the battery. This is usually only present when using the device heavily, such as with the screen on and GPS or WiFi/3G actively running.
The charging indicator (at least on Sense) indicates if it's getting the full "AC" charge (1amp) or if it's getting a reduced current charge. Sounds like that's what you're noticing.
My wife's Samsung Moment charger is 700mAh/0.7amp, and it can keep my Evo steady during use (it's powering it for 3G+WiFi tether right now), but it doesn't really charge fast at all, basically it just keeps it from depleting.
I've been meaning to try one of the USB Y-cables that join 2 standard USB ports to one female port for combined power of 1amp, but I'm not sure it will work as I hope. Anyway, I'll report back if I get around to it.
Otherwise, use an actual 1amp AC adapter whenever possible. Shop on eBay, chargers are stupid cheap. Just look for one that says it can do 1amp/1000mAh. If you're using the phone at work and want to have a convenient charging source, get one of the $20 docking cradles with an AC adapter on eBay. If it's in your car, any 12v USB charger should work, as long as you use a proper pass-through charging micro USB cable and not a "data cable". There's a slight difference in how the pins are wired inside. The Rocket Fish brand of micro USB cables are known to work (that's how I charge mine at full power in my car).

Way to go GT. Are you a student? I'm an ME phd student.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

sprocket87 said:
Let me guess, you're charging off a USB port in your laptop, or using the data cable that came with the phone in your car charger?
Not all USB sources (or cables, for that matter) are created equally. Most PC/laptop ports put out 500mAh, half of what the Evo is designed to take (the factory AC adapter, the wall plug, is 1000mAh, aka 1amp).
Since it's only getting half the draw it can't quite keep up with how much power you're sucking away from the battery. This is usually only present when using the device heavily, such as with the screen on and GPS or WiFi/3G actively running.
The charging indicator (at least on Sense) indicates if it's getting the full "AC" charge (1amp) or if it's getting a reduced current charge. Sounds like that's what you're noticing.
My wife's Samsung Moment charger is 700mAh/0.7amp, and it can keep my Evo steady during use (it's powering it for 3G+WiFi tether right now), but it doesn't really charge fast at all, basically it just keeps it from depleting.
I've been meaning to try one of the USB Y-cables that join 2 standard USB ports to one female port for combined power of 1amp, but I'm not sure it will work as I hope. Anyway, I'll report back if I get around to it.
Otherwise, use an actual 1amp AC adapter whenever possible. Shop on eBay, chargers are stupid cheap. Just look for one that says it can do 1amp/1000mAh. If you're using the phone at work and want to have a convenient charging source, get one of the $20 docking cradles with an AC adapter on eBay. If it's in your car, any 12v USB charger should work, as long as you use a proper pass-through charging micro USB cable and not a "data cable". There's a slight difference in how the pins are wired inside. The Rocket Fish brand of micro USB cables are known to work (that's how I charge mine at full power in my car).
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I'm using the included charging cable. Doesn't that have full capacity? I also use a standard USB adapter in the car. It seems like that would be able to output the correct amount of volts.
gtkansan said:
Way to go GT. Are you a student? I'm an ME phd student.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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3rd year CmpE.

I had the same problem until I noticed how hot my phone was using the nav. 13 hour drive. I purchased a vent cradle for the car and so that it can stay cool while in use and charging. While the other guy may be right theoretically, its not right practically. The evo will shut off its mini usb hub once it starts getting dangerously hot so that it won't damage your phone. Long story short make sure your phone is at safe temps no need to buy another charger for your evo. keep at cool temps so that phone won't cut off power supply will even shut your phone down if its way to hot, happened to me in atlanta not fun.
"Insert Fancy Quote"

TheBiles said:
I'm using the included charging cable. Doesn't that have full capacity? I also use a standard USB adapter in the car. It seems like that would be able to output the correct amount of volts.
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When you say "included charging cable" do you mean the wall plug that came with the Evo or just the cable with a USB connector on one end and a micro USB on the other end? Because THAT cable is pinned as a data transfer cable and designed to relay only half voltage no matter what you plug it into. I know, because it only charged my Evo at slow speed when plugged into my USB car charger. Once I replaced it with the Rocket Fish cable it charged at full speed.
kwilbur3 said:
I had the same problem until I noticed how hot my phone was using the nav. 13 hour drive. I purchased a vent cradle for the car and so that it can stay cool while in use and charging. While the other guy may be right theoretically, its not right practically. The evo will shut off its mini usb hub once it starts getting dangerously hot so that it won't damage your phone. Long story short make sure your phone is at safe temps no need to buy another charger for your evo. keep at cool temps so that phone won't cut off power supply will even shut your phone down if its way to hot, happened to me in atlanta not fun.
"Insert Fancy Quote"
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See above. While I agree that heat will kill the battery and possibly trigger a shutoff, I don't think that's his problem. If you use the wrong cable or charger you will only get half charging current.

sprocket87 said:
When you say "included charging cable" do you mean the wall plug that came with the Evo or just the cable with a USB connector on one end and a micro USB on the other end? Because THAT cable is pinned as a data transfer cable and designed to relay only half voltage no matter what you plug it into. I know, because it only charged my Evo at slow speed when plugged into my USB car charger. Once I replaced it with the Rocket Fish cable it charged at full speed.
See above. While I agree that heat will kill the battery and possibly trigger a shutoff, I don't think that's his problem. If you use the wrong cable or charger you will only get half charging current.
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I mean the USB cable that comes in the box with the EVO that plugs into the AC adapter. Maybe I will look into a new cable then. Hmm.
Edit: Those Rocketfish cables that you mentioned seem to be ungodly expensive. No way in hell am I going to pay more than $5 for a USB cable. Any alternatives?

TheBiles said:
I mean the USB cable that comes in the box with the EVO that plugs into the AC adapter. Maybe I will look into a new cable then. Hmm.
Edit: Those Rocketfish cables that you mentioned seem to be ungodly expensive. No way in hell am I going to pay more than $5 for a USB cable. Any alternatives?
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This is the one I got: http://cgi.ebay.com/ROCKETFISH-MOBI...ARGING-CABLE-/350384355972?pt=PDA_Accessories
$3 shipped
And there are 2 USB cables that came with the Evo (mine anyway), a thick one that was bundled with the wall charger and a thin one that's intended just for data sync. The thin one doesn't seem to charge at full speed.
If you're using the other one and it's STILL draining then maybe there is an issue with heat or something, like the other guy said. Is the phone SUPER hot at the base, where the kickstand is, when this happens?

OP - I am having the same problem. I'm 95% sure it's caused by something wrong in CM6 regarding how it handles USB charging. Past few nightlies I have been leaving my phone on the charger doing NOTHING overnight and it goes dead.
This CANNOT be due to lack of charging strength:
#1 the same exact charger worked perfectly in the past, before I flashed a certain nightly - not sure which one exactly it started in
#2 if it was charging, but slowly why in the world would the battery drain when I have it underclocked to 245 mhz and the phone is sleeping with screen off?
On my standard charger that came with the phone it is working fine even though it's a USB that plugs into an adapter - not sure why this doesn't work with my other one that I had from another phone since it worked perfectly before. Something is definitely odd with CM6 and USB charging.

sprocket87 said:
This is the one I got: http://cgi.ebay.com/ROCKETFISH-MOBI...ARGING-CABLE-/350384355972?pt=PDA_Accessories
$3 shipped
And there are 2 USB cables that came with the Evo (mine anyway), a thick one that was bundled with the wall charger and a thin one that's intended just for data sync. The thin one doesn't seem to charge at full speed.
If you're using the other one and it's STILL draining then maybe there is an issue with heat or something, like the other guy said. Is the phone SUPER hot at the base, where the kickstand is, when this happens?
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That's odd, because my EVO only came with the one cable for the adapter. Phone stays cool.
berardi said:
OP - I am having the same problem. I'm 95% sure it's caused by something wrong in CM6 regarding how it handles USB charging. Past few nightlies I have been leaving my phone on the charger doing NOTHING overnight and it goes dead.
This CANNOT be due to lack of charging strength:
#1 the same exact charger worked perfectly in the past, before I flashed a certain nightly - not sure which one exactly it started in
#2 if it was charging, but slowly why in the world would the battery drain when I have it underclocked to 245 mhz and the phone is sleeping with screen off?
On my standard charger that came with the phone it is working fine even though it's a USB that plugs into an adapter - not sure why this doesn't work with my other one that I had from another phone since it worked perfectly before. Something is definitely odd with CM6 and USB charging.
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I've also noticed lately that my phone will charge insanely fast. Like from 30% to 90% in half an hour.

Sprocket - stupid question here... do these Rocket Fish charging cables also handle data transfer just as well as the stock micro-usb cable that came with the phone or would someone want to have one JUST for charging and keep their stock cable for data transfer purposes?

TheBiles said:
That's odd, because my EVO only came with the one cable for the adapter. Phone stays cool.
I've also noticed lately that my phone will charge insanely fast. Like from 30% to 90% in half an hour.
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Sorry I was unclear - the other cable I have that is the problem is one from another phone but the same type, and up until recently it worked perfectly.

charging problems

hello.
i have arhd 3.3, 12.41 radio.
i put my phone into wall socket last night at 23 30 and this morning at 5:30 phone was still charging at 73%. at 6 30 it was at 83%. then i switched it off and back on, pluged the charger in, and the led went green in like 2 minutes.
what's this? i have the phone for 3 days now. does it take that long to charge or is it a rom problem? i am using the original charger.

looks like a rom problem. Best way to know will be trying different roms.

dont know if it is a rom problem. i think is a radio problem.

install current widget and see what the input milli ampage is. This should give you an idea of if your having a charging issue. Also when you have charged to true 100% (Not when the LED goes green but when current widget says you are no longer receiving a current (0 Mah)) then reboot to recovery and wipe the battery statistics.
I can't see the radio giving you an issue on charging, unless it was using almost more juice than you are putting in. The only time I have ever seen that behaviour is when using a USB charging cable and navigation at the same time.
Hope this helps.

i am using the charger that came with the device that uses indeed an usb cable connected to it.

gangstar said:
i am using the charger that came with the device that uses indeed an usb cable connected to it.
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I meant a USB only (not original) charger. As the charger supplied is actually a wall charger and is rated to supply the device with more "juice" than a standard USB socket (i think are rated for 1mah charging??)
The scenario I am using is when you use a phone for navigating and have it plugged into a 12v socket in a car using a USB adapter which will only give the lowest permitted power rating.

so......i think i have a problem.
when i plug the phone into the wall socket it says charging(usb)
when i plug it in laptop usb using the cable the same charging(usb).
wasn't it supposed to say charging(ac)?

gangstar said:
so......i think i have a problem.
when i plug the phone into the wall socket it says charging(usb)
when i plug it in laptop usb using the cable the same charging(usb).
wasn't it supposed to say charging(ac)?
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Not sure about that, but even so my DHD will charge from flat in less time than yours was plugged in, how warm / cold was the room you had the phone charging in? Possibly it's getting too hot whilst charging which would lead to the phone reducing the charge rate?

now it;s on charge from about 30 min. it's not even warm. the battery is reported to have 27*

You might be having a damaged battery try replacing it with a new one.

the phone is new.
could it be because of setcpu 230-1228?

gangstar said:
so......i think i have a problem.
when i plug the phone into the wall socket it says charging(usb)
when i plug it in laptop usb using the cable the same charging(usb).
wasn't it supposed to say charging(ac)?
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Yes I think it's supposed to say charging AC. Try cleaning the usb connectors thoroughly.

Yeh being informed that it is chargng over USB when in the well is definitely wrong. I suggest trying to get another cable or something like a newer style blackberry charger.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

Drained Battery ONLY charges from wall charger?

Anyone else notice that our Nitro is rather fickle about the power source it receives?
If my battery is completely drained, it MUST be plugged into a higher power source than USB (so far a wall charger that ouputs 750ma works) until it gets an initial charge (usually needs at least a couple of %)...Then it will accept charging from USB (USB provides 500ma).
I can tell when it's in this "state" because it remains dead if I plug it into USB and then if I plug it into a wall charger the touch buttons at the bottom flash for a few times and then the LG logo pops up and finally a charging battery icon comes on. Considering this sequence, this seems like a functionality of the phone. I wonder if this is common, my Nexus One certainly didn't have a higher-initial charge rate requirement when the battery was dead.

I've experienceed the same scenario.
Sent from my LG-P930 using XDA

I only have chargers that operate 1.8amps and higher.
As the battery is an issue the higher the amps the faster it will charge
sent from LG OPTIMUS LTE using Tapatalk

Well I did notice that if it was on usb...and I had bluetooth...gps, and wifi...plus running some apps and stuff...the battery actually continued to drain I think they have the usb thing as a safety measure...for some reason...I think it's odd...but meh

try a usb cable that has 2 jacks plugs to connect to tyhe computer. These cables are often supplied with external hard drives as they they require more power than can be supplied by just one usb connection.
I was also having the problem of my p-930 discharging while plugged into compute usb jack - even when screen off nad only in charge mode. I have since bought a dual plugged usb cable and it charges now. Although I haven't tried it from a completely discharged state.

my spectrum is the same way.. i can charge it with usb.. but it takes about 15-20 minutes to get enough charge to turn on

Epyoch said:
Well I did notice that if it was on usb...and I had bluetooth...gps, and wifi...plus running some apps and stuff...the battery actually continued to drain I think they have the usb thing as a safety measure...for some reason...I think it's odd...but meh
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This! I only charge with a wall adapter now. I had a hard time charging it until someone here recommended this to me.

[Q] MHL cable not charging

So i got an MHL cable to connect my 1X to my tv to play snes games with a bluetooth controller
It works fine, plus it looks great... BUT!
The phone says it's charging.. little red light, battery info says charging, but it looses charge as i use it.
Just finished playing a snes emulator for 30 mins. I had the phone in airplane mode, plus the screen brightness on the lowest setting.
After 30 mins it went from 85% to 72%!! plus it was really warn/hot.
Is this normal? Is it because the screen is still on on the 1X?
Does the media link thingy work better? does the screen turn off on the phone when using that?
Anyone else got an MHL cable? does your phone loose charge while using it?

Under heavy use, charging in USB mode (500mA limit) will usually still see the battery level decrease. Are you putting the auxiliary charger off a USB out from your TV/console? If so this will be the case.
I have only given my MHL adapter a quick try. Not really used it in anger yet. Can't say for sure what would happen if you used a wall charger instead of a USB one. No doubt the charge wouldn't drop, but would want to keep a very close eye on the temperature!
Are you rooted?

i think the mhl adapters (mine at least) has a maximum output, to the phone, of 500ma.
This means even if you plugin a wall charger @ 1A, then it will still only provide the phone 500ma of power max.
The rest of the power goes to actually powering the cable itself, in order to get the picture on the tv.
the reason it drains, is because the consumption of the screen/cpu is greater than the 500ma of power that the mhl adapter is providing.

Thanks for the reply.
My phone is not rooted. It's just a standard out of the box 1X.
Also, when using the MHL cable the phone was plugged into the mains charger & was still loosing charge! plus it was very warm..
Maybe i'll try to find some info about those charging dock/cradle things with the HDMI out. Maybe that be better???
lawrence750 said:
i think the mhl adapters (mine at least) has a maximum output, to the phone, of 500ma.
This means even if you plugin a wall charger @ 1A, then it will still only provide the phone 500ma of power max.
The rest of the power goes to actually powering the cable itself, in order to get the picture on the tv.
the reason it drains, is because the consumption of the screen/cpu is greater than the 500ma of power that the mhl adapter is providing.
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Ah, ok.. that makes sense really.
I did think maybe there was more power being used than coming in... shame you can't turn the screen off on the 1X.

I think you have already done the sensible thing of trying airplane mode and min screen brightness. If it still heats up doing that on USB charging, then it's unlikely a different dock/adapter would see a reduction in drain & heat. I'd save your money there.
I only asked about root in case you could try Core Control to reduce heating, but never mind there.
Only thing I found that kept my phone cool when charging under heavy use (before I rooted it), was making sure I took the case off and I rest it on a granite drinks coaster I have! Draws the heat out of the phone very efficiently!

USB from computer and car charging really slow....

Hi Guys,
I have a thinkpad which has regular USB and also a fast charge USB port. They have worked fine in the past on other phones and I used to see at least 1 amp charge rates. (on the fast charge port)
Using either port on the 20 X I only get about 200 ma charging rates?
I'm using "Ampere" to get the charging rates, it is definitely charging slower than normal...
Have you guys noticed this?

Also of note, It charges really slow from my car as well. On the hour drive home the phone only went up 4%. (This is a VW using android auto)

I think all bets are off when your using 3rd party chargers. I think Huawei might have some official accessories that you may need to buy.

jeradjohnso said:
I think all bets are off when your using 3rd party chargers. I think Huawei might have some official accessories that you may need to buy.
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I have a bunch of phones and every single one of them charges at normal charging rates off my laptop and in my car, this is pretty strange...

Huawei uses a completely different setup from QC 3 from charger to cable . How does it charge with the supplied charger and cable that you received with your phone? If you buy extra chargers for home or car make sure they say they do Huawei "Supercharge". They are a little hard to find but they are out there. Make sure the USB cable is rated for 5a(amps)

Cccmachins said:
Huawei uses a completely different setup from QC 3 from charger to cable . How does it charge with the supplied charger and cable that you received with your phone? If you buy extra chargers for home or car make sure they say they do Huawei "Supercharge". They are a little hard to find but they are out there. Make sure the USB cable is rated for 5a(amps)
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I haven't even used the included charger and cable, but plugged in at the house I do see 2 amp charge rates which is great.
The downside is that in the car with android auto I can't really plug it into anything other than the car's USB and that give me a really slow trickle charge. This is where a bulk of my charging occurs since I drive for work so much. Basically I have never charged my other phones outside of the car, I just use android auto all the time and the batteries are always topped off. So not being able to charge from car or laptop is not a deal breaker at all, but it certainly means I need to start carry a charging cube around everywhere.
Just seems odd for such an expensive flagship phone to not charge correctly via USB like every other phone I have ever had.

Try the supplied charger and cable just to make sure you do not have a defective phone. When you plug in the cable to charge watch your screen. It should show your battery percentage and a short lighting bolt. Then in just a second it should change to a long lighting bolt and say super charging. If it does that you know your phone is charging correctly. Take your Huawei supplied cable and use it on your laptop and car and see if that doesn't increase your chances speeds.

Cccmachins said:
Try the supplied charger and cable just to make sure you do not have a defective phone. When you plug in the cable to charge watch your screen. It should show your battery percentage and a short lighting bolt. Then in just a second it should change to a long lighting bolt and say super charging. If it does that you know your phone is charging correctly. Take your Huawei supplied cable and use it on your laptop and car and see if that doesn't increase your chances speeds.
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I gave the original cable a shot and it still basically charges at 200-250ma from my laptop. Very odd indeed. Not even seeing the normal 500ma that you would get on a regular USB port. (Tried both standard and high charge rate USB ports on my lenovo)
Anyone else seeing this behavior?