Hello,
I have a HTC Blueangel with a somewhat novel approach to charging its battery.
When connected to the USB, the charge meter continuously _decreases_, something close to 1% in 5-6 seconds. When the meter reaches 0%, it stays there for a short while (20-30 seconds), then jumps back to whatever the real charge is. And start decreasing again. After the regular several hours, the battery gets fully charged as normally should.
The charging used to work normally a while ago, and I cannot figure out what (or when) did I do to make it act this way. Initially I thought it might be a software problem, tried a hard reset, but it's still happening.
It's running WM2003 (1.42), with radio 1.15. BlueTooth, IR and wifi are disabled, screen brightness is set to min, etc. so I cannot understand what is going on.
Normally it should not be much of a deal, because the battery really has charge in it. But the system believes the indicated meter, so when going really low on the battery meter, it decides to disable stuff like phone, SD slot, etc. trying to conserve an apparent lack of charge.
If I disconnect the USB cable, the charge meter appears to drain at the normal rate (regardless of what the _real_ charge is). All other battery-conserving features appear to function normally -- notifications at 20 and 10%, shutting down when empty, etc.
I do not have a wall charger, so I could only test USB charging. I do not have another BA available to test just the battery.
Any ideas as to what might be going on? Is it possible to fix it?
Thanks,
-Daniel
lol sounds annoying........what about reinstalling wm2003???
i am having a similar problem - using the usb charger while in the car seems to discharge the battery. nothing seems to fix battery drain problem - but on the cradle it is fine. let me know if you find anything on this one
Two questions:
1) By default, when the phone is fully charged it stops charging (which is fair enough) - but it then never starts again unless it is unplugged and plugged back in. I think this means it's possible for the battery to actually go flat while the phone is connected to the charger! Is there any way to get the phone to start charging again when it's dropped by a few percent without having to unplug and replug it?
2) Is there any way to speed up charging via USB? USB should be able to output something like 500mA, which means the phone ought to charge from 0% to 100% in about three hours via USB; in fact, it takes at least twice that, maybe even longer (even switched off). Can this be tweaked?
I too have the same problem with charging.
See http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=545254 as it was discussed there also.
Shasarak said:
By default, when the phone is fully charged it stops charging (which is fair enough) - but it then never starts again unless it is unplugged and plugged back in.
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Click to collapse
on start->settings->system->power->information i can see the time of the last full charge.
without unplugging the charger the "last full charge:" time updates sporadically, meaning that my phone charges the battery form time to time.
Running latest Azrael rom (3.0) with latest OTA Radios, Kernal etc and have encountered odd issues when tethered via usb. I have seen this happen before on the Sprint lover's rom but generally have not used tethering much so did not worry too much about it. When tethered I have found that connection speeds tend to be very good and then all of a sudden the device goes from 90% or so charge down to fully dead in no time and find the phone has a bllinking orange light on.
I have tried different cables and also running battery monitor and found that it seems like a charge was maintained up until a certain point and then it drops off all of a sudden almost instantly. I have tried this with 3 different batteries and still the same thing happens. I am using a desktop pc and I have tried measuring voltage output on the gigabyte motherboard I am using that with recent bios updates has high voltage scaling output beyond the normal 500mA usually associated with USB.
Anyone have any suggestions or does this seem like a hardware issue?
Thanks!
One last try any suggestions?
Well there is an issue with trickle charging on the Evo. Once it hits 100% the phone switches completely over to battery use REGARDLESS of whether or not it is plugged in. So the phone will think its at 100% battery but in reality the battery is draining. There is a kernel that addresses this issue but it is in beta.
Also I noticed that my phone charges a LOT faster when its plugged into an outlet instead of via USB to my PC. Maybe the power from the USB port is not sufficient to supply a USB tether. Once again I'm not 100% on this.
Maybe the USB tether stops the phone from charging.
I have yet to tether long enough to have my phone die when plugged in. Then again I use WIFI tethering instead of USB. Maybe I'll try to reproduce the issue.
sekigah84 said:
Well there is an issue with trickle charging on the Evo. Once it hits 100% the phone switches completely over to battery use REGARDLESS of whether or not it is plugged in. So the phone will think its at 100% battery but in reality the battery is draining. There is a kernel that addresses this issue but it is in beta.
Also I noticed that my phone charges a LOT faster when its plugged into an outlet instead of via USB to my PC. Maybe the power from the USB port is not sufficient to supply a USB tether. Once again I'm not 100% on this.
Maybe the USB tether stops the phone from charging.
I have yet to tether long enough to have my phone die when plugged in. Then again I use WIFI tethering instead of USB. Maybe I'll try to reproduce the issue.
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Thanks very much I appreciate any help you can provide. This helps explain things a bit. I have done some voltmeter testing on my usb ports and have found that with a recent firmware update these ports scale up the voltage output based on the demands of the device connected. I have been able to verify output for other devices exceeding 500 often.
Yet for some reason the EVO does not draw anywhere near what other devices do when connected to a USB port, in fact it does not draw 500 most 99% of the time. The power draw I have seen peaks at around 350 with 1 spike over a 24 hour period of 595 with most intervals being 150 or lower.
I wonder if there is some way to trick to device into thinking the USB connection is actually an AC one to allow a the draw of the higher voltage that these newer motherboards are capable of.
Either way I just want to make sure it is not a hardware issue with the device itself. Since it does not take long when the device is tethered to drink the battery in less then an hour from a full charge.
I have seen the Savage kernal and was thinking about checking it out when it was a little further along.
Thanks again.
NP.
Check out this and try to contact the dev.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=876590
I noticed something about the battery meter.
If you power on your phone when the charger is plugged in, the battery meter shows a higher value.
If you power on your phone when no charger is connected, the battery meter shows a lower value.
And these values stay for as long as your phone is not rebooted. My guess is, the value without charger plugged in (lower value) is more accurate.
So, if you want to make your battery meter more accurate, try this:
- Disconnect your phone from the charger
- Power off the phone
- Power on the phone again (phone must be disconnected from charger)
- After phone has booted into Android, plug the phone into USB/charger to charge it again
If you could try this out and see if the observation is always true, then maybe we should make this procedure standard to get a more accurate battery meter reading.
So this may have caused the fact that my phone keeps telling me, while charging, the battery is fully charged however it says 95% as soons as its unplugged
Power off the phone and connect charger while it's off, wait for the 100% sign on the fully green battery, then unplug the cord and connect it again, you can do this a couple of times. And resetting the battery stats should also help in some way.
opica said:
Power off the phone and connect charger while it's off, wait for the 100% sign on the fully green battery, then unplug the cord and connect it again, you can do this a couple of times. And resetting the battery stats should also help in some way.
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What I'm suggesting is a bit different.
Power off phone.
Power on phone again, without plugging anything in.
After phone has booted, plug in charger.
EDIT: I notice this difference in battery meter reading tends to happen only with the *real* charger, and not when connect to a USB port on a PC.
That is right hardcore. This also refers to post-flashing boot.
I always disconnect device as soon as flashing procedure completes.
hardcore said:
I noticed something about the battery meter.
If you power on your phone when the USB charger/cable is plugged in, the battery meter shows a higher value.
If you power on your phone when no USB charger/cable is connected, the battery meter shows a lower value.
And these values stay for as long as your phone is not rebooted. My guess is, the value without USB plugged in (lower value) is more accurate.
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Click to collapse
Hey,
Heres whats happening:
Lithium-ion batteries dont like it when you charge them while full. It wears them down. So to preserve batterylife it charges untill full, then stops charging completely. When it droppes down to far, it'll charge again for a bit. The phone will show full, in reality it'll be a little less. When you unplug it will drop down quickly to a more precise value. Bump-charging (disconnect, reconnect charger) works, however you are wearing the batterylife down. Could be you dont care, so it'll be youre own choice.
Older phones do not do this. They charge till full, then trickle power continuesly so it'll always be full when disconnected.
Hope this helps.
weirder said:
Hey,
Heres whats happening:
Lithium-ion batteries dont like it when you charge them while full. It wears them down. So to preserve batterylife it charges untill full, then stops charging completely. When it droppes down to far, it'll charge again for a bit. The phone will show full, in reality it'll be a little less. When you unplug it will drop down quickly to a more precise value. Bump-charging (disconnect, reconnect charger) works, however you are wearing the batterylife down. Could be you dont care, so it'll be youre own choice.
Older phones do not do this. They charge till full, then trickle power continuesly so it'll always be full when disconnected.
Hope this helps.
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Click to collapse
I'm not talking about the usual Li-ion full-charge effects. Also it may not be true that other phones don't do this. For sure, many laptops do this - after the battery charges to 100%, they won't charge the battery until it decreases to a certain level, say 95%.
I'm referring to the difference in battery meter reading if u boot the phone while connected to the wall charger, vs booting the phone when it's disconnected from the charger.
What you say is right, I am used to power OFF my phone & charge it at night, & when I get up, switch it ON while still plugged in. I must make it a point to remove the cable before I switch ON.
I noticed this many months ago and it persists even after flashing many different firmwares. It actually comes in handy some times. For instance when my battery is running low and i need to step out i simply plug in the charger, power off then power back on. Phone instantly jumps 30% or so. But generally i tend to power on without the charger attached so as not to stuff up the battery stats.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Anyway this behavior is not correct.
Samsung changed recently battery drivers in JPX sources and the problem is still persistent. I suspect it might be related to wrong battery voltage measuring point (hardware design flaw? although most problems with sgs are/were software related) or result misinterpretation.
Or their Q/A team is so clueless that they didnt notice that.
hardcore said:
EDIT: I notice this difference in battery meter reading tends to happen only with the *real* charger, and not when connect to a USB port on a PC.
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Click to collapse
I just tested this. 5% battery. Reboot with usb plugged in. 50%battery. The battery also seems to drain really fast after the reboot.
I am plugged in using original usb cable in a usb on the front panel of my pc...
Edit: im still plugged in and it's going down... i boot with usb at 50% leave it in and while charging the battery goes down... i left it in and now it's going 49...48...47 while charging... wtf lol
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Lightarrow said:
I just tested this. 5% battery. Reboot with usb plugged in. 50%battery. The battery also seems to drain really fast after the reboot.
I am plugged in using original usb cable in a usb on the front panel of my pc...
Edit: im still plugged in and it's going down... i boot with usb at 50% leave it in and while charging the battery goes down... i left it in and now it's going 49...48...47 while charging... wtf lol
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My guess is this is because the actual level of the battery is 5%, and 'cause it's plugged in it's saying 50% for some strange reason. So really you're charging from 5% up to 50% (and eventually more, but that aside), and I think the phone is averaging between your actual battery level and the 50% every time you go up 1%? Just my guess.
johanaikema said:
My guess is this is because the actual level of the battery is 5%, and cause it's plugged in it's saying 50% for some strange reason. So really you're charging from 5% up to 50% (and eventually more, but that aside), and I think the phone is averaging between you're actual battery level and the 50% every time you go up 1%? Just my guess.
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Click to collapse
Yeay that is what im thinking too weird stuff.
@hardcore : just tried your suggestion. I shut down with the cable plugged in. Remove it. Reboot. But my battery is still at 47... ill try to go into cwm to see if that triggers something. Or maybe remove the battery and insert it again...
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Ok. I tried this : removed my battery, waited 5 seconds, reput my battery, reboot all with charger unplugged. Battery went from 47 to 52. So this had no effect.
Then i shut down the phone, used 3br to get into recovery (cwm) did nothing except select reboot phone now and the phone rebooted, now 12% battery.
Btw using all tweaks in your kernel except tun.
Weird stuff...
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
noticed this months back too but didnt think much about it.
i just figured the software is reading the higher voltage during charge and reporting it wrong during boot.
*could be wrong
EDIT: and the diff is quite big, increase of 20-30%
hardcore said:
What I'm suggesting is a bit different.
Power off phone.
Power on phone again, without plugging anything in.
After phone has booted, plug in charger.
EDIT: I notice this difference in battery meter reading tends to happen only with the *real* charger, and not when connect to a USB port on a PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what @weirder post is the true fact about the lithium ion charge process. your charging method is called bump charging. but that way of charging the juice wear off the battery life sooner than normal charging..
I've been checking out the battery meter source code, and I think the battery level is calculated *only* from the battery voltage. Which is quite inaccurate, compared to laptop batteries which keep track of the charge, etc.
hardcore said:
I've been checking out the battery meter source code, and I think the battery level is calculated *only* from the battery voltage. Which is quite inaccurate, compared to laptop batteries which keep track of the charge, etc.
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This could be improved by using its temperature. Since the SoC is a function of temperature, charge history, and current evolution over the time.
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I tried the bump charging till the meter says 100% and right after unplugging from the charger the meter reads 98%. I let the battery drain up to 96% and connected my phone into a usb port of my PC and when the meter say its 100% charged, i disconnected the phone from the usb port and wallah...it stays at 100% charged and it has been at 100% even after 15 minutes...
I really don't recommend bump charging. You risk damaging your battery by overcharging. Or worse, making it blow up due to overcharging! I know it sounds paranoid but you never know...
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...
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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.