design flaw? - 8125, K-JAM, P4300, MDA Vario General

Last week I was traveling, and I ran the battery on my 8125 dry. I got the unit to boot twice, but only for a few seconds, then it blinked out again. It never got past the initial screen. No big deal, I thought, I just charge it at the next opportunity. But when I hooked up the charger, nothing happened. No charging light, and no charging (left unit on charger overnight, tried 3 different chargers). Took the unit to an AT&T store, but they don't sell batteries. Fortunately, the clerk used the same phone and took the battery out of his and put it in my 8125. The unit booted, and when he connected a charger, the charging light came on and charged the phone. I moved it directly to a car charger, and the phone has been fine since then.
Did HTC build in a catch-22 here? When the battery is totally empty, you can't boot the phone and it will not go into charge mode?
Is there perhaps a way around this, other than having a spare battery that has to be kept in a charged state?

If you read around this thread, there are LOTS of posts about this. Yes, the battery in the 8125 is goofy. It'll crap out at you if the power goes below (and I'm recalling from memory, so this may be wrong) 5% of full charge.
Don't drain your battery completely. I usually shut my phone off around 10-15% and only power it when absolutely necessary until it's been recharged. If you drain it dead, it typically won't charge unless you use your AC adapter charger, or in rare cases your car charger. USB doesn't provide enough juice to jump over the dead-battery hurdle. Apparently, in your case, that wasn't even enough.
The best things you can do for yourself is show the actual battery strength on your today screen somewhere (doesn't matter how, or with what). Use something that shows the actual battery strength in linear value, not logarithmic value. This will help keep you from accidentally draining it. Also, like you said, buy a spare battery. My usage isn't that high, I can usually go 2-3 days without charging, but if you're draining it daily, an extra battery is a near absolute requirement.

This is usual for these phones. When battery goes dry it's very hard to charge it. You can wake battery up with atx power supply or similar with 5volt output. Just connect wire from power supply +5 volt line(red wire) to battery + and second wire from power supply ground line(black wire) to battery -. Power on atx power. After 1-2 min your battery is alive and you can boot up your phone and charge a battery.

Related

battery draining when I charge phone. Alerts me to change it

For some reason, every couple of days when I plug my phone in to charge the battery overnight I end up getting an alert (about 4 in the morning!) to change the battery because mine is dead, along with the back up battery, and then the phone shuts off within about a minute. Luckily I have another battery, which I then put in, and then put the dead battery in the "back up battery" slot in the cradle to charge, which it does. I don't know why this happens but it is very frustrating. I am afraid of this happening on a trip out of town where I won't have the ability to use my cradle, unless I bring it which is a big hassle. I don't know what to do.
This IS vexing. By the fact that it charges the extra battery - we know that the power transformer is connected. Since the device does not seem to be charging (possibly even discharging?) - it seems that either the connector on the charging base or the connector on the device itself are bad.
Have you used the power dongle connected to the power transformer to attempt to charge the device? This would tell you if it's the charging base or the device. If it charges outside of the base, it's the base - if not, it's the device.
Best of luck!
How are you charging the battery - from mains power or through the USB?
I had a situation where I was only using USB power to the cradle and although this worked most of the time, I noticed that if the battery was already low (<50%) then the battery seemed to discharge rather than charge.
So the trigger in your case may be the amount of charge left in the battery before you start re-charging it.
I think other people have reported similar discharging situations, so some other ideas might emerge from a search of other threads.

Charging and Keeping a Charge

Simple questions to the long story I wrote below the line(didn't realize it was so long):
I have two batteries that get a red light when trying to charge and they will not charge. I'm using a travel charger that came with the phone (used, not sure if it is the original charger). Input is 110-220V 50-60Hz Output is 5.5V 500mA. Says model T-HT-8125-SH on it.
Based on my findings, the phone should charge with 1.0A so it makes me think this is not an original charger. Old posts stated if the battery was this empty you need an original charger since it is the only thing strong enough.
The second question regards a new battery (just bought - one of the two above) dropping from having about 50% to having 0%. This is described in the story below, but could switching batteries / putting in a dead battery anything like this cause the new battery to lose it's charge all of the sudden? Or could there be damage to the phone other than the battery causing this issue?
Anyone have experience with this? What specs on a charger am I looking for that match the original charger? I may find other mini USB chargers around and if I have one that matches I can try it. I just don't want to damage the phone.
------
I have a wizard I bought used a couple months ago. It worked fine until a water damage issue occurred. I let it dry out for a week and then it was back to working fine. The only thing I noticed afterwards was sometimes the battery would drop from about 75% to 25% really quickly when it did not used to.
Last weekend, it was charging overnight and in the morning it would not turn on at all. I tried taking the battery out and trying to charge it again without success. The orange light usually does not come on. I either get no light, or a red light. Sometimes the red light stays, sometimes it blinks, but usually it is red when I first plug it in for a couple seconds then goes away.
I read recently in the manual that red means it is in LDO charging mode, thus the battery is empty. I thought the battery was dead so I ordered a replacement. It arrived, I stuck it in, it worked.
Now the weird part - I let it charge some on the new battery (it was around 18% when I got it). Then I decided to test the old battery and make sure that was indeed the problem. The phone wouldn't turn on or charge. However, I put the new battery back in and there is no charge. I tried charging it and the light was orange as it should be. However, after a couple more battery switches (I found out about the red light / orange light from the manual at this point so I went to test that with the old), the new battery is acting like the old battery. Both get a red light and will not charge.
Any ideas?
No answers for you but -
My original HTC charger has the following stats:
HTC p/n 70h00051-01
Model ADP-5FH B
Input 100-240v~0.2A 50-60Hz
Output 5V 1A LPS
Thanks for the details. I suppose mine isn't an original charger as it only has half the power yours does (and is a different model). It is probably some generic third-party charger.
For anyone interested, I did manage to get the phone charging by jump starting the battery with a 9 volt battery (saw an old post about it). Just connect the positive terminal of 9V to positive end of battery, and negative end of 9V to negative on battery. I used the metal from the inside of twist ties to connect the two batteries. Hold for about 15 seconds, then see if it will charge. If not, take battery out of phone again and use the 9V for another 15 seconds..See if it will charge afterwards. It only took a couple tries before it had enough power to start charging with my charger. Just don't hold it too long as the 9V is nearly twice what you need.
Anyways - it's charging now and is at 80%. We will see if it works like it should afterwards. If so, then I will have two working batteries for the phone.
Note - this shouldn't be an issue with an original charger that is 1.0A. It seems the third party ones are less (500mA, or my car charger is 650mA). I imagine the original charger is strong enough to get it started even on a completely empty battery. If not, the 9V battery sure is.
Just an update - not sure what is going on. It finished charging and the light turned green. As soon as I unplugged the wall charger, it dropped down to 51%. Ok...so that was weird...maybe it wasn't really charged. So, I let it charge up to 100% again. Light turns green. Unplugged it, dropped immediately to 39%.
Anyone have any idea why it would lose a large amount of charge when I unplug the cable? I'm charging it for the third time now...I'm not sure what is going on.
This is all with one battery (the old one). I haven't done anything with the new battery yet to try and get it to charge, but this might explain how the new battery lost the charge it did have and became empty like the original battery - perhaps it lost it's charge when I unplugged it just as the old one is doing...in which case this seems like a phone problem...hopefully not though.

Andida long lasting battery 1600mAh

Hi i get this battery from my friend.its made for htc hd 2 but when i put the battery into my phone the phone keeps rebooting itself.i can see the energy logo at the beginning and the screen goes off and starting again.i was trying to recharge the battery in the dock station but seems not working
Any ideas?
Thanks
If the battery has been laying around for quite some time, it should now be completely empty, close to 0V, a state those batteries should never be allowed to reach. This can easily cause what you are describing.
The best thing to try in order to revive it is probably just charging it externally, either in some special commercial product intended to do just that, or using a lab power supply (set the voltage to 4.2V, set the current limiter to about 700mA connect the battery, when the voltage finally climbs back to those 4.2V, disconnect it).
Anyway, if doing what i've described isn't an option, try just keeping the phone connected to it's charger, with that battery in, for 15..20 minutes, it may eventually be able to charge it enough to get out of this state.

[Q] Battery Charging - Current Draw When Complete

Guys, I'm hoping someone familiar with LiPo battery charging can give me some insight. I've done some diagnostics, and I'd like your take...
- Nexus 7 3G, purchased a few weeks ago. 4.2.1, not rooted, stock charger and cable
- Battery life seems good, fully charges and discharges 'normally'
- I usually charge with the device powered off (ie: blocky battery icon in the middle of the screen).
However....
- On two occasions now, I've left it on the charger for a long time (>15 hours) and have come back to a dead device.
- Pressing the power button doesn't bring up the blocky battery icon.
- Holding the power button for 30+ seconds brings the device back back.
- It has otherwise never failed to boot properly during normal use.
Out of curiosity, I was wondering if there was something wrong with the charging process causing this, so
- I plugged the stock charger into my Kill-A-Watt last night to monitor the charging current.
- Even 8 hours after the device finished charging (via the blocky icon), the current never dropped to zero - it stuck around 10mA on the AC side (ie: ~1.2W).
- My first N7 (sent back for a bad speaker and dead pixels) went to zero after charging. My iPad does the same.
QUESTION(S):
I know modern LiPo batteries have internal circuitry to prevent overcharging, but does it sound like that circuitry might be defective on mine such that I should be worried about overcharging? Could that be the reason for my lockups?
I really don't want to go through the return process again if I don't have to. I'd rather just live with it if I can prevent damage by taking it off the charger when complete. Thoughts? Opinions? Have any of you done this test, and if so, does yours go to zero?
Thanks for any insight!
developer_john said:
However....
- On two occasions now, I've left it on the charger for a long time (>15 hours) and have come back to a dead device.
- Pressing the power button doesn't bring up the blocky battery icon.
- Holding the power button for 30+ seconds brings the device back back.
- It has otherwise never failed to boot properly during normal use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That might be a possible cause... Leaving any device plugged in the charger for long periods of time is not recommended. Anyway have you tried charging the tablet with another charger with a higher output? If it refuses to turn on even after holding the power button for 30 seconds you might be able to "wake" it up by using a higher output charger. Thats what I did on my Nexus 7 when the battery level went too low.
cr0wnest said:
That might be a possible cause... Leaving any device plugged in the charger for long periods of time is not recommended. Anyway have you tried charging the tablet with another charger with a higher output? If it refuses to turn on even after holding the power button for 30 seconds you might be able to "wake" it up by using a higher output charger. Thats what I did on my Nexus 7 when the battery level went too low.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm...everything I've read has indicated that Lithium Ion/Polymer batteries can be left on a charger without damage since they have internal circuitry to prevent overcharging (although I realize a constant topping off is probably not wise in the long run). As for a charger with a higher output, I thought the stock charger was 2.1A....I've never heard of a 3A or 4A USB charger. Can you clarify what you mean?
Also, as I said, on the two occasions it has locked up, holding the power button has brought it back, so I'm not really asking about how to get it back if it locks up - I'm asking if the behavior (locking up, charge current not dropping to 0) is indicative of a battery that has faulty overcharge protection.
Thanks though!
The "charger" IC inside the N7 not only charges the battery but at the same time powers the device - it should allow use of a N7 with no or a faulty battery. I've never looked at the standby settings on the N7 but I would suggest that is where your 1W is going. The only info about the IC I know is http://www.summitmicro.com/prod_select/summary/SMB347/SMB347.htm
Added I think this is an identical TI version of the chip http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/slusaw5a/slusaw5a.pdf
peterk-1 said:
The "charger" IC inside the N7 not only charges the battery but at the same time powers the device - it should allow use of a N7 with no or a faulty battery. I've never looked at the standby settings on the N7 but I would suggest that is where your 1W is going. The only info about the IC I know is http://www.summitmicro.com/prod_select/summary/SMB347/SMB347.htm
Added I think this is an identical TI version of the chip http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/slusaw5a/slusaw5a.pdf
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks - that's good info. However, since I have been charging with the device off, it would seem to me that it shouldn't be drawing any standby current...unless just the act of charging puts the unit in a form of standby. It also still doesn't explain why my first unit went to 0A a while after charging completed, while this one doesn't. I'm now wondering if I may be looking at roundoff error. The resolution of the kill-a-watt is .01A - which is what I'm seeing. It could just be that both units drew some current after charge completion, but this one pulls marginally more.
So, my question still stands. Does anyone familiar with LiPo technology know if this sounds like my overcharge protection circuitry is faulty? Is it normal for a device that has completed charging to draw SOME current, and if so, how much? Would someone else with a Kill-A-Watt be willing to try this and let me know what you see?
Thanks again for the help guys...
Just in case anyone is still following this thread, I have some new info. I charged my N7 last night POWERED ON.....and after charging was complete, the AC current draw went to 0A. I'm starting to wonder now whether the 1.2W constant power I saw when charging powered off is the power needed to keep the charging circuitry alive while the tablet is powered off. When the device is powered on, maybe this circuitry is running off the battery allowing the AC draw to go to 0A. I have absolutely nothing to support this, so it's just a guess/hypothesis, but at least I know my N7 is behaving the same as my first one. I also loaded Simple Battery Logger while doing my last charge and all looks normal....it charged up to about 4.208V, indicated 'full', then the voltage start dropping off - which tells me that it stopped charging. It also maintained a temp of about 23C throughout the process. I'm running a battery test right now and it doesn't seem to have been damaged by my overnight charging episodes...if anything, the battery life is better than when I first got it.
I'm going to let it go here and assume all is well. If anyone does any experiments with theirs, I'd be interested in seeing the results.
Thanks again!

Photon Q got hot now won't power on

Hi everyone,
My Photon Q was probably about 30% charge when I last checked with it on. An hour or 2 later it was a little warm and was off. So I went to charge it using the car charger with 500mah charge rate. I came back about an hour later and the phone was really hot and no charging screen so I unplugged it. The green led light is lit when the phone is plugged in.
I tried holding the power button and volume down button, but it won't boot. If I have the usb charging cable plugged in from a PC or charger adapter when pressing those buttons, the green light will flicker off for a fraction of a second.
I then proceeded to dismantling the phone as I suspect a battery issue and the one in this phone is stupidly non-removable. After taking the back cover off, I tested the battery posts and received 0 volts. I still don't know if the battery caused the drain or if there's a short in the phone. I then took off the inside cover that holds the battery in. A few T5 screws later and the battery was removed. I connected the battery to some AA batteries in series to see if I could get a charge. A few hours later I got it up to 3 volts which held for several hours. So I connected it to a few more AA batteries in series to try and raise the voltage. I got it up to 3.67 volts and the battery is listed at 3.7 volts.
A day later and the voltage is still at 3.67 volts so I put the battery in the phone. I went to try and power it on, but nothing. I then connected it to a usb cord and received the slow flashing red led light a couple times before switching to green. The battery started getting warm again connected to the usb charger. After 20 minutes it was approaching hot so I unplugged the USB. The battery read 3.54 volts. 30 minutes later, 0 volts again.
Does anyone know what the actual voltage range is for this phone, as my old Samsung M320 is also 3.7 volts, but when testing the battery I get 4.10 volts? I heard it's pretty specific on minimum voltage. Any ideas for a temporary battery or way to boot the phone before spending $50 on a replacement battery and then find out there's a short in the phone. Is there another key combination to boot the phone, I'm trying to boot it to at least get my pictures and other data off it.
Thanks a lot in advance
Matt
Not the battery, seems to be an electrical short but where
I bought a new battery for the phone which had a 0 volt charge when I received it. I tried putting it in the phone as is to use the phone charger to charge it, but got nothing. So I charged it using 2, then 3 and then 4 AA batteries in series to get it up to 3.7 volts. I then put the battery in the phone and noticed the 2 large chips and the chip centered above them located by the camera get a little hot. I tried with the charger connected and not connected, but same thing. Power button doesn't turn the phone on. Just the green led lit when the USB power cable is attached. So now it seems there must be a short in the phone. Anyone know where I can look to check for a short, blown resistor or something in this phone? Or at least where the rom chip is located so maybe I can turn it into a usb drive to get my data at the least.
And sorry about the double post. I didn't receive any replies in the other section and I really need to get some data off the phone. Seemed the hardware section would be the place to check. Tree fell on the house and pictures before the tree was removed were taken with the phone which of course ironically stopped working right after.

Categories

Resources