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I have recently purchased a Mugen 3000 mA battery. I am thrilled with the extended battery life after fully charging and discharging it three times as recommended by the manufacturer. What I find annoying is that WM6 no longer gives accurate information regarding remaining battery strength. If I run the battery down to 2%, remove the battery and restart WM6 says 37%. At 2% I can repeat and WM6 still says 37%. After running down to 2% a third time and repeating WM6 says around 10%. After that it varies a bit but you get the picture.
What I would like to know is if one of you geniuses out there has discovered a registry edit, hack or 3rd party software that will provide accurate battery info so I don't have to be distracted by having my battery say 2% for hours on end or repeatedly remove and restart.
BTW, BatteryStatus Ver. 1.04.200 beta2 build 0173 reports the same incorrect info and so does SPB Mobile Shell 1.5 Home Tab.
Thanks in advance for your informed guidance. OK, that is laying it on a bit thick but I always highly recommend this site to anyone I know interested in really learning how to take full advantage of that little computer in their pocket.
Take a search on XDA for Ariel monitor maybe it solves your problem.
Thanks for the suggestion. It is a nice little program but it suffers from the same problem. I suspect I need to find a way to change the mA capacity WM6 bases it's battery calculations. I don't know if that can be done with a registry edit or if there is a third party battery monitor that has an option to change the battery capacity for calculation of percentage remaining or better yet auto detects the actual battery capacity. Ideally it would be able to both accurately read remaining percentage and make reasonably accurate time remaining estimates based on current and historical battery drain data.
It is like driving a car with a broken gas gage. Sure, you can use the odometer to estimate how much gas you have left but you are always worried your estimate is off and you will be left stranded without a phone ... oops crossed metaphors.
How do the rest of the users with extended batteries handle this irritating situation?
Bump. I can't believe i'm the only one with this problem.
I know this problem also i will wait with buying a high capacy battery until i find such a hack
The Kaiser uses a smartbattery. The battery capacity is based on the information that a small processor inside the battery tells the phone's main processor. There are several things that could be the problem:
1. The small processor in the 3rd party battery is programmed with the old specs for the standard battery. The is nothing you could do about this.
2. The small processor needs to be calibrated. You would do this as follows; set your phone to never turn off no matter how low the battery got. Now, run the phone down until the thing dies from lack of power. Then charge it all the way up. This should fix that issue. I don't recomend doing it many times, because it is not good for Lion batteries to be fully discharged too often.
This is a very valid issue which I have faced many times when using a 3rd party extended battery with other phones.
Not sure how to solve it though, although I have the 3000mah on order myself.
I think the battery reading is given by the battery itself, and most of these 3rd party manufacturers don't really care to put a smart processor in the battery (to reduce costs/make it smaller/etc).
I have the exact same issue and although it is a nuisance, I have found a workaround to keep using the phone. Simply physically removing the battery and replacing it will increase your remaining battery power substantially. I normally wait till the first low battery reminder to do this. Also, how do I set the phone to never turn off no matter how low the battery gets? This would also be fine with me.
utbiglall said:
I have the exact same issue and although it is a nuisance, I have found a workaround to keep using the phone. Simply physically removing the battery and replacing it will increase your remaining battery power substantially. I normally wait till the first low battery reminder to do this. Also, how do I set the phone to never turn off no matter how low the battery gets? This would also be fine with me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't run into this issue until I reflashed my ROM to one with W6.1. Then, rather than get 12-13 hrs with my 3amp battery, I'd get 6. I used my original battery, but when I put the 3amp back in, I still had 47% left.
It's the ROM, and until there's a fix, it would be a pain to pull and replace the battery just to work around. I've done this several times recently when I'm on battery power, but I'd rather not.
Anybody heard of any other fixes, outside monitor, or do we wait until we get a Windows Mobile 6.1 fix?
Still no luck?
Hello,
Has anyone been able to find a solution for this. I am ordering the extended battery today. I will try to fully discharge it and then recharge it as was suggested and report back.
I emailed Mugen. We went back and forth with them trying to troubleshoot whether it's the battery or OS. They were clueless, but did offer an RMA to replace the battery. I pay the postage. Not sure if I'll send it back if it's the OS. I pull and replace the battery right now. It's a real pain, and I hate opening the case so much, but it's the only way I can get an accurate read.
PhoenixAG said:
This is a very valid issue which I have faced many times when using a 3rd party extended battery with other phones.
Not sure how to solve it though, although I have the 3000mah on order myself.
I think the battery reading is given by the battery itself, and most of these 3rd party manufacturers don't really care to put a smart processor in the battery (to reduce costs/make it smaller/etc).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The processor is required for these types of lithium ion batteries because it regulates the charging of the battery. If it didn't the battery would not charge properly, or maybe not even charge at all.
There is no solution for now, people from other forums tries to patch battdrvr.dll.
But two things may help a little:
1.You may completely disable battery monitoring
HKLM\Drivers\BuiltIn\Battery rename or remove string battdrvr.dll
But you lost monitoring completely.
2. change HKLM\Drivers\BuiltIn\Battery\Order change value from 15 (in my case) to 0. - After this battery lasts longer until power off.
There is not complete hardware or software solution for this problem. We need to wait.
Low Battery warning:
By default, a PPC will sound a warning sound when the battery is running low (10%, fixed value), but there's no way to disable or change the notification. To enable this, so that it is visible in the "Sounds & Notifications" control panel, set:
HKCU\ControlPanel\Notifications\{A877D663-239C-47a7-9304-0D347F580408}\Default = "Low battery warning" (REGSZ string, no quotes)
Anybody have any updates on this? I have noticed this more on WM6.1, but it was still an issue on WM6. I just find this so annoying!
Is there any radio that can fix this? I noiced that this battery reading issue only occurs when the Phone Signal is on. When off, it never happens to me. Or it seems. So it has something to do with the radio.
bump, anyone got a solution?
this is very interesting, i bought the seidio 3200 battery i am having the same problems. i just tired the
change HKLM\Drivers\BuiltIn\Battery\Order change value from 15 (in my case) to 0
i am going to see how that works out throughout the day
Tried It
I am having same issue, reset the registry key to "0" and ran for a full day, no change, still incorrect reading. I have a 2700 Mah battery and the charge indicater is completely wrong on it. I have cycled the battery as per reccoemndations, but still get wrong power remaining readings. Can remove the battery and resets itselft to a more correct reading.
I am out of ideas, guess we need someone from HTC to chime in with a hardware fix.
MWS
ms0529 said:
I am having same issue, reset the registry key to "0" and ran for a full day, no change, still incorrect reading. I have a 2700 Mah battery and the charge indicater is completely wrong on it. I have cycled the battery as per reccoemndations, but still get wrong power remaining readings. Can remove the battery and resets itselft to a more correct reading.
I am out of ideas, guess we need someone from HTC to chime in with a hardware fix.
MWS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have tried it too and it still does the same thing. i would still need to pull the battery and restart the device for the batt meter to get a more accurate reading. i could do it about 3 times before the battery dies completely.
is there this problem with all extended batteries or just with the larger ones?
the reason I ask is that I've got a $17 credit at Amazon and was thinking of grabbing a 1600mah battery, it's only like $22 with ship so I'll only pay a few bucks for it really...
I wanted to get the larger one but it's fat and won't fit standard carrying case, but the 1600 is slim and will fit in place a regular battery
more often than not, if i leave my phone on the charger, and then use it...it says its fully charged in the status bar, but on the lock screen it says charging 99%...
anyone know why this would happen or has anyone else had this issue and found a solution?
In one of the larger battery-threads (is it in 'accessories' perhaps?) someone mentioned that this is to prolong the life of the Li-Ion battery. Basically the charging circuit cuts the charging when it reaches 100%, and waits until battery charge is at 98% before it starts again.
There should be a few threads, or at least threads with comments detailing this in a bit more convincing manner than what i have
hmm ive been looking, cant seem to find it...
This thread does not exactly answer your question, but you should be able to learn a bit from it:
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=622688
Note some of the links inside provide some information on how Li-Ion works.
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=649770
This is the thread I was referring to, you might find something interesting there.
Also note that the battery voltage drops very quickly at the very full end and then flattens. Depending on the approximation HTC/Android does when calculating the percents left that might also contribute to what you're seeing. You can see the N1 battery profile here:
www.batteryboss.org/results/NexusOneOEM1400_0_250mA.png
Remove anything after .org/ to see the profiles for other batteries.
(Copy/paste web addresses)
alright so hopefully nothing is wrong with my battery, cause it does it for the OEM one and the Seidio 3200 which i just got...
No, I wouldn't suspect that unless you're also experiencing other unexplained behaviour. But it could be the calibration, which the address to greater detail in the first thread I linked to. They have a few suggestions there on how to reset the calibration so that it stays at 100% for longer.
Note that it doesn't change the total amount of battery time at your disposal, but it might more accurately tell you how much you have left.
Duplicate thread.
Please use the " The definitive battery thread... "
Dave
Ok I was trying to search abouth this but haven't found abouth it here.
When my battery is under 10%, you can't select display brightness anymore in the display option menu. I don't use energiesaving. Is this normal that samsung manages the brigntness itself than? It's annoying because I want to use my 10% battery on full brightness if I want too!!
I can adjust it with the widget, however when I open my browser it sets back to samsung dimming it... so not possible than.
Also you can not use camera at lower battery of 20 or 15%, not sure wich one, just noticed it today; I think 15%. Why the f*ck is that? Again: Why can't I choose what to do with my last 15%?
As far as I was searching I didn't find an option to turn this off. Anybody else maybe?
Thanks for answering these two questions!!
Oh and a little question: The battery usage graph, when is it reset and does it start counting again? Only when you put the plug in untill it is 100%?
this has been the default behavior even with SGS1. You can't snap pictures, listen to music, view videos, raise brightness when your battery is low.
I think there is no way to alter this behavior.
To your other question - the batt stats in that little app will reset when you charge to full 100% and it gives you that message "batt is charged, disconnect the charger".
kreoXDA said:
this has been the default behavior even with SGS1. You can't snap pictures, listen to music, view videos, raise brightness when your battery is low.
I think there is no way to alter this behavior.
To your other question - the batt stats in that little app will reset when you charge to full 100% and it gives you that message "batt is charged, disconnect the charger".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok thank you!
I find this pretty annoying. Verry friendly of samsung to think abouth my battery not spending on media things, and i could make important calls if I need to! But I am old enough to spend my battery on what I find important, pff.
Oh well, maybe rooting in the future(or wouldn't that effect it?)... Don't know much aboutch that yet, first android. But will look into it.
Most likely you would need to patch the code to fix this. Someone will do it eventually. It hasn't bothered me enough for me to want to patch it. But I agree, it's stupid. If I want to take pictures when the battery is at 15% or lower, I should be able to do that. If I want to watch a movie when the battery is less than 10%, I should be able to do that.
Interesting. What if Samsung didn't implement this features and when your last 10-15% of your battery is dying fast with all your setting and you couldn't make any important calls or email or message will you be complaining to Samsung for not implementing any battery saving features?
With 10-15% of my battery left I will save as much battery as I can to save for any important things before I reach home.
People's need is hard to pleased. One wanted this another one doesn't want that. Never ending story. Haha.
Wait for custom rom to remove this features. =D
r_a_c said:
Ok I was trying to search abouth this but haven't found abouth it here.
When my battery is under 10%, you can't select display brightness anymore in the display option menu. I don't use energiesaving. Is this normal that samsung manages the brigntness itself than? It's annoying because I want to use my 10% battery on full brightness if I want too!!
I can adjust it with the widget, however when I open my browser it sets back to samsung dimming it... so not possible than.
Also you can not use camera at lower battery of 20 or 15%, not sure wich one, just noticed it today; I think 15%. Why the f*ck is that? Again: Why can't I choose what to do with my last 15%?
As far as I was searching I didn't find an option to turn this off. Anybody else maybe?
Thanks for answering these two questions!!
Oh and a little question: The battery usage graph, when is it reset and does it start counting again? Only when you put the plug in untill it is 100%?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thinks its a security feature too protect your battery and your fone.
Lithium batteries are very sensitive when they are almost drained. Normaly your fone will shutdown when the batteri voltage reach about 2,5V, if the voltage go lower on a lithium batteri, it will not accept a new charge and can explode if force charged.
Another thing is that lithium batteries have higher impedance the lower the voltage is on the batteri and its not after af liniear scale. Lets say the voltage on the battery is about 3V when the fone is reporting 10% left. The problem is that the impedance is very high at that voltage, so if you drain to much power, the voltage on the battery will drop under the safe voltage limit immediately, render your battery useless, and possibility to harm your fone and you if force charged.
jonrwg said:
Interesting. What if Samsung didn't implement this features and when your last 10-15% of your battery is dying fast with all your setting and you couldn't make any important calls or email or message will you be complaining to Samsung for not implementing any battery saving features?
With 10-15% of my battery left I will save as much battery as I can to save for any important things before I reach home.
People's need is hard to pleased. One wanted this another one doesn't want that. Never ending story. Haha.
Wait for custom rom to remove this features. =D
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no nobody would be complaining because not a single other android phone does this behavior, and people seem just fine not yelling about anything.
i agree this behavior should have an on/off setting. someone will fix it wiht custom ROM let's hope.
Yeah and not to be able to use camera when battery is lower than 20% is ridicilous! There is still 20% juice left. Camoon Samsung!!
I could somehow understand if it starts when under 10% left but I still prefer that I can personally decide whether or not save battery when running out.
For Desire I always had extra battery with me. I could use it 100% until the battery died and just change to next one.
Now basically the already bad battery life has been taken 20% away cause you cant do **** after that.
RogerPodacter said:
no nobody would be complaining because not a single other android phone does this behavior, and people seem just fine not yelling about anything.
i agree this behavior should have an on/off setting. someone will fix it wiht custom ROM let's hope.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, true true. Hope this can be fixed in custom rom.
Oh, my mate just complaint to me about this a moment ago.
I'm really frustrated because i really used to love the n7 so much I was an early adopter and bought another one after I dropped my first and then went on to buy my girlfriend one. But after being plagued with this issue and stuck on 4.1 its just not the same anymore since I cant flash custom roms all day :/
I've been having a charging issue with android 4.2.1 since it came out (both stock and all the roms I tried) but I noticed that whenever I reverted to 4.1.2 the issue went away completely. So I've been waiting for 4.2.2 to come out for a while now to see if it fixed the issue and after flashing the update tonight it seems to have the same problem.
I've tried searching for months now and haven't found any answers.
So this is the issue with both 4.2.1 and 4.2.2:
The battery charges at an insanely slow pace to the point that it ruins the tablet completely. I'll plug it in over night for 8+ hours and it will not gain more then 40% battery life in that time.
Its to the point that when I was just using it right now on the charger with brightness turned all the way down and nothing on other then sync and WiFi that light web browsing for 10 mins caused it to discharge a percent after being plugged in for 19 minutes.
Notes:
Its a c70 16gb
I tried 3 different stock N7 chargers with stock cables as well as trying them with other cables.
I'm not plugged into any kind of extension cords and I've tried multiple wall sockets at different locations.
My girlfriends nexus 7 32g charges fine on 4.2.1 and I have not updated her to 4.2.2 to test yet.
I haven't checked the battery connection because like I said whenever I revert to stock 4.1.2 or any 4.1.2 rom it charges in 4 hours flat or 6 hours with heavy usage while charging.
So anyone have any ideas? If not I guess I have to rma.
Do both, yours and your girlfriend's devices take that long to charge?
sl4y3r88 said:
Do both, yours and your girlfriend's devices take that long to charge?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope her nexus 7 charges fine. ( a little slower on 4.2 then 4.1 but nothing like mine)
Her nexus does have issues with turning on sometimes on 4.2.1 like a lot of other users but its nothing holding the power button for 10 seconds doesn't fix.
It also just noticed it seems to discharge at an extremely fast pace. (still on 4.2.2)
It just dropped from 55% to 51% in the time I've typed these responses with brightness all the way down.
So anyone want to try and help me figure this out before I send it in friday? I called it in to Google play device support to try and report the software bug and they said its the first they heard of it and they would pass it on but I felt like the rep didnt want to help as I bought it from a third party. I'm willing to do any tests suggested and hop between software versions to try and figure out this bug.
Why do you think it is a "software bug" when millions of people running the "same software" don't experience the same behavior?
I realize that software can exhibit data-dependent behaviors, and thus exhibit low occurrence rates... but there is no "software" involved in charging the battery.
Do you think a booted Linux kernel is needed to charge a battery? How would the battery get charged when the device is turned off in that case? C'mon!
Send it back and tell them the battery (or charge contoller CIRCUIT) is defective.
If it's out of warranty, PAY them to replace it.
bftb0 said:
Why do you think it is a "software bug" when millions of people running the "same software" don't experience the same behavior?
I realize that software can exhibit data-dependent behaviors, and thus exhibit low occurrence rates... but there is no "software" involved in charging the battery.
Do you think a booted Linux kernel is needed to charge a battery? How would the battery get charged when the device is turned off in that case? C'mon!
Send it back and tell them the battery (or charge contoller CIRCUIT) is defective.
If it's out of warranty, PAY them to replace it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then how do you explain that if right now I flash back to 4.1.2 it will work fine? If you want I'll provide screenshots.
I just flashed back to 4.1.2 this morning and it worked perfectly. Just now I flashed codefires 4.2.2 build and the problems back.
Please explain how that is hardware related.
I may of jumped the gun assuming it was a charging issue. It seems like it might be a battery drain issue. Here's a couple screenshots from a fresh install of codefirex 4.2.2 build.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
All I was trying to say is that when the OS is booted, at most all it does is monitor battery voltage and current - it doesn't get actively involved in control of charging circuitry.
At most this historical data can be used to *predict* when the battery will run out of juice, and this number is what is shown to the user as a % charge number. Hopefully that allows the prediction to be sort of correct as the battery ages and it's characteristics change.
This "calibration data" is only used for prediction - it does absolutely nothing to alter the rate at which current is drawn from the battery by the motherboard, nor for attempting to alter the behavior of a battery charge controller.
Li-Ion and Li-Polymer batteries are indeed complicated enough that they should not be charged by extremely simple circuits if a long operating lifetime is desired. For this purpose though, monolithic battery charge controllers chips are used - they do not need any assistance of a micro-controller or advanced CPU running a modern OS. That's why they are able to charge batteries rapidly and appropriately when the motherboard is in a "powered down" state.
Relative to a big multi-core CPU chip, which might have hundreds of millions of transistors, battery charge controllers are extremely small circuits - they are sold by the billions and cost in the ballpark of one to several pennies. They don't need the support of a CPU or even a microcontroller to operate correctly.
Good luck with your tab; I hope you enjoy it.
bftb0 said:
All I was trying to say is that when the OS is booted, at most all it does is monitor battery voltage and current - it doesn't get actively involved in control of charging circuitry.
At most this historical data can be used to *predict* when the battery will run out of juice, and this number is what is shown to the user as a % charge number. Hopefully that allows the prediction to be sort of correct as the battery ages and it's characteristics change.
This "calibration data" is only used for prediction - it does absolutely nothing to alter the rate at which current is drawn from the battery by the motherboard, nor for attempting to alter the behavior of a battery charge controller.
Li-Ion and Li-Polymer batteries are indeed complicated enough that they should not be charged by extremely simple circuits if a long operating lifetime is desired. For this purpose though, monolithic battery charge controllers chips are used - they do not need any assistance of a micro-controller or advanced CPU running a modern OS. That's why they are able to charge batteries rapidly and appropriately when the motherboard is in a "powered down" state.
Relative to a big multi-core CPU chip, which might have hundreds of millions of transistors, battery charge controllers are extremely small circuits - they are sold by the billions and cost in the ballpark of one to several pennies. They don't need the support of a CPU or even a microcontroller to operate correctly.
Good luck with your tab; I hope you enjoy it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for taking the time to write out this detailed explanation. I read it over a couple times and that all makes a lot of sense and now I have a little better understanding of how things work charging wise.
But I still can't wrap my head around how the problem DISAPPEARS COMPLETELY on any 4.1 based build...
I'm not trying to contradict you in anyway it seems like you are way more knowledgeable then me on the subject.
It just doesn't make any sense and I was hoping you could make more of it for me.
Maybe it isn't the charging but a battery drain issue something on 4.2 based builds is draining more current then the charger can dish out.
But while i was doing research I read that chargers up the current they dish out if the device is in use. Is that correct?
I've looked into the media server bug but as I just did a fresh install of stock 4.2.1 and haven't changed or added anything to the file structure that wasn't included in the factory image, I also went through and turned off the keyboard press sound and all other sounds like explained in some of the threads I have read. I also read that the problem is supposed to be fixed in 4.2.2. I also haven't installed any apps from the market.
I guess all I'm looking for is the answer to this question:
Could there really be a hardware related problem of any sort (not just charging and battery problems but anything) that causes problems with 4.2 based builds specifically but doesn't cause problems with 4.1?
If the answer is yes then I don't have to feel bad about sending it in but if its software based issues I'll be upset that I wasn't able to fix it and gave up.
Have you let the battery drain all the way or do you just plug it in at a certain point? if not let it get to the point were it will turn itself off. if the battery with the cross in it stays for more than it would take for 1% to drain then it just might be your battery stats file. even if its not let it drain and then charge it while its off. you can check the battery by pushing the power button quick. i know i have had this problem with other devices that were fixed by doing this. and my N7 did it last night were i updated and plugged it in, it was at 60% and when i woke up it was at 46%.
projectzro said:
Have you let the battery drain all the way or do you just plug it in at a certain point? if not let it get to the point were it will turn itself off. if the battery with the cross in it stays for more than it would take for 1% to drain then it just might be your battery stats file. even if its not let it drain and then charge it while its off. you can check the battery by pushing the power button quick. i know i have had this problem with other devices that were fixed by doing this. and my N7 did it last night were i updated and plugged it in, it was at 60% and when i woke up it was at 46%.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll give this a try right now then post results, the battery is already pretty low so It shouldn't take very long. Thanks for the response.
projectzro said:
Have you let the battery drain all the way or do you just plug it in at a certain point? if not let it get to the point were it will turn itself off. if the battery with the cross in it stays for more than it would take for 1% to drain then it just might be your battery stats file. even if its not let it drain and then charge it while its off. you can check the battery by pushing the power button quick. i know i have had this problem with other devices that were fixed by doing this. and my N7 did it last night were i updated and plugged it in, it was at 60% and when i woke up it was at 46%.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I let it run dry and am getting some weird behavior...
The dead battery symbol did not pop at all. It actually booted played the low battery sound half way through the nexus logo loaded into the OS and immediately was greeted by the battery to low logo powering down message and then it returned off. It did this cycle all the way through three times in a row before holding the power button did nothing. I let it sit for a minute before trying again and I got another boot out of it all the way to the OS again. But I've yet to be greeted by the battery with the cross symbol. Holding the power button will do the cycle described above or do nothing at all.
krisserapin said:
But while i was doing research I read that chargers up the current they dish out if the device is in use. Is that correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, the 120v->5v converter certainly can be providing more current @5v because the device is active, but that's only because the motherboard is drawing current in parallel with the battery charging circuit. It doesn't mean the battery charge rate is higher.
krisserapin said:
Could there really be a hardware related problem of any sort (not just charging and battery problems but anything) that causes problems with 4.2 based builds specifically but doesn't cause problems with 4.1?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose so.
I would do a few things to determine whether that is a reasonable hypotheses, though.
1) See how fast the battery charges with the tablet turned off. Should be close to 40%/hour for a new battery. You know there is no "software" running with the tablet turned off, so if you don't see some reasonable number here (say > 20%/hr) then a bad battery or charge controller circuit in the tab are the most likely culprits. Also, if the temperature rise of the tablet while doing this seems higher than the gf's unit, that would implicate the battery, not the charging circuit.
2) There's software, and then there's software. (Preinstalled vs. User installed) Run the battery down a ways, and then observe the battery charging rate with the device on but screen off (sleeping), but on a stock 4.2 install with ZERO user apps installed. Then, install/restore all your favorite apps, reboot, maybe use a couple of your fave apps, and repeat the same charge rate trial (screen off/sleeping). Are there large differences between the two cases? If so, that would implicate one of your apps in causing either lots of additional compute operations or preventing entry into the LP0 state (perhaps because of wakelocks?)
The thing is, the N7 battery is rated at 4325 mAh; that is sort of the same thing as 4.325 amps of current for 1 hour. (Voltage range of roughly 4v to 3.5v).
So, if a "good battery" can be charged in 2.5hrs, that is sort of like stuffing 1.73 amps into the battery for that time (1.73 x 2.5 = 4.325 A-h or 4325 mA-h). That's pretty near to the max capacity of the AC charger (2A)
Now, some users have reported discharging their tabs in 4 hours under heavy continuous use; that would be about 1.08 amps for 4 hours.
Since the wall charger is rated to produce 2A, this suggests that very heavy usage simultaneous with charging would indeed cause battery charging to slow down significantly - let's suppose it drops from 1.73a to 0.65a. Now it takes the battery 6.6hrs to charge ... but that is still just over 15%/hr ... with the tab in active use.
But that's not what you were noticing - you were seeing much worse charge rates than this when the tablet was supposed to be more or less idle!
Finally I should point out that I previously mentioned that the % charge number is a prediction, not a measurement! If for some reason this number were screwed up, then the "charge rate" observations could be completely screwed up. (Think of this as being analogous to trying to partially fill a gas tank in a car or estimate fuel mileage with a broken gas gauge) The only way to be sure that you are not falling victim to something like this is to record battery voltages - the 100% level should be up around 4v, and the 10% values down around 3.5v.
You can observe this value at /sys/devices/platform/tegra-i2c.4/i2c-4/4-0055/power_supply/battery/voltage_now
(note value is reported in uV)
Whew - long post. It doesn't directly answer your question about "why was 4.1 so different?" - but gives you an idea about why I was skeptical when you saw charging rates as low as you did.
I dunno, maybe the % charge prediction value numbers are screwy on your tab for some strange reason in 4.2, perhaps because of a minor hardware difference. I can't rule it out - I once saw a bug expression in a hardware/software combination that required three independent conditions (from three separate vendors!) to have precise configurations before the bug would show itself.
I hope this post gives you some ideas to try; it certainly doesn't give a solution.
Good luck - if you feel like spending more time investigating, go for it; just don't let the clock run out on the warranty period if you have one left.
bftb0 said:
Well, the 120v->5v converter certainly can be providing more current @5v because the device is active, but that's only because the motherboard is drawing current in parallel with the battery charging circuit. It doesn't mean the battery charge rate is higher.
I suppose so.
I would do a few things to determine whether that is a reasonable hypotheses, though.
1) See how fast the battery charges with the tablet turned off. Should be close to 40%/hour for a new battery. You know there is no "software" running with the tablet turned off, so if you don't see some reasonable number here (say > 20%/hr) then a bad battery or charge controller circuit in the tab are the most likely culprits. Also, if the temperature rise of the tablet while doing this seems higher than the gf's unit, that would implicate the battery, not the charging circuit.
2) There's software, and then there's software. (Preinstalled vs. User installed) Run the battery down a ways, and then observe the battery charging rate with the device on but screen off (sleeping), but on a stock 4.2 install with ZERO user apps installed. Then, install/restore all your favorite apps, reboot, maybe use a couple of your fave apps, and repeat the same charge rate trial (screen off/sleeping). Are there large differences between the two cases? If so, that would implicate one of your apps in causing either lots of additional compute operations or preventing entry into the LP0 state (perhaps because of wakelocks?)
The thing is, the N7 battery is rated at 4325 mAh; that is sort of the same thing as 4.325 amps of current for 1 hour. (Voltage range of roughly 4v to 3.5v).
So, if a "good battery" can be charged in 2.5hrs, that is sort of like stuffing 1.73 amps into the battery for that time (1.73 x 2.5 = 4.325 A-h or 4325 mA-h). That's pretty near to the max capacity of the AC charger (2A)
Now, some users have reported discharging their tabs in 4 hours under heavy continuous use; that would be about 1.08 amps for 4 hours.
Since the wall charger is rated to produce 2A, this suggests that very heavy usage simultaneous with charging would indeed cause battery charging to slow down significantly - let's suppose it drops from 1.73a to 0.65a. Now it takes the battery 6.6hrs to charge ... but that is still just over 15%/hr ... with the tab in active use.
But that's not what you were noticing - you were seeing much worse charge rates than this when the tablet was supposed to be more or less idle!
Finally I should point out that I previously mentioned that the % charge number is a prediction, not a measurement! If for some reason this number were screwed up, then the "charge rate" observations could be completely screwed up. (Think of this as being analogous to trying to partially fill a gas tank in a car or estimate fuel mileage with a broken gas gauge) The only way to be sure that you are not falling victim to something like this is to record battery voltages - the 100% level should be up around 4v, and the 10% values down around 3.5v.
You can observe this value at /sys/devices/platform/tegra-i2c.4/i2c-4/4-0055/power_supply/battery/voltage_now
(note value is reported in uV)
Whew - long post. It doesn't directly answer your question about "why was 4.1 so different?" - but gives you an idea about why I was skeptical when you saw charging rates as low as you did.
I dunno, maybe the % charge prediction value numbers are screwy on your tab for some strange reason in 4.2, perhaps because of a minor hardware difference. I can't rule it out - I once saw a bug expression in a hardware/software combination that required three independent conditions (from three separate vendors!) to have precise configurations before the bug would show itself.
I hope this post gives you some ideas to try; it certainly doesn't give a solution.
Good luck - if you feel like spending more time investigating, go for it; just don't let the clock run out on the warranty period if you have one left.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow thank you so much for the help. I'll play around with this tonight and see what happens. If I can't figure it out by the morning I think I'll be able to RMA it without feeling like I just rolled over and let my n7 get the best of me.
So after charging it on stock 4.2.1 with the power completely off it only charged 3% in a little over a hour and voltages read 3.6. I'm gonna leave it on the charger over night turned on starting from 3% with only two extra battery monitoring apps installed and report back in the morning with screenshots of the results. After that ill probably revert to 4.1.2 drain the battery fully, charge it off for an hour report the values then let it charge fully with the battery apps on for reference take a few more screenshots then lock the bootloader install the ota and ship it off to good old ASUS since it sounds like its hardware from whats been explained.
FWIW, I drained my N7 last night (LOL, typing novels into XDA threads) - when I finished I was at 6% charge - that was 3.66v. In the morning @ 100%, the battery voltage was 4.1-something.
Sounds to me like you've definitely got a hardware problem.
Good luck with the RMA.
Canyou help me?
Since I flashed 4.2.2 my 240V-USB charger only cahrges thes battery about 5% in one hour.
Before (with 4.2.1) It was definitely faster. It charged more tha 5% per hour (maybe 20-25%).
I double checked the plug in the socket. checked the correct fit of the USB cable on the docking station.
Everything fits tight. No wiggle.
It must be software related, since it started after flashing the OTA zip from 4.2.1 to 4.2.2
Polarfuchs said:
Canyou help me?
Since I flashed 4.2.2 my 240V-USB charger only cahrges thes battery about 5% in one hour.
Before (with 4.2.1) It was definitely faster. It charged more tha 5% per hour (maybe 20-25%).
I double checked the plug in the socket. checked the correct fit of the USB cable on the docking station.
Everything fits tight. No wiggle.
It must be software related, since it started after flashing the OTA zip from 4.2.1 to 4.2.2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From a partially charged state, say below 50%, turn the device off, (NOT sleeping, but powered OFF) and put it on the charger for one hour.
It should charge at around 30-40%/hr.
As I pointed out above, how is it possible that software would be affecting the charging with the device turned OFF?
I believe you are seeing exactly what you report; my best guess is that a hardware problem occurred just about coincidentally with your upgrade. Just coincidence - not causation.
You also should inspect the battery voltage (see above for path in /sys) in case something crazy is happening with the %charge *prediction* (it is not a measurement) - because the total charging range is from about 3.65v-4.15v, a normal charge rate should be roughly 150 to 200 mV/hr
good luck
Hi guys,
I have an old WinMo phone (HTC Gene) and about a year ago it stopped working due a problem in the battery indicator. The problem is in the main board and there's no way to fix it, beside replace the entirely board.
I just realized that the OS (or the battery driver, I don't know exactly) is reporting about 0.5v less than the real battery voltage. It means that, when the battery is full (4.2v) Windows thinks the battery is just a half charged (3.7v). It turns off when the battery is still at ~3.85v, reporting "0% - 3.35v"
There must be a way to, via-software, pass a false voltage reading to OS, with plus that 0.5v.
Or, maybe, a way to just stick the battery meter at any percentage, which will make the phone turn off when the battery PCB automatically cuts the current when at a very low voltage.
Anyone knows a way to force a false battery state? Or just point me a way to search more.. registry keys, dll's, the Windows process that retains the battery state, anything.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance, and sorry for my English.
Rachid.