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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.
I've had an o2 mini s for about a week now and i'm pleased with it on the whole. My only real concern is battery life. My mini seems to drain much quicker than by xda 2 s which I had before. I seem to drop about 10% in 1 hour 10 mins and that's just a few calls/txts and minimum fiddling.
8:20 100%
9:42 88%
I've dropped all the o2 software and don't have any tricky 3rd party apps installed only;
xbar3 ( great btw )
avantgo wireless
ebook reader
tcpmp
I've read quite a few posts about battery life being good on this phone but i'm not seeing it. I'm still in my 14 day cooling off period and i'm considering sending it back for a replacement.
Jeff
Is Wifi off, bluetooth off. Do you check your email every ... minutes over GPRS?...
With email checking every 10 minutes my qtek battery last at least 2 whole days.
wifi/gprs/bluetooth all off - not used today
Just phone today - maybe 12 calls.
Time now 14:21 battery at 61% !
Now i'm worried ......I reckon i'll be down to 30% by this evening.
16:32 - 49%
maybe there are problems with these batteries i had problems with charging the battery it didnt seem to show correct level, sent it back for another unit
17:26 - 38%.
If another goes we'll be up here all day.
My battery life seems to be utter rubbish every time I charge my MDA Vario over the USB link. I can go to bed with 100% battery and find it dead by morning. This has happened two or three times since I bought it on 5th November. Last Saturday morning I had the USB cable connected to download some music to my SD card with 100% charge at 10:00. I played music for about an hour through the supplied headphones and by 13:00 I was down to 50% battery. By that evening I was down to a few %. I've read reviews that you you should squeeze about 10 hours of continuous music from this thing on one full charge so an hour of music and 7 hours of standby/sleep seems pathetic.
If I charge using the mains charger and sync over Bluetooth I get a standby battery life of about 5 days. Obviously that is shortened with use so in practice I am charging it every 2-3 days (no point starting a day with only 20% left!).
I have no idea why USB charging is completely hopeless. I have tried soft resetting or closing all active apps after charging, to make sure ActiveSync isn't actively running and causing a drain (just as you are advised to with a Bluetooth sync) but that seems to make no difference. USB charging is rubbish. Mains charging is the only way to go, IME.
21.50 - 24 %
Charging over USB hopeless
tdodd said:
I have no idea why USB charging is completely hopeless. I have tried soft resetting or closing all active apps after charging, to make sure ActiveSync isn't actively running and causing a drain (just as you are advised to with a Bluetooth sync) but that seems to make no difference. USB charging is rubbish. Mains charging is the only way to go, IME.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I confirm USB charging IS rubbish. The reason seems to be that the power available out of that conector on a PC is not enough to charge properly... I had the same issue with BA and Himalaya...
Answer: get a USB charger / car charger that can deliver 1A minimum.
BTW I found a craddle for the Wizard in Dubai @ Plugins. It comes with USB port/cable + power adapter. Works like a charme.
Cheers,
Hal.
tdodd said:
My battery life seems to be utter rubbish every time I charge my MDA Vario over the USB link. I can go to bed with 100% battery and find it dead by morning. This has happened two or three times since I bought it on 5th November. Last Saturday morning I had the USB cable connected to download some music to my SD card with 100% charge at 10:00. I played music for about an hour through the supplied headphones and by 13:00 I was down to 50% battery. By that evening I was down to a few %.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My C500 Did that when I had it Plugged in the Front USB ports on my case, I normaly had it plugged in to the onboard USB at the back of my pc with a usb ext cable so I could have it on my desk but I went off to a lan party and when I plugged everything back in I put my USB cable to front usb port and found it was Discharging my Battery instead of charging it, got my usb in Back port all is fine again now
Maybe you have yours in to the front USB port or non onboard port?
I use a laptop, which only has two USB 1.1 ports but they each supply enough juice to power a USB ADSL modem (not that I'm using one of those these days), which is more than some PCs will manage and also my USB hard drive, which my Shuttle won't. So there is no lack of power from the USB ports on the laptop.
Of course, the USB spec only permits a maximum current demand of 500mA so any equpiment expecting more should not be using USB for its power supply. In any event, the phone does charge from the USB ports, albeit very slowly, but eventually the orange charge light does go green. So my situation is not one of discharging instead of charging.
I've just swapped my ROM from Vario to k-jam so I'll see if that makes any difference to the performance. I know it's given me 802.11g, which was missing before.
I had an M500 briefly (Magician) on Orange that had very poor battery life, it was one of the reasons I ebayed it, gave the contract sim to my wife and started a cheaper better value T-Mobile account with an MDA Compact, which
had better battery life. Typically overnight after a full charge the Orange unit went down to 75% and the T-Mobile one was at about 98% on standby.
My Vario I have now, my other T-Mobile account has very good battery life and charges very well off USB. If I sync it in the morning whilst reading my emails and stuff, let it charge USb for about 25 mins, it'll be full and by the night it will have dropped down to about 80%. This is with about 30 mins of calls, about seven or eight emails sent/received and maybe 15 mins with WIFI on.
tdodd said:
I use a laptop, which only has two USB 1.1 ports but they each supply enough juice to power a USB ADSL modem (not that I'm using one of those these days), which is more than some PCs will manage and also my USB hard drive, which my Shuttle won't. So there is no lack of power from the USB ports on the laptop.
Of course, the USB spec only permits a maximum current demand of 500mA so any equpiment expecting more should not be using USB for its power supply. In any event, the phone does charge from the USB ports, albeit very slowly, but eventually the orange charge light does go green. So my situation is not one of discharging instead of charging.
I've just swapped my ROM from Vario to k-jam so I'll see if that makes any difference to the performance. I know it's given me 802.11g, which was missing before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you have a link to the imate rom? is the vario rom also available?
sundip said:
do you have a link to the imate rom? is the vario rom also available?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't remember for sure where I got the k-jam ROM ( I think someone saved a copy somewhere) but try here - ftp://ftp.clubimate.com/ - and then save file K-JAM_WWE_1010903_106_10110_ship.exe
That is a self installing upgrade that includes the whole k-jam ROM and k-jam extended ROM files.
I don't know where to get a Vario ROM from. I did back up my own copy (I hope) but the method is a bit whacky and as I only have a 1GB mini-SD card my ROM backup image is 1GB because the only way to secure the image is to dump the whole card to a file.
Before you go playing around do make sure you have your own backup of the ROM or if not the whole thing then the Vario extended ROM files at least. I'm using the k-jam ROM with the Vario Extended ROM.
Re: Charging over USB hopeless
hal said:
I confirm USB charging IS rubbish. The reason seems to be that the power available out of that conector on a PC is not enough to charge properly... I had the same issue with BA and Himalaya...
Answer: get a USB charger / car charger that can deliver 1A minimum.
BTW I found a craddle for the Wizard in Dubai @ Plugins. It comes with USB port/cable + power adapter. Works like a charme.
Cheers,
Hal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Is there any way to disable USB charging? I didn't connect USB very often since it will charge automatically and I don't like the battery be charged very often. It might kill battery soon. I like to sync with bluetooth; however it is much slower than USB. It's amazing if there is any tool to disable USB charging. Because it will sync fast and will not hurt the battery. Thanks for the suggestions in advance.
Cheers!
Michael
Re: Charging over USB hopeless
Michael Lin said:
Is there any way to disable USB charging? I didn't connect USB very often since it will charge automatically and I don't like the battery be charged very often. It might kill battery soon. I like to sync with bluetooth; however it is much slower than USB. It's amazing if there is any tool to disable USB charging. Because it will sync fast and will not hurt the battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are thinking of older batteries such as Nicads. Topping up often does not hurt Lithium batteries, in fact it's better for them. Their main enemies are deep discharge and heat - and that's exactly what you're subjecting it to by letting it run flat, then charging for hours to get it back to max.
Re: Charging over USB hopeless
Ineedtoys said:
You are thinking of older batteries such as Nicads. Topping up often does not hurt Lithium batteries, in fact it's better for them. Their main enemies are deep discharge and heat - and that's exactly what you're subjecting it to by letting it run flat, then charging for hours to get it back to max.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear Ineedtoys,
Thanks for the reply. I understand that there is no so called "memory effect" on Lithium battery; however when I checked the battery spec, I always found that there is a "charging cycle limitation". For example, a specific battery claimed that it can be rechaged 10,000 times, then very USB charging will be counted also. It will reach 10,000 times faster. This is my concern. I don't know if this is right or wrong. Can somebody help to clarify this?
B. Rgds.,
Michael
Re: Charging over USB hopeless
Ineedtoys said:
You are thinking of older batteries such as Nicads. Topping up often does not hurt Lithium batteries, in fact it's better for them. Their main enemies are deep discharge and heat - and that's exactly what you're subjecting it to by letting it run flat, then charging for hours to get it back to max.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear Ineedtoys,
Thanks for the reply. I understand that there is no so called "memory effect" on Lithium battery; however when I checked the battery spec, I always found that there is a "charging cycle limitation". For example, a specific battery claimed that it can be rechaged 10,000 times, then very USB charging will be counted also. It will reach 10,000 times faster. This is my concern. I don't know if this is right or wrong. Can somebody help to clarify this?
B. Rgds.,
Michael
Re: Charging over USB hopeless
Michael Lin said:
Ineedtoys said:
You are thinking of older batteries such as Nicads. Topping up often does not hurt Lithium batteries, in fact it's better for them. Their main enemies are deep discharge and heat - and that's exactly what you're subjecting it to by letting it run flat, then charging for hours to get it back to max.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear Ineedtoys,
Thanks for the reply. I understand that there is no so called "memory effect" on Lithium battery; however when I checked the battery spec, I always found that there is a "charging cycle limitation". For example, a specific battery claimed that it can be rechaged 10,000 times, then very USB charging will be counted also. It will reach 10,000 times faster. This is my concern. I don't know if this is right or wrong. Can somebody help to clarify this?
B. Rgds.,
Michael
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's true. It's the same with Notebooks. The more you charge it, while it's in use, the faster the battery gets "killed"!
Re: Charging over USB hopeless
Michael Lin said:
Hi,
Is there any way to disable USB charging? I didn't connect USB very often since it will charge automatically and I don't like the battery be charged very often. It might kill battery soon. I like to sync with bluetooth; however it is much slower than USB. It's amazing if there is any tool to disable USB charging. Because it will sync fast and will not hurt the battery. Thanks for the suggestions in advance.
Cheers!
Michael
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Answer my own question.
I am quite sure that the USB charging can be disabled since I used to see the config on a HP device. I also believed that this can be done by 'registry' since it is Windows tradition. I finally found it after a short study. Please go to
HKLM\Drivers\BuiltIn\usbfndrv
and change the
EnableUsbCharging to '0'
then
soft reset => Bingo.
Hope it helps.
Michael
Hrm.. This is interesting.. I used to always charge my G1 with AC power. However past couple days, I was lazy and used my laptop USB to charge it. I noticed those days however the battery life was HORRIBLE! I mean I couldnt even get past lets say 9 hours without the battery being at 15-30% and this is without doing anything major. On AC I always got home with 50%.
Has anyone else noticed this? I am using the power profiler mode, so unless something goes out of whack on USB power mode, which I dont see why it would...
(Also I did turn off phone and back on to reset anything just in case) but its just a interesting thing that it seems USB charges suck?
Yes I noticed the same thing, used the computer USB to charge and only lasted about 6 hours of the day. I use the Wall charger and get about 9 hours consistantly. Not sure why but I have noticed this several times........
Mark
Every Tmobile rep I've talked to always say the AC charger does a better job of charging the phone.
Hrm, is this info on a G1 Wiki yet? Would be good info to pass around. My logicial guess is that USB charging can only allow the voltage on the battery to charge to "x" max. While AC power being stronger could bring the battery up more. I cant say thats fully the case.. but since the USB cannot supply the power max a AC could.. its possible.
I've got and idea for a little test, would be helpful to see a lot of different users results as well..
Get Battery Graph, run your phone dead, plug in usb charger and graph. then take a screenshot of the overall charge time, clear graph
Run it dead again, plug in AC charger #1 and and repeat
Repeat the process for each additional recharging apparatus
The reason I mention additional apparatuses is because I think my car's DC charger does better than both ac and usb (tho this will be hard to get a full accurate graph of) , also I use my gf's moto charger from time to time (i know bad mojo)..
This will probably take a few days as charging will take place at sleep time for me but this should give us an over all view of how things are working if we all get pretty consistent results..
Mysticales said:
Hrm.. This is interesting.. I used to always charge my G1 with AC power. However past couple days, I was lazy and used my laptop USB to charge it. I noticed those days however the battery life was HORRIBLE! I mean I couldnt even get past lets say 9 hours without the battery being at 15-30% and this is without doing anything major. On AC I always got home with 50%.
Has anyone else noticed this? I am using the power profiler mode, so unless something goes out of whack on USB power mode, which I dont see why it would...
(Also I did turn off phone and back on to reset anything just in case) but its just a interesting thing that it seems USB charges suck?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had 4 different miniUSB charging phones and all of them have had this same behavior. I'm sure that the voltage coming through the USB isn't as strong as AC.
I have the same issue too...!!!
No offense.. but EVERY phone charges better w/AC versus USB .. This is not just a G1 issue .... lol
jamaicansolja said:
No offense.. but EVERY phone charges better w/AC versus USB .. This is not just a G1 issue .... lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed.
Also, USB charges at 500 mAh, while the AC gives double if i remember correctly.
jamaicansolja said:
No offense.. but EVERY phone charges better w/AC versus USB .. This is not just a G1 issue .... lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im wondering, if I use my usb while plugged into my laptop (for tether wifi app) will this hamper my battery life? I have the extended battery (2200mah) and I get far better life from it and to be honest I like the bigger size because the g1 felt too much like a toy to me before.
What do you guys think will this mess it up? I dont have wifi at home so the tetherwifi app is the only way I have net on my laptop unless I go somewhere where they have wifi. Cursed neighrbors and there password protected networks!
Might using a USB stepup voltage converter help? I've used it to charge my Nokia phone on usb in the past so it would reach the battery is full message.
The argument is usually that laptop usb don't output adequate voltage.
Its cheap and works for me on the nokia phone, Haven't tried it on the G1 yet though, can anyone find the ac charger's output info?
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2649
yea this goes for alot of devices.. my ipod/psp charge pretty slow compared to wall outlet, however i didnt really see strength difference.. never tried USB charging my g1
I think it's worth noting I have the G1, My girlfriend has a HTC Touch(Elfin)
Both use Mini-USB Charging, both have 5V 1A Batteries (can't remember mA rating though)
Through a wall charger, my phone seems to charge quicker, but I get no longer out of it, the same behaviour is exhibited with the Touch. Both USB and the Wall charger are rated at 5V (It would/coul destroy componants methinks if it was any higher).
USB's Specifications say that unless a device has special permissions, It can only draw 500mA, with a maximum of 1000mA and a very rare (as in, one maybe two things use it) 2000mA.
Also, I have a custom made USB charger, that takes 3 AAA batteries (1.5x3 = 4.5)
It causes the phones internal battery to mess up, but does actually charge it (just a lot longer than other methods). It's more of an extended battery however, as it says it is charging, yet the battery life slowly degrades.
It's simple really and it has already been explained.
The USB port on a computer is limited to 500mA for most devices where as AC chargers like
The G1's can rpovide up to 1 Amp, even more/less depending on the chargers.
It doesn't depend on the voltage but on the current delivered. Less current equals
More time to charge and viceversa,
There is no myth.
Hi all, there is a way to turn off the charging function when using USB ,
1-install FdcSoft TaskMgr from here
dotfred.net/TM/FdcSoft_TaskMgrv3.3_WM6.5.cab
2-go to Devices--->$device\BAT1(BAT1 and stop this service
3-thats All
To Use charge restart this service
hey thx for the tips! but after stop the service my o2 keep saying batt low...
Is there any reason why we would want to turn off this service?
I heard that it keeps your battery in good shape
peepe1302 said:
I heard that it keeps your battery in good shape
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not so sure about that... I've always charged both my O2 and the O1 before through usb and the battery has always been fine.
Actually, I even noticed that charging through usb takes longer but once it's charged it also lasts longer (this happened on the O1, haven't made the same comparison on the O2 yet)
Dunno if plugging / unplugging the usb cable too frequently can have some sort of ill effect on the battery life, but it's not like we're plugging it every 10 minutes is it?
Never had a battery problem with a "normal" usb usage and usb charging enabled so far...
Yes but not anymore
peepe1302 said:
I heard that it keeps your battery in good shape
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's always good to drink all the juice so the battery don't develop a offline or fake "memory".
Also the multi cell assembly insde the battery praticly don't allow batery memory anymore.
Thx for the reference
Regarding battery life
Hi,
Actually, for a battery it depletes it's life every second. There is no way of preventing this But we can extend the service life. For example the most basic rules:
1-Do not charge your battery unless it is almost empty
2-Avoid deep discharging (this is not possible with a PDA coz it has an early shut down routine)
3-Do not overcharge the battery (also this not possible, coz there is a voltage limiter by hardware)
4-Do not leave your battery in a high temperature environment (for example in a car during summer, we are using chemical-reaction batteries)
the rest is do not puncture, do not short circuit boola boola boola
ok, finally while using your PDA with a USB charging interface, it should stop charging when the battery is full (Even my mother's old nokia doing this)
Plus, how much it costs for a new battery? only few bucks.. ehh.. (not for an original one ofcourse)
PDA batteries, in most cases, are 3.7volts (charging voltage is 5volts by USB) and 1200 to 1500mAh (for the ones who doesnt know what is "mAh": it is the capacity of the battery and it means if you pull for example for a 1300mAh battery, 1300 "mili ampers per hour" it will deplete. Some of my friends they are using 3.7V 2000mAh batteries while their PDAs supplied with 1230mAh batteries, thus, standby time goes up to a week. They are not using their originals ofcourse. I dont understand why manufacturers are not supplying PDAs with these kind of batteries by standart. Even a chinese made battery can be so efficient. (I am using a chinese one, my original battery is 1300mAh, i could find 1500mAh same battery)
I spoke to my friends, they are not charging their 2000mAh batteries via USB/charger while battery is in the phone. Because there is an internal electrical resistance of every battery. May be PDA's battery charging circuit get damaged! Because of this if you plan to use a high capacity battery, charge it seperately by using another charging equipment.
Finally when you want to sell out your PDA install the original battery (which you have never used before hehe ) and get a higher price
This might be some really big idiotic question, but what if the service is down and the battery drains and the phone shuts itself off, will it turn on by connecting the charger to the phone?
I ask this because with the service off even the real phone charger wont work (at least while it is on)!
houssam10001 said:
Hi all, there is a way to turn off the charging function when using USB ,
1-install FdcSoft TaskMgr from here
dotfred.net/TM/FdcSoft_TaskMgrv3.3_WM6.5.cab
2-go to Devices--->$device\BAT1(BAT1 and stop this service
3-thats All
To Use charge restart this service
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just did what you said, and now the device\BAT1(BAT1 completely disappear! How am i supose to turn it on again now?
And no, i obviously didn't delect it, i just stoped the service and it vanished from the damn list!
im very interested in this but how can you restart the charging service?
Does anyone have any tips on how to properly break in the seidio extended battery? I feel like I need to break it in for it to work properly, but I have no idea how to do that. I'm not talking about calibrating it (leave it in for 8 hours, turn off, plug for 1 hour, etc., etc.), just breaking in a new battery.
Anyone have any suggestions? The instructions just say to charge it for 8 hours and then you'll see the full benefit after 5 - 6 charges.
Use an external charger to get a full charge on it the first few times you use it. I noticed on mine it would not get a full charge unless I used an external charger. The one I use is a Seidio purchased from amazon ($23) and you always have a battery with a full charge.
I put the extended battery in my phone and it showed it had a full charge in about an hour than I put it in the external charger and it charged for another 2+ hours. So I know my phone did not fully charge the battery, I experienced this on my first use.
jdh10475 said:
Use an external charger to get a full charge on it the first few times you use it. I noticed on mine it would not get a full charge unless I used an external charger. The one I use is a Seidio purchased from amazon ($23) and you always have a battery with a full charge.
I put the extended battery in my phone and it showed it had a full charge in about an hour than I put it in the external charger and it charged for another 2+ hours. So I know my phone did not fully charge the battery, I experienced this on my first use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the response. I actually noticed that if I shut off the phone it charges properly to 100%. I wonder if you see the same.
I use the same battery and never did any of that stuff and I use mine quite frequently although, I still turn my mobile network on/off as I need it and I get 2 days roughly, sometimes more, sometimes a little less depending on useage.
I thought it wasn't performing well, but last night I left it on overnight, just sitting on the couch, radio on, wifi on, GPS/Bluetooth off, and in about 7 hours it drained from 73% to 67%. I think I'm good now.