Possible dead battery - Droid X General

My phone keeps saying battery is invalid and won't charge. I've managed to do an SBF (twice) so i don't think its software related. any ideas?
I know I can send it to motorola to get it fixed but would rather not have to wait. If it is just the battery and nothing wrong with the phone would a local verizon store be able to replace it for me?

Im assuming this is the stock OEM battery your talking about, if thats the case, bring your phone back to factory spec and take it to your local verizon store and have tech support look at it... theyll probobly just swap the battery out, see what happens.. if the batterys junk theyll hook you up with a new one

yeah its OEM and the phone is in factory condition (a good thing because I wouldn't be able to get it there now) so I'll give that a try, as motorola said they were OUT of replacement batteries >:O

Ok I took it to verizon and they said apparently the water exposure indicator had been tripped (complete BS, never got anywhere near water) so they wouldn't cover a new battery so I bought one (they said it was the battery's problem). get home and pop in the new battery to still get the same error. so now it MUST be something with the phone, which apparently now has a void warranty!
am I completely screwed here? Is there any way this COULD be a software issue??? or is there any way to get the phone fixed even though the GD water thing is tripped? I JUST got the phone so its still within that 30 day grace period... would it be returnable?

Related

G1 Completely dead

G1 just died today, no idea whats going on. I looked at my phone about half an hour ago and it was at 68% battery.
I just looked at it, and its dead, tried to pull out the battery, and put it back in. Still wont power on, connected it to the charger and the led didnt even turn on. I started looking for my backup battery, went back to the phone and it was on the T-mo splash screen and just faded out, waited for a bit, nothing. Replaced the battery, still nothing. Left it on the charger for a few minutes still nothing
I havent messed with the SPL or anything. I was rooted with my apps on my sdcard, and on Cyanogen 3.8.1 (no theme)
Any ideas? I dont think I'll be covered under warranty cuz I'm in Canada, and I just bought the phone used off someone in the states before it was released here
Sounds like a hardware failure.. It should be covered under the HTC warranty no matter where you bought it.. You'll probably have to pay shipping though.
goldenarmZ said:
Sounds like a hardware failure.. It should be covered under the HTC warranty no matter where you bought it.. You'll probably have to pay shipping though.
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Click to collapse
Devices branded by HTC's partners are covered by the partner, not HTC.
jashsu said:
Devices branded by HTC's partners are covered by the partner, not HTC.
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Oh right... I thought I'd read about people with US g1's returning them to htc under warranty, but I could be mistaken.
goldenarmZ said:
Oh right... I thought I'd read about people with US g1's returning them to htc under warranty, but I could be mistaken.
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Click to collapse
Probably folks who erroneously thought they were returning to HTC for repair, when really it was T-Mo taking care of it. Repairs are pbb just contracted out to a third party tech repair service anyway. Cheaper that way.
CrownMe,
I am sorry to hear this, and I honestly hope that you can get this thing running again. Did you get it wet in any way? If so, I have some suggestions.
Also, I have a partially broken G1. If you end up selling or throwing away this thing, please PM me because I need the parts.
Thanks,
--Ed
nope didnt get it wet or anything (ever). It was sitting beside me the whole time in my belt clip.
What do u guys think is my best bet? calling up htc or t-mo ... I dont think T-mo will care cuz I'm not a customer of theirs.
... is there no other possibilities at all, other than a complete hardware failure?
I've been reading around a lot of other forums and was surprised to find that there have been a lot of phones that did just this--suddenly could not power on, even with a different battery and plugged in. In these cases, T-Mobile sent a replacement phone.
Does it do the power-up vibrate when you turn it on? If so, perhaps removing the SD card before boot? If not, it sounds a lot like the phone-of-death scenarios I was looking at.
Does anyone you know have T-Mobile? Maybe they could get service done for you through their contracts?
nope no vibration, nothing. I pulled my sd card and tried as well, still nothing. The phone seems to be absolutely dead. I called t-mobile, they told me they couldnt do anything for me but transfered me to htc.
Htc told me to send in my phone to them at my own cost. They will asses it, and if it's a manufacturers defect they will fix it (they claim they never replace anything) and send it back to me at my cost (since I'm not in the United States). If its not a manufacturers defect they will charge me $30 assessment fees.
I really cant think of this being anything but a manufacturers defect. The phone has never been exposed to water. Has been dropped a few times in the past, but never anything serious.
... I'm going to give it till tomorrow, maybe I'll find someone thats faced something similar and fixed it. If not I'll just send it in. I just dont want to be phonless for like a month and pay shipping back and forth (I find that a bit ridiculous)
ok just an update... I took my battery out of my phone, my sim card, and my sd card. and left it for about 12 hours.. Plugged the battery back in and the phone came back on!!!!!
I did get a bunch of error msg's though so I'm just going to re-flash my phone to 3.8.1 again

Rooted G1 Won't Power On - HTC Support Conversation

UPDATE : HTC was kind enough to replace the motherboard! Issue resolved! Thanks HTC and everyone who helped me here....
I have dealt with Apple support and they have excellent support, never had to pay for shipping.
Situation : I have a rooted G1 with Cyanogen's 4.0.1 ROM. I was listening to music and stopped the music app. After 3 hours, the G1 won't power on - no LEDs nor backlight nor the vibration. It just lays dead.
Steps taken : Tried pushing the power button to no avail. Removed the battery. Left the phone charging overnight. No dice!
Further steps (HTC Support) : This is where it gets interesting! The guy was more than happy to setup a repair.
REPAIR DISCLOSURE
1. All units will be charged a triage fee of $39.00 or less. This includes
technical assessment and diagnosis.
2. Rooted G1's - minimum of $379 to repair!
3. I should pay for shipping (incoming HTC).
Frankly, these phones are not worth $400 anymore. Any suggestions are really appreciated. Should I consider getting it repaired via HTC?
Thanks in advance! I have been on XDA_Dev Forums for years, never faced such an issue (Windows Mobiles...) but Android device (G1) is posing issues. Please help guys!
Are you still under warranty? If so they'll fix it for free at least that's what I've experienced the last 2 times I mailed mine in. They told me about the 39.00 thing but never charged me. If you aren't under warranty it'll be cheaper to buy a used G1 if they want to charge you 379 to repair.
Or I would unroot the phone
jigdagod : Yes, I am still under warranty. The guy @ HTC says all G1's should still be under warranty. HTC's repair process sounds kinda shady - atleast the way he dealt with me on the phone call. So, my question is : Will they be able to determine that my phone is rooted even though the display doesn't turn on?
nolimit78 : I would love to unroot but since the phone doesn't respond at all (no lights, no nothing!), there is little I could do when it comes to modifying the software in the current situation.
Thanks for the help guys, any more HTC rooted G1 experiences?
I was able to unroot mine before sending it back, but mine was very obviously opened, void sticker removed, and plastics broken. It was ugly. Inside, the fabric tape and kapton tape were gone. They covered everything under warranty. I dont know why they would care if it was rooted- so long as rooting it was not the cause of the damage. And honestly, if it doesnt boot, then they dont know. Just dont tell em. Worst case scenario they charge you the "$39 or less" triage fee, and send it back to you still broken, you will not be out the $380 at any point.
Out of curiosity, you say you let it charge overnight...was the LED normal (orange/green) during the charge? Maybe you killed the battery? It will not boot with a bad battery plugged in or not...I tried! LOL
No LED lights at all. Absolutely no form of light can be seen on the device.
Question : If I take the battery off and then charge the phone without battey, should the phone charge normally?
I hate spending $39 for diagnosis alone. I am spoilt with Apple support! They are lot better IMO!
gospeed.racer said:
I was able to unroot mine before sending it back, but mine was very obviously opened, void sticker removed, and plastics broken. It was ugly. Inside, the fabric tape and kapton tape were gone. They covered everything under warranty. I dont know why they would care if it was rooted- so long as rooting it was not the cause of the damage. And honestly, if it doesnt boot, then they dont know. Just dont tell em. Worst case scenario they charge you the "$39 or less" triage fee, and send it back to you still broken, you will not be out the $380 at any point.
Out of curiosity, you say you let it charge overnight...was the LED normal (orange/green) during the charge? Maybe you killed the battery? It will not boot with a bad battery plugged in or not...I tried! LOL
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How did you unroot your G1 when it doesn't power on? They serviced a phone with warranty seal broken??
Thank you!
Mine powered on, it had a problem waking up. But yes, it was obviously tampered with. I told them I bought it off Craigslist (which I did) and they took care of it.
I suspect the battery due to how it died- it may (MAY) be that it drained too far, and the protection circuitry is keeping it from charging now. Find someone with a G1 and borrow their battery. Craigslist is your friend! Or eBay, can probably get one to your door for $5 Where are you located?
kkiran said:
No LED lights at all. Absolutely no form of light can be seen on the device.
Question : If I take the battery off and then charge the phone without battey, should the phone charge normally?
I hate spending $39 for diagnosis alone. I am spoilt with Apple support! They are lot better IMO!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't charge the phone lol.... you can charge the battery only. What I found is that you cannot turn on the G1 with it plugged into the charger w/o a battery. If the battery is damaged in anyway, it will not boot. However, you can easily replace it for ~$10 on ebay (I don't remember how much the OEM batteries are, but they are not very expensive)
Do what gospeed.racer says and get a friends G1 battery and test to see if it works (or take it to a T-mo store and ask them if they can check the battery for free)
Tmo store...thats an even better idea! They are everywhere and always seem to have half-charged batteries laying around. Plus they may be able to put in the call for you to get a replacement under warranty
I don't think they can tell at least they didn't say anything to me about it being rooted.
Thanks for clearing it out guys. So, we won't be able to turn it on without a battery (by the charger alone).. That's good to know!
TMo store - I'm hoping they would help. They are not always friendly. Will post my results here. Thanks everyone
If there is no light when it is charging, then another possibility is that the usb port on the phone has loosened from the main board. Stick in the cable and try moving the end around to see you can get the light to come back on.
I also got word from Drizzy that when I sent my phone to HTC they installed "breaker board" mainly a lock board that won't cause interceptions like flashing certain stuff. He said he only read about it he's not 100%. Which to me might be correct because I can only install up to H 6.01 ROM. I tried Hero and other and it won't work at all. Just more info to think about before sending it i to HTC.
I have Hero on mine that was returned from HTC, and they did replace both boards. Just a FYI, more of a YMMV I guess.
Had same problem
Had same problem here
Phone didnt power up ,no lights when charging, nothing
then i just used the AC Charger (Motorola one) instead of using computer usb
and then like magic i see an orange led ,then after like 5min i power up it
i guess sometimes usb volts is problematic
tell me if this helps ya bro
@LowTek : I used different chargers to no avail Thanks for the tip though!
@ gospeed.racer : I visited T-Mo store, tried another battery to no avail! Lucky you! They replaced even though it had Hero on it?! Do you know anyone who works there or what is the trick? Or were you being just lucky
@ jigdagod : Hmmm, breaker board sounds scary! But I will be selling it off if they made it work. Not so impressed with the quality. Might invest in a HTC Hero with 850/1900 bands or worst case, HTC Magic just so that I can test ATT's 3G speeds and post reviews on my blog. I am hoping Google will come up with a solid reason to leave the iPhone at bay!
@ badbob001 : Tried that to but nada
I will be sending it to HTC and hoping that they won't charge me any fee! Thanks a ton guys and I will keep you guys posted for documentation purposes just in case someone goes through the same phase!
kkiran said:
@ gospeed.racer : I visited T-Mo store, tried another battery to no avail! Lucky you! They replaced even though it had Hero on it?! Do you know anyone who works there or what is the trick? Or were you being just lucky
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ok, again I will tell the story. It HAD hero but had a problem waking up. Not all the time, only when sleeping. If I never let it sleep, it was never a problem. I was able to unroot, put it back to rc29, and send it in. It looked stock and was stock. When I got it back, I didnt even boot their rom. I put hero back on it, and no problems there either. Since then I have put many roms on it without any issues.
Thanks all! HTC replaced the motherboard and sent it back! I never expected this from HTC cos' I rooted G1 and put Hero on it. They either ignored the fact or they couldn't figure it out! All in all - a fantastic experience. Now I am off to selling it, haven't even used it for more than 5 days in total. I wish they come out with ATT 3G frequencies, HTC Hero hopefully!

Issue/Resolve of odd phone not booting. *plz read just in case it happens to you*

Hello All, I just found out this info and felt the need to pass it along even if the fact that this is most probably a rare issue.
One day my hero just quit booting into android. Could not use adb (didn't get that far into booting android/wouldnt boot at all). Could not get into recovery, and it only showed the very first white HTC screen with green letters.
Luckily I could boot into hboot, which I used to wipe the phone thinking my recovery/bootloader borked on me. No deal. It wiped/flashed HERCIMG.zip, however STILL wouldn't boot into android.
Took it to the store, and got a replacement. First, they just tried booting the old phone.. same issue, so they got me a replacement hero out, and put in the old battery. Didn't boot.. I thought hmm... Maybe just the battery? So they put a new battery in my old hero. Still wouldn't boot. So they put the new battery into the new hero. Booted! Ok, so they were both borked... but no!
Today I get a text message stating that the carrier is charging me $54 for replacement out of warranty... I thought to myself that is really odd because if they found it was rooted/custom rom/etc (which I wiped from hboot) then they would charge me full price (up to $150). I figured it was spam but decided to call the carrier.
Carrier told me it WAS from them (or rather the warranty company), but it was because they found NO FAULT in the phone, and that price was to rebuild the phone to resell as a refurb?!
They don't send the batteries in with broken phones for warranty. So here is what must have happened:
Battery was shot.
New phone wouldn't boot with old battery
Old phone wouldn't boot with old battery
New phone does boot (and is working fine btw) with new battery(well rather used but different battery because they don't give new batteries with replacement phones.. F*ked up I know..)
Old phone WAS booting with new battery, however since I wiped it, it was building dalvik cache so it looked like it wasnt booting!
I am now disputing the claim because the fault would lie with the store clerk who warrantied the phone and not me. It was his decision not mine.
So bottom line, if your phone is having these same issues, go get a friend's hero, use the battery to see if it works, and if so then that's the issue.
WoW! I can see a charge of a replacement done through a phone call. But the tech made that call not you. I sent one back through a phone call that I had dropped, phone worked but I told them it wouldnt connect to internet. Before I sent it back I downloaded a TON of apps to the point it wouldnt run very well due to memory being full, I am lucky they didnt charge me!
How long before they charged you, its been almost 2 months and no charge for me, yet. lol
btw - the old battery might be 'fine' now as well...
i lost my phone for a couple months, battery dead, put on charger, green light (charged), so tried to boot - nogo...
had replacement phone/battery, put this 'good' battery into old phone - it, eventually, DID boot (you kinda screwed cuz didnt know that no-os=no-boot)...
now, i WAS able to get the old-battery that supposedly was 'full' to start charging on new-phone - but it (battery) was nowhere near full...
eventually both batteries and both phones are now back-to-normal, but if battery dies - i think something gets reset in the phone-that-had-battery-death that wont get fixed immed...
hth, h.
btw - yes, your case is the sprint-techs-fault... but, to-be-fair, he could not have known that there was no-os on your phone... thus, your-fault for taking a not-warrantable (???) phone in for repair ? idk, gl...
hfelton said:
btw - the old battery might be 'fine' now as well...
i lost my phone for a couple months, battery dead, put on charger, green light (charged), so tried to boot - nogo...
had replacement phone/battery, put this 'good' battery into old phone - it, eventually, DID boot (you kinda screwed cuz didnt know that no-os=no-boot)...
now, i WAS able to get the old-battery that supposedly was 'full' to start charging on new-phone - but it (battery) was nowhere near full...
eventually both batteries and both phones are now back-to-normal, but if battery dies - i think something gets reset in the phone-that-had-battery-death that wont get fixed immed...
hth, h.
btw - yes, your case is the sprint-techs-fault... but, to-be-fair, he could not have known that there was no-os on your phone... thus, your-fault for taking a not-warrantable (???) phone in for repair ? idk, gl...
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Interesting... In many ways.
Actually I take back the comment on the in store tech. He actually did his part, and was very nice about it. We both felt it was the phone and the battery. It was just one of those mishaps where it looked like a duck, walked like a duck but was actually a goose.
And there was an os on the phone, not rooted and the HERCIMG.zip I flashed from hboot was the carrier's RUU not a custom rom btw. Therefore making it fully warrantable ry.. heh.
Sheesh this is crazy, I've had 4 herocs none of mine ever had problems but I called and made some random junk up to get new ones cause I'm picky about little scratches and etc lol I know its bad but hey I pay for insurance and my monthly bill is 150 so they can kiss my a$$ . Every time I would fine a scratch that bothered me I would just send it back and say something random, they didn't care and just sent one out 4 different times. I never felt bad I've been with sprint for 4 years never late on my bill and their customer service always treats me like crap or maybe my luck is bad. But my point is nothing was ever wrong with my phones and they never charged me.
Sent from my HERO200 using Tapatalk
dirkyd3rk said:
Sheesh this is crazy, I've had 4 herocs none of mine ever had problems but I called and made some random junk up to get new ones cause I'm picky about little scratches and etc lol I know its bad but hey I pay for insurance and my monthly bill is 150 so they can kiss my a$$ . Every time I would fine a scratch that bothered me I would just send it back and say something random, they didn't care and just sent one out 4 different times. I never felt bad I've been with sprint for 4 years never late on my bill and their customer service always treats me like crap or maybe my luck is bad. But my point is nothing was ever wrong with my phones and they never charged me.
Sent from my HERO200 using Tapatalk
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Lol! Well, I guess it's just which way you look at it. I wish I still had my old hero cause I knew exactly every blemish on it (which had VERY few btw) so if I ever had to identify it I could do so easily.
Also, I don't like doing returns unless I have to. But at the same time, I don't pay extra on phone insurance, and your bill is $150/mo?! Damn! What plan do you have? I pay $120 for unlimited EVERYTHING for two phones per month, and the only thing I don't have is mms ($10 extra, but I don't do mms anyways so I could care less).
If your in the south eastern region of the U.S. you should consider checking out Cellular South man, cause no one can beat their plans, and even though you have to sign 2yr contract (they do not have 1yr contracts) you way less in the longrun, and their service is actually quite good (well... depending) but not as bad as what I have heard about sprint at least.

[Q] Bricked or peice of poop right out of the box

Hello, Im stumped I just bought a brand new phone from ebay sealed in the box its a tmobile htc hd2. upon opening it from the box and turning it on the phone would get stuck at the stick together screen. never did fully boot once. then after about 10 min of waiting i pulled the battery and put it back in. Then the phone would only light up the keys and nothing else. once again took the battery out and put it back in. Now NOTHING, wont respond to any type of reset and wont do nothing. wont charge wont connect to pc did I just get a dud RIGHT out of the box? i did nothing to make this happen i didnt even get to the main screen urgh $450 later one month in shipping to receive what looks like a dud. Checked battery voltage its at 3.75 volts fully charged. wtf?
bump bump bump
That's not impossible.
Try to hardreset it, hold down both volume buttons and power on.
If it doesn't work, do you have the phone's warranty? Get it to HTC and they'll fix it / give you another one.
If not... try checking the eBay warranty that gives you the money back, don't know exactly how it works but i know there's something like this.
If all this doesn't help... then i'm sorry.
Not sure if you're in the United States, but at a T-Mobile store, a brand new HD2 will go for ~$450, and come with a one year warranty.
Hope all works out well.
Hey guys. No I live in Calgary Canada and I ordered this phone to work with our WIND mobile service provider. I tried everything... it wouldnt respond at all... funny though even though it didnt show any signs of life it was charging the batter PAST its rated 3.7 volts. At one point I read 4.2 volts at the battery while out of the phone which is strange to start with. Thinking it was the battery I hard wired the phone to a spliced USB cord to see if it would power up and still it did nothing. I then said this is ridiculous and called tmobile and htc. all I have to say is WOW. Tmobile is serious about customer service even for me not being a client of thiers. Same goes for HTC. both offered to repair or replace the phone as it was brand new and they could see from imei.t-mobile even offered to refund my money which i didnt even pay to them in the first place. Wish we had customer service like that up here in calgary where the city is run on oil money and oil hungry people.. not cool. Anyways I talked to my seller off ebay because I didnt want to wait and he agreed to send me a new one overnight express with fedex and i will get it saturday. I sent this one back already forget trying to fix a problem matic phone. Oh yeah this next one was tested before shipment BUT I did read there is alot of people with this problem and no one has an answer still...............
thanks anyway guys
The battery's supposed to go to 4.26V. And it's good that you're getting another.

Bought brand new G2 that came with 2.3.3[Battery question]

So 3 days ago I bought a brand new G2 off cragislist (still had all the peel off stickers) for 200. The guy said he had it replaced by t-mobile cause his old phone didn't send mms or something. His daughter bought him a newer phone so he decided to sell this one. Anyway, he gave me his old battery and battery cover since tmo didn't include it.
when I first got it the battery life was terrible, and I didn't even have the data plan hooked up yet. After connecting to my wifi and surfing/downloading apps, about 10% drained in less than a few minutes. I let it drop to 30% and charged it fully (first time). The first thing I noticed was that it was kinda "stuck" at 100% for a while... then it dropped to about 96% and started draining from there. I then made sure to turn all the data and wifi off and went to sleep when it was at 78%. Woke up 8 hours later and it dropped to 71.
Now my question is, should I have charged it all the way, then played with it til it died, then recharge it again? Or is that unnecessary since the battery is old anyway and it doesn't matter if its a new phone?
After a few more charges, it seems like the battery is a bit better but I'd still like for it to last longer. I still feel like I'm getting inaccurate readings though. Still gets stuck at 100%, then at 70%. Should I let it die all the way to calibrate the battery?
Also, I heard rooting the phone and flashing the cm7 rom will improve battery life, is that true? Cause I had the mytouch3G a while ago so I'm sorta familiar with the rooting process but I didn't notice any battery improvements.
Thanks.
edit: the phone came with the 2.3.3 firmware.
The age of the battery is irrelevant since the phone is new, and the phone calibrates itself based on how you use it to give the best possible battery life, aside from the occasional run-away app/process. It is always best to take the battery all the way dead and fully charge a few times (like 3-5) to get the most out of it. This has been my experience, and what Tmo recommends when you buy any new android phone from them.
I contacted HTC to inquire how they recommend the battery be charged. Below is their response:
A lithium-ion cell phone battery needs to be conditioned when brand new. For the first three charge cycles, fully charge the battery overnight and allow it to fully discharge before recharging. Extensive overcharging may damage a Lithium-ion battery or if it is left on the charger for more than 24 hours.
Lithium-ion batteries operate more poorly at low temperatures. Temperatures below freezing can cause the battery to lose its discharge levels and sputter out more quickly. While these batteries do not suffer from memory effect, they should be fully charged and discharged every 30 uses.
I've got a G2 with the 2.3.3 firmware, just received as an insurance replacement last week.
I can confirm that the battery life is appallingly bad. I used to go through 75% of one battery in a day, I'm going through two batteries daily now.
This beta build is a POS!
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA Premium App
So is it too late to condition the battery since I've been using it for a few days now?
For those that are rooted and running a custom ROM, did you notice any improvements in battery life? I'd imagine the power management is better and that getting rid of all the tmo bloatware would make it easier on the batt.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk
rommy0515 said:
I've got a G2 with the 2.3.3 firmware, just received as an insurance replacement last week.
I can confirm that the battery life is appallingly bad. I used to go through 75% of one battery in a day, I'm going through two batteries daily now.
This beta build is a POS!
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA Premium App
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Click to collapse
Glad I'm not the only one with this issue. What firmware were you running on your old phone? And would I be able to downgrade?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk
htc420 said:
Glad I'm not the only one with this issue. What firmware were you running on your old phone? And would I be able to downgrade?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
I was running CM 7.0.3 with fairly heavy daily usage. Have you noticed any other problems? I've noticed that apps don't show up in the app drawer unless you powercycle after download. Also, the browser seems to crash a lot, and it isn't playing well with the Amazon appstore. (Most of my apps that I had acquired on Amazon apparently can't be downloaded.)
There is a known battery drain issue on gingerbread for all phones. Also lithium ion batteries do not need to be discharged as this damages the battery itself. They are smart enough not to not require calibration.
htc420 said:
So is it too late to condition the battery since I've been using it for a few days now?
For those that are rooted and running a custom ROM, did you notice any improvements in battery life? I'd imagine the power management is better and that getting rid of all the tmo bloatware would make it easier on the batt.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Incidentally, if the phone was brand new, never been used, it probably shows in the "Device Model Warranty Tool" as a new phone with a twelve month manufacturer warranty and a three month accessories warranty. (The DMWT is an internal tool the TMO reps use to verify your warranty status)
You should be able to get an extra battery just by calling up and telling them that the battery you have dies very quickly. (All batteries have a 90 day warranty on them, and they don't require you to send back the old battery they just send you a replacement.) Tell them you've tried the master reset and playing around with the display settings and all that jazz. The trick is, whatever they suggest, just tell them you've already done it and sound convincing.
If the rep gives you a hard time, just call back and tell the next rep that your phone is randomly powering off and when they ask you if you've tried another battery, tell them no, because you don't have another battery to test. Lol, it's best if you sound kind of confused when they ask you that question That should lead them to a battery replacement on their troubleshooting flow.
Source: I worked for TMO in customer service and technical support for three years.
rommy0515 said:
I was running CM 7.0.3 with fairly heavy daily usage. Have you noticed any other problems? I've noticed that apps don't show up in the app drawer unless you powercycle after download. Also, the browser seems to crash a lot, and it isn't playing well with the Amazon appstore. (Most of my apps that I had acquired on Amazon apparently can't be downloaded.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have any problems with apps not showing up. My browser is just fine, it hasn't crashed once on me. Lastly, I don't use Amazon for apps, so I wouldn't know.
rommy0515 said:
Incidentally, if the phone was brand new, never been used, it probably shows in the "Device Model Warranty Tool" as a new phone with a twelve month manufacturer warranty and a three month accessories warranty. (The DMWT is an internal tool the TMO reps use to verify your warranty status)
You should be able to get an extra battery just by calling up and telling them that the battery you have dies very quickly. (All batteries have a 90 day warranty on them, and they don't require you to send back the old battery they just send you a replacement.) Tell them you've tried the master reset and playing around with the display settings and all that jazz. The trick is, whatever they suggest, just tell them you've already done it and sound convincing.
If the rep gives you a hard time, just call back and tell the next rep that your phone is randomly powering off and when they ask you if you've tried another battery, tell them no, because you don't have another battery to test. Lol, it's best if you sound kind of confused when they ask you that question That should lead them to a battery replacement on their troubleshooting flow.
Source: I worked for TMO in customer service and technical support for three years.
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Thanks for the suggestion man! I'll call them right now.
Do I need to give them the serial numbers, etc on the back of the phone or will they see it in their system? cause I have a hard plastic case on it and it's a bit of a pain to remove it.
Tell them that you aren't calling from the phone, otherwise they'll probably give you a hard time and try and get you on a different phone for "troubleshooting."
It might be easier if you waited about three days before you call, make a few phone calls with the new phone so that it shows up on their system. (Phones show up on the warranty system after the system "tags" them and you have to make a phone call for that to happen)
You can always get the IMEI number by hitting "*#06#" (no quotation marks) from within your dialer.
And don't tell them you bought it off Craigslist. Tell them you got it brand new for full retail at one of their third party dealer locations. (Car Toys, Jacks Cell Phone Emporium, The Phone store, whatever, it doesn't matter what you tell them, they won't look it up)
(Just in case you already called and they gave you a hard time, just call back a couple of times with some complicated troubleshooting questions, dropped calls are a good one for this and get the memo "buried" then call back and try again for the battery.)
Oh, wait, belay my last. Lol, sorry, I just realized I might be about to lead you astray.
You need to wait 14 days before you try this. If you do it before 14 days are up they're going to tell you to return the phone to the place you got it. They only do battery replacements after the "buyer's remorse" period is up.
(14 days everywhere in the US except for CA, where it's 30)
My bad!
(Again, if you already called and got the runaround, no worries, you can still make it happen, just call back a few times get them to troubleshoot some dropped calls or "dead spots" around your house, SMS problems, go over your bill a few times or whatever comes to mind, just so that whatever notes the rep left get buried in the memo list, then call back after the buyer's remorse period is up and go for the battery replacement)
Edit: I just realized you're in CA. You're going to have to wait 30. Sorry bro
Damn, oh well.
Btw, I googled "2.3.3 battery drain" and read up on some Nexus One users complaining about it. Pretty much all of them said that when they open up "Battery use" it tells them that the Android OS is using anywhere from 35-50% of the battery. But on mine, the display is using it the most. Second, it's voice calls and then Cell Standby. The OS isn't even on the list! Is this normal?
Are you still on Gingerbread btw? I want to downgrade to Froyo until this all gets fixed.
htc420 said:
I don't have any problems with apps not showing up. My browser is just fine, it hasn't crashed once on me. Lastly, I don't use Amazon for apps, so I wouldn't know.
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Lol, to be honest, I have four batteries for my G2, so I don't tend to pay that close attention to the battery life, although when I was rooted I played around with adjusting Wifi scan intervals with root tools and other settings with Juice Defender and had some major improvements. Mostly though CM7 and Pershoot's kernel took good care of me and I didn't worry about it that much.
My experience with Android is that it's the display that chews up most of the battery, I usually leave my display set on 100% brightness all the time and that uses the majority of the battery life. I haven't really looked into it farther than that. There's a pretty cool app called Screebl out there that adjusts your display timeout based on the phone's orientation that I use and I think that helps some with the battery as well.
Right now I'm waiting on another replacement, I told them this phone was randomly powering off so that they'd send me another one without arguing about it. This thing is way too buggy for me to deal with, plus I saw an article on Tmonews that had a screenshot from Streamline (the Tmobile intranet) that indicated that it was an "error" that caused people to get the beta 2.3.3 build through warranty replacement, so I'm hoping that the phone I've got coming has 2.2 on it. (Knock on wood)
If there's a method to downgrade, I don't think it's been made public yet. Everything I'm seeing on here, the Cyanogen forums and in #g2root indicates that at the present time the phone can't be downgraded, which sucks balls.
Heh, PM me if you run into a method that works! I'd be eternally grateful I want my root back!
(And you should check out the Amazon appstore. They give away a free paid app every day, and sometimes its a good one. Also some of their app prices are cheaper then the Android market)
carquote said:
I contacted HTC to inquire how they recommend the battery be charged. Below is their response:
A lithium-ion cell phone battery needs to be conditioned when brand new. For the first three charge cycles, fully charge the battery overnight and allow it to fully discharge before recharging. Extensive overcharging may damage a Lithium-ion battery or if it is left on the charger for more than 24 hours.
Lithium-ion batteries operate more poorly at low temperatures. Temperatures below freezing can cause the battery to lose its discharge levels and sputter out more quickly. While these batteries do not suffer from memory effect, they should be fully charged and discharged every 30 uses.
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This is all very false information, and poor recommendations.
Li-ion batteries do not need to be conditioned. Battery conditioning applies to old tech NiCad batteries. What you actually want to do is properly calibrate the volt meter on the phone itself. Charge fully to 100%, leave it there for a while to make sure its obtains the top-off charge, then drain to around 20% (repeat 3 times or so). Discharging a Li-ion battery too low can render it incapable of taking a charge, forcing you to replace the battery. There is a safety circuit to prevent this, but its not 100% failsafe. Several people on here have reported not being able to charge their G2's battery (and other phones too) after letting it discharge fully. And there is really no benefit to letting the battery drain until the phone is dead.
The battery meter may become inaccurate after a while, and re-calibrating may help. Again, charge to 100%, and drain to 20%. You can also clear the battery stats on the phone and start over.
You can read more on Li-ion batteries at Battery University:
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/do_and_dont_battery_table
htc420 said:
when I first got it the battery life was terrible, and I didn't even have the data plan hooked up yet. After connecting to my wifi and surfing/downloading apps, about 10% drained in less than a few minutes. I let it drop to 30% and charged it fully (first time). The first thing I noticed was that it was kinda "stuck" at 100% for a while... then it dropped to about 96% and started draining from there. I then made sure to turn all the data and wifi off and went to sleep when it was at 78%. Woke up 8 hours later and it dropped to 71.
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Since its a brand new phone, the battery/volt meter on the phone was not accurate. Cycling the battery by charging to 100%, and draining to 20%, repeat a few times, and you get more accurate battery meter readings. Your experience after charging and draining to 30% is probably more accurate than when you started. The batter meter being "stuck" at full is pretty normal. Mine usually says full for up to a couple hours, then drops much faster after that.
Also remember that the battery meter on phones is not that accurate to begin with, its a limitation of the technology. A 1% battery meter increment is misleading, they really aren't that accurate. In fact, some phone ROMs only display battery level in 10% increments. So take the battery levels with a grain of salt.
rommy0515 said:
My experience with Android is that it's the display that chews up most of the battery, I usually leave my display set on 100% brightness all the time and that uses the majority of the battery life. I haven't really looked into it farther than that.
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That's probably your main problem right there. The display backlight is the biggest battery drain for any smartphone, and 100% is way too bright. Looks pretty, but its killing your battery. Turn it down as much as your personal preference allows, and depending on your most typical lighting conditions. I have mine turned down to 35%. You will likely find your battery life to increase greatly.
Rommy, I was reading up on cyanogen forums and happened to run into your thread. You said you got a replacement with 2.2 on it... is there any way they can do that warranty thing for me as well since this is a new phone? I hate how I can't just downgrade I don't want to be stuck on this pos beta build.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk
htc420 said:
Rommy, I was reading up on cyanogen forums and happened to run into your thread. You said you got a replacement with 2.2 on it... is there any way they can do that warranty thing for me as well since this is a new phone? I hate how I can't just downgrade I don't want to be stuck on this pos beta build.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk
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Lol, I feel ya brother.
So here's where things stand as far as I understand your situation. (And bear in mind, Tmo policies may have changed since I left there, my info is close to a year old. The buyer's remorse policy as far as I know has stayed pretty constant though, as it's mostly dictated by applicable state law.)
Basically the way the policy is written is that you can't do a warranty exchange while you're within the "buyer's remorse period" that period is set by state law. Most states give you 14 days, CA gives you thirty. Lol, which normally would be cool, but kind of sucks for your situation
Like I said in my earlier post, assuming the phone really was brand new (and be aware, just because it had pull off stickers doesn't mean it's brand new, they put those on reconditioned phones as well) it should show up in the TMO "device model warranty tool" as a brand new device with a 1 year warranty on the equipment and a 90 day warranty on accessories. (A reconditioned device will either appear as "warranty not verified" or with a 90 day equipment warranty) The warranty should show up with the first day being the first day you made a phone call with the device.
Now, if you call and tell them you want a new phone, there's a couple of things to bear in mind. First, you need to give them a good story about why the phone is jacked up and can't be fixed through troubleshooting. Intermittent freezing is always a good one for that. Be sure to tell them you already tried a factory reset so that they don't make you do that and call back in three days or some such bull****. (Don't worry about what you tell them here, when the phone arrives at the repair center, nobody goes in to verify your story, sometimes reps will tell you that, but they're full of it. All they do is check for liquid damage and physical damage.)
Second, you may have to explain how you acquired the phone. (Whether or not you'll have to explain this is dependent on a bunch of factors and would take way too much time to explain. Suffice to say, be prepared to have an explanation.) DO NOT SAY YOU GOT IT ON CRAIGSLIST!!! (Lol) This will cause the rep to tell you that the warranty is not valid. (Technically the warranty may still be valid if you have insurance, which I'll explain later, but this is knowledge that the rep you're talking to probably doesn't have, and believe me, you don't want to spend half an hour trying to convince the rep and his supervisor to look closely into policy.)
The best story would go something like this: "Me and the Mrs. were on a trip to Vegas, and my phone started messing up so I stopped in at a store, I really can't remember the name, I think it was a Tmobile Store, but I'm not sure, it might have been called "Bob's Cell Phone Emporium" or "Jack of All Phones" or something like that. Honestly, the trip was so crazy, I can't even find the receipt now, but they told me the phone was brand new!" As long as the phone shows up with a warranty in the Device Model Warranty Tool, the rep isn't going to go investigating your story. (And if for some bizarre reason they try to, just hang up, call back and try again with a different rep)
I'm getting a little ahead of myself though. Before you do any of that, you need to do the following: Call TMO, and ask them what kind of warranty your G2 has. Ask them for dates. Tell them you just want the info for your records. (Again, if they ask where you got the phone, use some variation of the storyline I provided above) If they tell you, your G2 warranty expires on June 18, 2012, or whatever, you're golden. (Again, if the device was reconditioned, it might only have a 90 day warranty, still no problem) If they tell you that they don't have any warranty info, or if it's "warranty not verified" then don't argue with them, just hang up and call back and do the following:
(There are a myriad number of reasons the phone might show up as "warranty not verified" again, way too complicated to explain and not really relevant to what we're talking about anyway.)
Insurance time! Okay, so here's the deal with Asurion. Regardless of whether you feel their prices are highway robbery, (and they are, the price just went up too to 7.99
sometimes their service is useful. This would be one of those times. The rules for insurance (and please bear in mind that my info may be out of date, however I'm pretty sure this hasn't changed, but don't string me up if it has! lol) are that you can add it within 14 days of getting a new phone. It doesn't matter where you got the phone. (This came directly from an Asurion executive who once visited the call center I worked at) What Asurion looks at is whether you changed IMEI's within 14 days prior to adding their insurance. So, if you get the "warranty not verified" line, just call back, and tell the next rep that you want to add insurance. If they ask you if you just got a phone, the answer is yes. If they give you a hard time, don't argue, just hang up and try again. You'll find a rep who will add the insurance. Once you have the insurance, wait a day, then call back and tell them the phone is frozen. The PHP insurance will get you a replacement, and the TMO rep can put the exchange through without transferring you to anyone. (Sometimes the reps don't know that they can put exchanges through on "warranty not verified" equipment, so if they tell you they can't, just ask for a supervisor or threaten to cancel and get transferred to the save team)
You don't have to keep the insurance either if you think it's a waste of money. Just wait until you get the replacement device, make sure it works, then cancel the coverage if you don't want it.
Lol, okay that was a mouthful. Last point: buyer's remorse. What I was just telling you about checking the warranty status and adding insurance if necessary you need to do right now, because the clock is ticking on that. (14 days to add insurance from the first date of usage) Getting the actual exchange done may require waiting. (If it's a warranty not verified situation, you can probably just get it done now after adding insurance)
Now, one way to get around the thirty day wait may be to do the following. If you have a friend who lives out of state and who you trust, change your billing address to their house, hang up, call back and do an exchange and have the phone sent there, and from there they can send it to you. (Also remember if asked to tell them that you got the phone in a state other then CA, and you'll still have to wait until 14 days from the date of first usage has elapsed. Also, TMO won't let you change your billing address back to your house until 30 days have gone by from the date of change)
Lol, anyway, if you're confused by any of this, reply to this thread or PM me and I'll try to clarify whatever I said as best I can. Also, as a disclaimer, I'm not an insurance agent, so any discussion here about the ins and outs of Asurion's coverage is purely for educational purposes and shouldn't be taken as a promise of coverage
Thanks for the help man, really appreciate it. I called them and asked about my warranty and turns out the phone really is brand new. I bought it on the 14th and she told me I have the warranty until June 14th of 2012!
Now I told her about the issues I'm having with the 2.3.3 firmware (freezing up, restarting, browser crashing, battery life, etc) and she asked me where I got the phone. I told her I bought it at a tmobile store and she told me that if I'm experiencing these issues then I should take it back to the store as I have 30 days to return it.
I then told her I bought it while I was in Vegas lol. She said I'm sorry but she can't do anything at this point. I asked her if I could speak to one of her supervisors and she said told me to hold on while she looked over some things. After I got off hold I was told that it was a problem that a few people were experiencing but t-mobile and htc are supposedly working out a solution via an upgrade but she doesn't know when and couldn't give me a date(sounds like BS). Told me that they can't replace it and I asked for a supervisor once again.
She connected me to one, asked me if I did a reset, to which I replied yes. Finally, they allowed me to get it exchanged... asked me for my billing info but then told me that they charge $20 for this service (would be $5 if I had insurance). Told me it would be free at the place I bought from but that's obviously not a option for me.
I asked her what happens if my replacement phone comes with the same software and I experience the same issues... she informed me that tmo would waive the $20 fee.
Do they really charge $20 for all this or are they trying to rip me off? I've never done any replacements so I wouldn't know. lol
I'm willing to pay but if the Gingerbread fix/update is coming soon like the representative told me then I guess I could keep it. That's if the battery drain issue is fixed.

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