Database Users

Weird battery behaviour + device gets hot

So my battery is at 56%, I hook it upto the charger it's been on the charger for a good 2 hours now. I unhook it and my battery suddenly is at 30%...
Also I've noticed that my device gets hot, not burn your hands hot but noticably warm hot.
Should I be worried? Could there be a short somewhere, the device is just 3 days old.

was your wfi turned on during charging?

Yes it was

that sounds really bad especially since it didn't charge
did the light come on? you might want to consider getting an exchange

Yes the light did come on and the charging symbol did apear on the screen.

If wifi is turned on and set to best performance, and if you have backlight set to remain on when connected to external power, your device will drain more power that charge.
that will explain your battery/charge/heat issue

Actually I can confirm this shouldn't be true. I turned WiFi on, turned my brightness to maximum and always on. In about 10 minutes I went from 52% to 54%.
I was using the wall adapter to charge it. USB charging might be too slow to replenish that kind of drain.

definately exchange
you don't want it to blow up

Anyone having charging issues?

A friend of mine just picked up a Droid X today and he's having problems.
First, the charger it came with doesn't appear to charge, there is no charging indicator light.
I attempted to use a number of USB chargers, the first from my HTC Hero, another from an iPad, and a third is a cheap Chinese AC charger with a USB port that I picked up for my EVO.
The only charger that turns on the green light on the top is the cheap Chinese one.
If I plug it into my computer, I can also get the green light to come on, but it doesn't appear to be charging it. When the phone is on using the cheap charger, the phone appears to work, but says on the lock screen to plug the phone in.
Further, the lock screen is not responsive. We let it charge with the phone off for about a half hour with the green light on, the phone boot up and had a little bit of life and the screen did work, then it suddenly turned off and won't boot past the Motorola logo (just flashes for a couple of seconds then disappears.)
So, whats the verdict? Hardware problem or is anyone else experiencing this? The phone did completely die, so I wonder if that caused a problem of some kind.
Do you have a Green light when charging with the phone off? Does the light flash red when it's on and charging?
Thanks for the help!

I plugged it into my home computer and nothing happened vs. being able to charge my computer and nothing. Although the phone was about half way charged before I plugged at work, vs 10-15% at home.

Mine didn't charge while plugged into my netbook, but does charge while plugged into my PC, and definitely charges while plugged into the wall charger.

Update: After using the wall charger and fully charging it, I connected the Droid X to my computer and it now syncs up. Maybe the amount of battery power matters?

I don't think the green blinking LED is a charging indicator. Mine charges without it....but I notice when I was charging it the first time, it was going off when I had an unread text message. Is everyone sure the green LED is supposed to be a charging indicator? Mine's charging right now according to the bar on top when I turn it on while it's plugged into my computer.

I'm having a charging issue with my car charger.
When I plug it in to the car the audio volume drops to almost inaudible and the voice commands don't respond anymore.
This is with all the volume sliders set all the way up.
I have to reboot the phone in order to get it to work again.
I've charged it connected to my PC at home and work and it works fine with those.

Wow, the OP totally describe my problem i had too. I went back to Verizon and got another battery. My first battery wouldn't charge above 50% and the second came with 80% and we tried charging it at the store and it never went higher than 80%.I read on another forum that the charging indicator only reads at every 10% intervals, so that may be the problem. The rep and I at Verizon was watching it to see if it would move up to 81% so we would know it was working(beside the bubbles moving animation) and it didn't and we gave up, I will see what happens when I charge it tonite with the AC plug for the first time.

So the green LED light is not a charging indicator. Apparently, there is no charging indicator at all.
We left the phone off and plugged in with the stock charger, no light, but it did gradually move up.
I did some searching on the Motorola forums and another user ran into the same issue, he said that leaving the phone off and charging it for an extended period of time solved the problem.
I have no idea what the green light meant when it was plugged into my cheap Chinese charger, it must have been nothing.
It wasn't a text message or any other kind of notification since it was on only when the phone was completely off.
Before he left with the phone it was up to 90%. A brief press of the power button brought the phones battery state up, but didn't boot the phone.
Hope this helps anyone else with issues. Just plug it in and let it sit overnight.

I had a similar issue the first day.after overnight charge all seems normal for day two.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

Sirchuk said:
So the green LED light is not a charging indicator. Apparently, there is no charging indicator at all.
We left the phone off and plugged in with the stock charger, no light, but it did gradually move up.
I did some searching on the Motorola forums and another user ran into the same issue, he said that leaving the phone off and charging it for an extended period of time solved the problem.
I have no idea what the green light meant when it was plugged into my cheap Chinese charger, it must have been nothing.
It wasn't a text message or any other kind of notification since it was on only when the phone was completely off.
Before he left with the phone it was up to 90%. A brief press of the power button brought the phones battery state up, but didn't boot the phone.
Hope this helps anyone else with issues. Just plug it in and let it sit overnight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only charging indicator is the lock screen part if you just turn it on it will tell you at what point it is charged.

rog152 said:
Wow, the OP totally describe my problem i had too. I went back to Verizon and got another battery. My first battery wouldn't charge above 50% and the second came with 80% and we tried charging it at the store and it never went higher than 80%.I read on another forum that the charging indicator only reads at every 10% intervals, so that may be the problem. The rep and I at Verizon was watching it to see if it would move up to 81% so we would know it was working(beside the bubbles moving animation) and it didn't and we gave up, I will see what happens when I charge it tonite with the AC plug for the first time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will occasionally show 5% intervals when it gets below 20% (I've seen 20, 15, 10, and 5% intervals).
I've noticed my phone doesn't like charging from a computer while the battery is really low. Once it's had a little bit of a boost from the wall charger, it will charge fine off the computer.

I just changed to a new one today.a friend of mine is having the sand issues. As so did i. It seems its not the battery its a short on the ground on some phones. Its pretty awkward but it has only been a handful from a batch of thousands that were released. So were in good money.
Sent from my DROIDX via Telepathic DLNA.

Is this good or bad?

I have no problem my phone charges fast and the battery lasts forever, my problem is i have dead pixels and they seem to be increasing the longer i have the phone, sucks that i have to wait on a replacement, i hope i don't end up regretting this purchase
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

dsims91 said:
I have no problem my phone charges fast and the battery lasts forever, my problem is i have dead pixels and they seem to be increasing the longer i have the phone, sucks that i have to wait on a replacement, i hope i don't end up regretting this purchase
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you said charge fast you're referring to wall charge? Car charge? Or usb charge?

Stock X
Hey guys,
Figured I'd swing over here and give this a bump for a buddy of mine. Seein if this may be a slightly common issue.
The situation(for him): All on stock phone NO ROOT
- No charge on wall/home charger. Shows charge indication but does not actually charge whatsoever.
- No charge using PC usb cord to charge.
Again everything is stock and not currently running any app killers or really anything out of the ordinary as I can tell. The only thing he has purchased and is running that I am aware of is Launcher Pro. The issue has been brought to the attention of Verizon which is his carrier and he just received his 4th phone! Honestly thats the only reason I'm posting an inquiry into this hear. A simple google search results shows others with similar issues(posted link at bottom). He has purchased a new battery and wall/home charger along with another USB cord. All 3 phones he has had produced the same issue with all of the charge accessories(4th phone just received so no tests as of yet, but i put money on it doing the same thing). Verizon has been willing to replace every phone so thats not a problem but seriously! Is that the only answer?
any help is appreciated in advance
http://www.google.com/search?q=MOTO...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

There are two charging indicators, no lights! One is on the status bar, you'll see a lightning bolt through the battery meter, and on the lock screen it will say charging as well with a %.

Absolutely, yes sir. Both indicators(lightning bolt in battery, and battery charge indicators) light up and show charging. Although once phone is unplugged it will keep whatever the charge level indicates for a random amount of time usually between 1min-15mins then the battery indicator drops immediately and shows an almost dead battery. As in charge shows 80%, unplug and within mins phone shows 10%.
Also:
- There are no other indicators of charging other than those mentioned (as it should be).
- The phone connects to PC just fine for mass storage. Files transfer with no problems.
thanx again!

So... which one is it? First you say no indicators, and now there's indicators but it just doesn't hold charge. is VZW replacing the phone or the battery? sounds like a bad battery to me.

My apologies you are correct *edited post* i meant to say it does show charging as in you see the lightning bolt and everything even the battery icon fills to show a "fuller" battery although that stat drops almost immediately after unplugging.
As in replacements they replace the phone and battery as well. I know its the 3rd phone so far with the same problem.

Battery will NEVER fully charge!!

I've been experiencing problems(like most) with battery life on the Epic, so I found a thread here from the EVO forums about "recalibrating" the battery. It involves steps of fully charging with it on, removing cable, powering down, plugging back in, etc...
Well I've actually come to realize that a blue LED should turn on when the battery is fully charged & the phone should stop charging(duh). Well i've tried for the last two days for the blue LED to come on after countless hours of charging, resetting the phone, etc. I've now had my phone on the charger for 8+ hours & my battery widget states 100% yet it continues to charge!
Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

No, but my wife's battery would drop immediately from 100% to 75% as soon as it was removed from the charger. This occurred no matter what charging regime I tried. I know that the battery may start to discharge after its peak charge has been obtained, and that it is possible to remove the charger and see only 90% on the battery, but 75%?
I returned that battery last night and now today I see that this battery never gets past 98%. I'll give it a day or so to see if the battery life degrades again, in which case I'll know it is the phone and not the battery.

vanstrien said:
No, but my wife's battery would drop immediately from 100% to 75% as soon as it was removed from the charger. This occurred no matter what charging regime I tried. I know that the battery may start to discharge after its peak charge has been obtained, and that it is possible to remove the charger and see only 90% on the battery, but 75%?
I returned that battery last night and now today I see that this battery never gets past 98%. I'll give it a day or so to see if the battery life degrades again, in which case I'll know it is the phone and not the battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you getting the blue light and what app are you using to tell what percent? There are other thread that say some of the battery apps are off a bit. What kind of battery life are you getting?

Success!
I used a few different apps to tell the battery charge so it wasn't the apps.
I found a fix that not only allows my battery to charge to 100% but also seems to give a better charge. Since doing this my battery shows 100% when fully charged, doesn't drop significantly when I unplug the phone, and so far has caused the battery to go down very slowly. In the three and a half hours since coming off charge the battery has gone down to 93%, while holding up to my wife using it for calls and ShopSavvy. I intend on doing the instructions below every few months.
In the Evo space there are two sets of directions on how to prep your batteries for a good charge. One involves plugging and unplugging your phone while at full charge, and the other involves briefly turning your phone on and off between charges. Because I'm impatient I've amalgamated the two with success.
Fully charge the battery with the phone on (several hours)
Once the charging light is blue, unplug the charger
Turn the phone off, then plug the charger back in, for 30-60 minutes
Unplug the charger, turn the phone on for two minutes, then turn it off.
Plug the charger back in for 30-60 minutes
Then repeat this cycle about ten times: unplug the phone for five seconds, then plug it back in until it says it is at 100% (about two minutes)
For the record, I think this has little to do with the battery and a lot to do with how the phone recognizes the battery as full.

I haven't had any of these problems. My battery charges %100 with blue light and it doesn't drop after I unplug it either. Guess I'm lucky

DevilDogVIKING said:
I haven't had any of these problems. My battery charges %100 with blue light and it doesn't drop after I unplug it either. Guess I'm lucky
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't run a battery app. When the blue light comes on it's done. I get about 11-12hours before I get the low battery warning.

Ha! It really worked. She's at 17% and its been 1 day and 11 hours. Not as good as my Evo.

I guess I'll re-try calibrating the battery again, first time I tried it my battery ended up at 95% instead of the regular 98%, really odd.

vanstrien said:
I used a few different apps to tell the battery charge so it wasn't the apps.
I found a fix that not only allows my battery to charge to 100% but also seems to give a better charge. Since doing this my battery shows 100% when fully charged, doesn't drop significantly when I unplug the phone, and so far has caused the battery to go down very slowly. In the three and a half hours since coming off charge the battery has gone down to 93%, while holding up to my wife using it for calls and ShopSavvy. I intend on doing the instructions below every few months.
In the Evo space there are two sets of directions on how to prep your batteries for a good charge. One involves plugging and unplugging your phone while at full charge, and the other involves briefly turning your phone on and off between charges. Because I'm impatient I've amalgamated the two with success.
Fully charge the battery with the phone on (several hours)
Once the charging light is blue, unplug the charger
Turn the phone off, then plug the charger back in, for 30-60 minutes
Unplug the charger, turn the phone on for two minutes, then turn it off.
Plug the charger back in for 30-60 minutes
Then repeat this cycle about ten times: unplug the phone for five seconds, then plug it back in until it says it is at 100% (about two minutes)
For the record, I think this has little to do with the battery and a lot to do with how the phone recognizes the battery as full.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That seems a little crazy. All you should really need to do is drain it until it won't power on anymore (not even for a second) then charge to 100%.
Still, the epic's sensor just isn't very accurate at the top-end (most aren't), so you're gonna get some strange behavior near the 100%.
All the older WM phones were weird like that too in the 90% range; the sensor just can't detect it very accurately near full charge. The difference was that they showed battery in 10% increments, instead of 1% (unless you use a hacked driver).

too crazy for me.

I think I'm going to just buy some spare batteries for this phone. Immediate unplugging leads to 100% battery.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App epiicc 4g

I have the same problem, I'm using battery life and juiceplotter and they give me the same %
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

vanstrien said:
Fully charge the battery with the phone on (several hours)
Once the charging light is blue, unplug the charger
Turn the phone off, then plug the charger back in, for 30-60 minutes
Unplug the charger, turn the phone on for two minutes, then turn it off.
Plug the charger back in for 30-60 minutes
Then repeat this cycle about ten times: unplug the phone for five seconds, then plug it back in until it says it is at 100% (about two minutes)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this. I was having trouble getting my device to recognize the top 3% of the battery, and one iteration of your plan above did the trick.

^After I noticed these steps in the Evo thread last week, following them did the trick for 1 iteration.
My phone rarely has stayed long @ 100% after coming off a full charge since then, though.

[Q] Battery Charging - Current Draw When Complete

Guys, I'm hoping someone familiar with LiPo battery charging can give me some insight. I've done some diagnostics, and I'd like your take...
- Nexus 7 3G, purchased a few weeks ago. 4.2.1, not rooted, stock charger and cable
- Battery life seems good, fully charges and discharges 'normally'
- I usually charge with the device powered off (ie: blocky battery icon in the middle of the screen).
However....
- On two occasions now, I've left it on the charger for a long time (>15 hours) and have come back to a dead device.
- Pressing the power button doesn't bring up the blocky battery icon.
- Holding the power button for 30+ seconds brings the device back back.
- It has otherwise never failed to boot properly during normal use.
Out of curiosity, I was wondering if there was something wrong with the charging process causing this, so
- I plugged the stock charger into my Kill-A-Watt last night to monitor the charging current.
- Even 8 hours after the device finished charging (via the blocky icon), the current never dropped to zero - it stuck around 10mA on the AC side (ie: ~1.2W).
- My first N7 (sent back for a bad speaker and dead pixels) went to zero after charging. My iPad does the same.
QUESTION(S):
I know modern LiPo batteries have internal circuitry to prevent overcharging, but does it sound like that circuitry might be defective on mine such that I should be worried about overcharging? Could that be the reason for my lockups?
I really don't want to go through the return process again if I don't have to. I'd rather just live with it if I can prevent damage by taking it off the charger when complete. Thoughts? Opinions? Have any of you done this test, and if so, does yours go to zero?
Thanks for any insight!

developer_john said:
However....
- On two occasions now, I've left it on the charger for a long time (>15 hours) and have come back to a dead device.
- Pressing the power button doesn't bring up the blocky battery icon.
- Holding the power button for 30+ seconds brings the device back back.
- It has otherwise never failed to boot properly during normal use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That might be a possible cause... Leaving any device plugged in the charger for long periods of time is not recommended. Anyway have you tried charging the tablet with another charger with a higher output? If it refuses to turn on even after holding the power button for 30 seconds you might be able to "wake" it up by using a higher output charger. Thats what I did on my Nexus 7 when the battery level went too low.

cr0wnest said:
That might be a possible cause... Leaving any device plugged in the charger for long periods of time is not recommended. Anyway have you tried charging the tablet with another charger with a higher output? If it refuses to turn on even after holding the power button for 30 seconds you might be able to "wake" it up by using a higher output charger. Thats what I did on my Nexus 7 when the battery level went too low.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm...everything I've read has indicated that Lithium Ion/Polymer batteries can be left on a charger without damage since they have internal circuitry to prevent overcharging (although I realize a constant topping off is probably not wise in the long run). As for a charger with a higher output, I thought the stock charger was 2.1A....I've never heard of a 3A or 4A USB charger. Can you clarify what you mean?
Also, as I said, on the two occasions it has locked up, holding the power button has brought it back, so I'm not really asking about how to get it back if it locks up - I'm asking if the behavior (locking up, charge current not dropping to 0) is indicative of a battery that has faulty overcharge protection.
Thanks though!

The "charger" IC inside the N7 not only charges the battery but at the same time powers the device - it should allow use of a N7 with no or a faulty battery. I've never looked at the standby settings on the N7 but I would suggest that is where your 1W is going. The only info about the IC I know is http://www.summitmicro.com/prod_select/summary/SMB347/SMB347.htm
Added I think this is an identical TI version of the chip http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/slusaw5a/slusaw5a.pdf

peterk-1 said:
The "charger" IC inside the N7 not only charges the battery but at the same time powers the device - it should allow use of a N7 with no or a faulty battery. I've never looked at the standby settings on the N7 but I would suggest that is where your 1W is going. The only info about the IC I know is http://www.summitmicro.com/prod_select/summary/SMB347/SMB347.htm
Added I think this is an identical TI version of the chip http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/slusaw5a/slusaw5a.pdf
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks - that's good info. However, since I have been charging with the device off, it would seem to me that it shouldn't be drawing any standby current...unless just the act of charging puts the unit in a form of standby. It also still doesn't explain why my first unit went to 0A a while after charging completed, while this one doesn't. I'm now wondering if I may be looking at roundoff error. The resolution of the kill-a-watt is .01A - which is what I'm seeing. It could just be that both units drew some current after charge completion, but this one pulls marginally more.
So, my question still stands. Does anyone familiar with LiPo technology know if this sounds like my overcharge protection circuitry is faulty? Is it normal for a device that has completed charging to draw SOME current, and if so, how much? Would someone else with a Kill-A-Watt be willing to try this and let me know what you see?
Thanks again for the help guys...

Just in case anyone is still following this thread, I have some new info. I charged my N7 last night POWERED ON.....and after charging was complete, the AC current draw went to 0A. I'm starting to wonder now whether the 1.2W constant power I saw when charging powered off is the power needed to keep the charging circuitry alive while the tablet is powered off. When the device is powered on, maybe this circuitry is running off the battery allowing the AC draw to go to 0A. I have absolutely nothing to support this, so it's just a guess/hypothesis, but at least I know my N7 is behaving the same as my first one. I also loaded Simple Battery Logger while doing my last charge and all looks normal....it charged up to about 4.208V, indicated 'full', then the voltage start dropping off - which tells me that it stopped charging. It also maintained a temp of about 23C throughout the process. I'm running a battery test right now and it doesn't seem to have been damaged by my overnight charging episodes...if anything, the battery life is better than when I first got it.
I'm going to let it go here and assume all is well. If anyone does any experiments with theirs, I'd be interested in seeing the results.
Thanks again!

Photon Q got hot now won't power on

Hi everyone,
My Photon Q was probably about 30% charge when I last checked with it on. An hour or 2 later it was a little warm and was off. So I went to charge it using the car charger with 500mah charge rate. I came back about an hour later and the phone was really hot and no charging screen so I unplugged it. The green led light is lit when the phone is plugged in.
I tried holding the power button and volume down button, but it won't boot. If I have the usb charging cable plugged in from a PC or charger adapter when pressing those buttons, the green light will flicker off for a fraction of a second.
I then proceeded to dismantling the phone as I suspect a battery issue and the one in this phone is stupidly non-removable. After taking the back cover off, I tested the battery posts and received 0 volts. I still don't know if the battery caused the drain or if there's a short in the phone. I then took off the inside cover that holds the battery in. A few T5 screws later and the battery was removed. I connected the battery to some AA batteries in series to see if I could get a charge. A few hours later I got it up to 3 volts which held for several hours. So I connected it to a few more AA batteries in series to try and raise the voltage. I got it up to 3.67 volts and the battery is listed at 3.7 volts.
A day later and the voltage is still at 3.67 volts so I put the battery in the phone. I went to try and power it on, but nothing. I then connected it to a usb cord and received the slow flashing red led light a couple times before switching to green. The battery started getting warm again connected to the usb charger. After 20 minutes it was approaching hot so I unplugged the USB. The battery read 3.54 volts. 30 minutes later, 0 volts again.
Does anyone know what the actual voltage range is for this phone, as my old Samsung M320 is also 3.7 volts, but when testing the battery I get 4.10 volts? I heard it's pretty specific on minimum voltage. Any ideas for a temporary battery or way to boot the phone before spending $50 on a replacement battery and then find out there's a short in the phone. Is there another key combination to boot the phone, I'm trying to boot it to at least get my pictures and other data off it.
Thanks a lot in advance
Matt

Not the battery, seems to be an electrical short but where
I bought a new battery for the phone which had a 0 volt charge when I received it. I tried putting it in the phone as is to use the phone charger to charge it, but got nothing. So I charged it using 2, then 3 and then 4 AA batteries in series to get it up to 3.7 volts. I then put the battery in the phone and noticed the 2 large chips and the chip centered above them located by the camera get a little hot. I tried with the charger connected and not connected, but same thing. Power button doesn't turn the phone on. Just the green led lit when the USB power cable is attached. So now it seems there must be a short in the phone. Anyone know where I can look to check for a short, blown resistor or something in this phone? Or at least where the rom chip is located so maybe I can turn it into a usb drive to get my data at the least.
And sorry about the double post. I didn't receive any replies in the other section and I really need to get some data off the phone. Seemed the hardware section would be the place to check. Tree fell on the house and pictures before the tree was removed were taken with the phone which of course ironically stopped working right after.