[Q] Hack battery indicator - Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General

Hi guys,
I have an old WinMo phone (HTC Gene) and about a year ago it stopped working due a problem in the battery indicator. The problem is in the main board and there's no way to fix it, beside replace the entirely board.
I just realized that the OS (or the battery driver, I don't know exactly) is reporting about 0.5v less than the real battery voltage. It means that, when the battery is full (4.2v) Windows thinks the battery is just a half charged (3.7v). It turns off when the battery is still at ~3.85v, reporting "0% - 3.35v"
There must be a way to, via-software, pass a false voltage reading to OS, with plus that 0.5v.
Or, maybe, a way to just stick the battery meter at any percentage, which will make the phone turn off when the battery PCB automatically cuts the current when at a very low voltage.
Anyone knows a way to force a false battery state? Or just point me a way to search more.. registry keys, dll's, the Windows process that retains the battery state, anything.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance, and sorry for my English.
Rachid.

Related

My QTEK 9000 (Universal) blacks off at 38% battery power?

Hi!
I'm using the latest QTEK ROM with A2DP.
The problem is that my set blacks out at 38% battery power and refuses to power up after that unless I re-connect to the AC for charging. It happens a couple of times already. Any setting(s) in the Universal to check this?
I remember I managed to get the battery level at real low level (less than 5%) previously prior to the ROM upgrade.
Thanks
Hi,
I have a similar problem.
I charged the unit till 100% then reflush the Rom
Regards
JoseF
RE
Hi JoseF
Thanks, however, I'll consider this as my last option
Meanwhile I would like to get more feedback on this issue
Qtek 13077 ROM ????
My i-mate continues to crashes with the battery is less then 43%, apparently the problem occurred when I made the upgrade to ROM Qtek WWE_13077_130176_10900, was looked like that this version has something that change the battery configuration, since Qtek 9000 comes with 1750 battery mAh? I reinstalled the i-mate ROM 1.30.82 and the problem persists?
I made a test leaving the i-mate on, without using the radio until the battery miter showed 23%, then I made a phone call, the i-mate crashes in seconds. Could somebody inform what is the true voltage of the battery in the i-mate is 100% and when it is 10%, in the miter?
I have charged the unit till 100% led = Green, then soft reset, the problem persist?
Now I am 100% certainty that the problem occurred when I made upgrade for Qtek, we needs to investigate what the the Qtek ROM this doing with the JasJar?
Ive 3 batteries
The standard 1620mah dynapack which works fine 100% to flat no worries
A 3200mah extended which will charge to full but dies at 43%
(the guy replaced it with another which did the same thing)
and
A 3000mah which will go flat ok but wont charge beyond 47% and the orange light stays on forever, although luckily it doesnt fry.
has anyone had any of these extended batterys work ok?
Just to add a bit of info, all modern li-ion have a built in fuel guage chip which tells the device its in how much power is left in the cell. so its possable this is a battery issue rather than phone problem
r 1.03.00
g 42.36.p8
d 1.30.90.wwe
RE
You may be right about the battery thing
However, I've tested my existing battery to very low level prior to the ROM update without problem
And with other feedbacks in this forum I doubt it could be a coincidence that our batteries are having the same issue.
I would rather think its a ROM thing.
I'll need to test my battery on another Universal before confirming.
I just tried to flash to an older rom but got a country error, there seems to be no old orange uk rom i can find.
Im a bit new to all this rom flashing business and also wanted to try an older rom to check out the camera as im not sure if i have a realy poor camera or if there is a software issue with that in the new orange rom also as one guy in another post is getting far better results out of his camera mines like a real snow storm in the dark parts of pictures
RE
Yes, the new QTEK ROM update does cause the camera quality to suffer especially when in night mode
Well, just have to wait for another ROM update to resolve these issues :roll:
Fosa or Zarn
You have a digital multimeter?
Case yes: You it could measure the voltage of the battery when is total loaded 100% led=green, and when the battery will be flat 0%. This test would be excellent to verify if the Battery power remaining is correct. Currently when my battery is with 3.28V = 55% in the battery power remaining = crashes.
ok, can do, not that it will help much unloaded.
I'll charge the original cell and post the results shortly.
The battery management wont always turn the battery off at the same point as the battery ages it will change. You have to bare in mind that a battery is a little like a piece of rubber the harder you push on it the bigger the dent but when you stop pushing it recovers its shape.
The same goes for the voltage of a battery, when you draw a large current the voltage will drop further than if the device is in standby but once you disconnect the load there will be an amount of recovery
li-ion batterys are far more complicated than they first appear.
The battery is by no means connected directly to the phone.
there is a microprocessor in the battery that controls both charge and discharge via 2 fet transistors, buy doing this it protects you against the battery exploding/catching fire from over charging or over discharging.
As far as im awaire the microprocessor will adjust both switch on and switch off from many variables not just voltage drop.
The phone its self mearly supplies power to the charger built into the battery and draws power from the battery all the measurement and battery managment is within the battery
This is why the battery suddenly just stops and you need power to bring it back to life.
so in theory no matter what the condition of the battery it should always give a full scale deflection from full to empty as the onboard management should know how much capacity is left in the cell and report this via the data lines to the phone
If you connect a bulb to an almost flat li-ion battery you will find little drop in brightness before the battery just cuts power totaly to protect the cell within from over discharge.
Something that springs to mind that hasnt been mentioned here is have you checked all 4 battery contacts are clean? just a thought because the two larger outer pads provide power while one or both of the smaller pads send data on the charge status to the phone.
heres some interesting reading
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm
Intresting reading on the care of li-ion as they dont like being either fully charged or fully discharged..strange eh...
http://www.maxim-ic.com/appnotes.cfm/appnote_number/128
http://www.intersil.com/data/an/AN1174.pdf
two examples of li-ion battery management.
safety law dictates any li-ion that is user replaceable must have one of these little chaps built in.
hope that makes sence
/ramble
RE
Sorry zarn, but I don't have a digital multimeter.
Is your test going to prove that the battery is going to its end of life soon?
How could that be since the Universal is less than a year old? :roll:
At any rate I'll be testing my battery on another Universal without the QTEK ROM update to determine whether its a battery issue or the ROM update issue.
Im just going to do it out of interest... like i said in the previous post its not likely to prove anything except if the guys battery is totaly out of whack
Dear Fosa and Zarn,
I’ve already known those URLs:
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm
http://www.maxim-ic.com/appnotes.cfm/appnote_number/128
I liked very much this article:
http://www.maxim-ic.com/appnotes.cfm/appnote_number/128
However, when I asked to verify the voltage of the battery and without taking it off the charger, I’ve put two tiny wires on the terminal of the battery, in the manner I could verify the voltage without taking it off from the Jasjar. Last night I’ve left it charging until the green-led light and I’ve noticed that the voltage was 4,231V = to 100% on the battery power remaining miter.
I’ve did a test putting the light of 4V to discharge the battery, and at the 2,83V, it disconnected automatically (stopped to supply current). In more or less one minute, it starts to provide energy again, in other words, the protection circuit of the battery is Ok, and is not with this tension (2,83v) that the Jasjar stops, and only when is 3,28v.
I’ve got the feeling that the problem is on the ROM, however I did reinstall the original ROM and yet the Jasjar still crashes at 58% of the battery(= 3,28v).
Before making the upgrade the miter was going from 100% to 5% without crashing.
With the ROM Qtek WWE_13077_130176_10900 the miter shows 100% to 42%, and at this point it starts to crash.
I’ve already bought a new battery just to test it, but it still not arrived from Hong Kong, and as the customs is on strike here in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, I don’t know when I’ll get it.
Until now I think the problem is that the Qtek ROM made some changes on the firmware or in the register of the battery, changing the miter calibration.
Battery results
Im suprised it cut of that low, thats very low for a 3.7v li-ion, thats more what you would expect from a 3.2v.
Anyways, as requested heres the resuts of checking the voltage at various points.
This is using an original dynapack 1620mah battery as supplied by orange with the phone, but its around 3 or 4 months old now so far from fresh.
the meter used was a Avo M801 (not a cheap one though is probably due to be calibrated...)
100%----4.16v straight off charge still warm
75%-----3.93v
50%-----3.78v
38%-----3.76v
25%-----3.73v
10%-----3.65v
5%------3.63v
cutoff----3.58v
Im going to do the same with the extended batterys im having problems with just as a comparison, will post the results here if anyone is interested
Whats going off here...?
I just put one of the extended batterys in which was fully charged..
to be greated with a blank batery bar, and unknown in the chargeing remaining window... unpluged and repluged the charger and was then told battery at 225%
doh.....
Jasjar battery miter
Hi Zarn
Thanks a lot for the table of % * V, now I am certain convinced that the Jasjar miter needs to be calibrated again, I believe that the problem is the DLL or the responsible register for this detail(miter)?
While I or somebody of the forum does not find the solution, I will continue using this way, because the battery still lasts for 24h.
RE
OK guys, bad news
I used my battery which knocks out at 43% from my QTEK 9000 set and put it into another QTEK 9000 set without ROM update and it also fails to boot up unless I connect it to an external power
I hope that QTEK can release a small ROM update to resolve this issue
so hang on..
you put your battery into another non updated rom handset and it still wasnt working properly...
surely that means your battery is at fault not the rom..
cant u borrow the other guys battery for a few hours?
Are these original batterys were talking about btw (1620mah dynapacks)?
or cheap replacements?
RE
Hi zarn,
My battery is the original default battery....the Universal is less than a year old
Could it be that the new ROM update has changed something in the battery...maybe the IC chip in the battery, if any?
RE
zarn,
If you'll read another similar thread you'll find many others with different variants of the Universal facing the same problem after upgrading the new QTEK ROM update with A2DP
Are you saying their batteries are faulty too...such a coincidence?

Recalibrate WM6 For Mugen 3000 mA Battery

I have recently purchased a Mugen 3000 mA battery. I am thrilled with the extended battery life after fully charging and discharging it three times as recommended by the manufacturer. What I find annoying is that WM6 no longer gives accurate information regarding remaining battery strength. If I run the battery down to 2%, remove the battery and restart WM6 says 37%. At 2% I can repeat and WM6 still says 37%. After running down to 2% a third time and repeating WM6 says around 10%. After that it varies a bit but you get the picture.
What I would like to know is if one of you geniuses out there has discovered a registry edit, hack or 3rd party software that will provide accurate battery info so I don't have to be distracted by having my battery say 2% for hours on end or repeatedly remove and restart.
BTW, BatteryStatus Ver. 1.04.200 beta2 build 0173 reports the same incorrect info and so does SPB Mobile Shell 1.5 Home Tab.
Thanks in advance for your informed guidance. OK, that is laying it on a bit thick but I always highly recommend this site to anyone I know interested in really learning how to take full advantage of that little computer in their pocket.
Take a search on XDA for Ariel monitor maybe it solves your problem.
Thanks for the suggestion. It is a nice little program but it suffers from the same problem. I suspect I need to find a way to change the mA capacity WM6 bases it's battery calculations. I don't know if that can be done with a registry edit or if there is a third party battery monitor that has an option to change the battery capacity for calculation of percentage remaining or better yet auto detects the actual battery capacity. Ideally it would be able to both accurately read remaining percentage and make reasonably accurate time remaining estimates based on current and historical battery drain data.
It is like driving a car with a broken gas gage. Sure, you can use the odometer to estimate how much gas you have left but you are always worried your estimate is off and you will be left stranded without a phone ... oops crossed metaphors.
How do the rest of the users with extended batteries handle this irritating situation?
Bump. I can't believe i'm the only one with this problem.
I know this problem also i will wait with buying a high capacy battery until i find such a hack
The Kaiser uses a smartbattery. The battery capacity is based on the information that a small processor inside the battery tells the phone's main processor. There are several things that could be the problem:
1. The small processor in the 3rd party battery is programmed with the old specs for the standard battery. The is nothing you could do about this.
2. The small processor needs to be calibrated. You would do this as follows; set your phone to never turn off no matter how low the battery got. Now, run the phone down until the thing dies from lack of power. Then charge it all the way up. This should fix that issue. I don't recomend doing it many times, because it is not good for Lion batteries to be fully discharged too often.
This is a very valid issue which I have faced many times when using a 3rd party extended battery with other phones.
Not sure how to solve it though, although I have the 3000mah on order myself.
I think the battery reading is given by the battery itself, and most of these 3rd party manufacturers don't really care to put a smart processor in the battery (to reduce costs/make it smaller/etc).
I have the exact same issue and although it is a nuisance, I have found a workaround to keep using the phone. Simply physically removing the battery and replacing it will increase your remaining battery power substantially. I normally wait till the first low battery reminder to do this. Also, how do I set the phone to never turn off no matter how low the battery gets? This would also be fine with me.
utbiglall said:
I have the exact same issue and although it is a nuisance, I have found a workaround to keep using the phone. Simply physically removing the battery and replacing it will increase your remaining battery power substantially. I normally wait till the first low battery reminder to do this. Also, how do I set the phone to never turn off no matter how low the battery gets? This would also be fine with me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't run into this issue until I reflashed my ROM to one with W6.1. Then, rather than get 12-13 hrs with my 3amp battery, I'd get 6. I used my original battery, but when I put the 3amp back in, I still had 47% left.
It's the ROM, and until there's a fix, it would be a pain to pull and replace the battery just to work around. I've done this several times recently when I'm on battery power, but I'd rather not.
Anybody heard of any other fixes, outside monitor, or do we wait until we get a Windows Mobile 6.1 fix?
Still no luck?
Hello,
Has anyone been able to find a solution for this. I am ordering the extended battery today. I will try to fully discharge it and then recharge it as was suggested and report back.
I emailed Mugen. We went back and forth with them trying to troubleshoot whether it's the battery or OS. They were clueless, but did offer an RMA to replace the battery. I pay the postage. Not sure if I'll send it back if it's the OS. I pull and replace the battery right now. It's a real pain, and I hate opening the case so much, but it's the only way I can get an accurate read.
PhoenixAG said:
This is a very valid issue which I have faced many times when using a 3rd party extended battery with other phones.
Not sure how to solve it though, although I have the 3000mah on order myself.
I think the battery reading is given by the battery itself, and most of these 3rd party manufacturers don't really care to put a smart processor in the battery (to reduce costs/make it smaller/etc).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The processor is required for these types of lithium ion batteries because it regulates the charging of the battery. If it didn't the battery would not charge properly, or maybe not even charge at all.
There is no solution for now, people from other forums tries to patch battdrvr.dll.
But two things may help a little:
1.You may completely disable battery monitoring
HKLM\Drivers\BuiltIn\Battery rename or remove string battdrvr.dll
But you lost monitoring completely.
2. change HKLM\Drivers\BuiltIn\Battery\Order change value from 15 (in my case) to 0. - After this battery lasts longer until power off.
There is not complete hardware or software solution for this problem. We need to wait.
Low Battery warning:
By default, a PPC will sound a warning sound when the battery is running low (10%, fixed value), but there's no way to disable or change the notification. To enable this, so that it is visible in the "Sounds & Notifications" control panel, set:
HKCU\ControlPanel\Notifications\{A877D663-239C-47a7-9304-0D347F580408}\Default = "Low battery warning" (REGSZ string, no quotes)
Anybody have any updates on this? I have noticed this more on WM6.1, but it was still an issue on WM6. I just find this so annoying!
Is there any radio that can fix this? I noiced that this battery reading issue only occurs when the Phone Signal is on. When off, it never happens to me. Or it seems. So it has something to do with the radio.
bump, anyone got a solution?
this is very interesting, i bought the seidio 3200 battery i am having the same problems. i just tired the
change HKLM\Drivers\BuiltIn\Battery\Order change value from 15 (in my case) to 0
i am going to see how that works out throughout the day
Tried It
I am having same issue, reset the registry key to "0" and ran for a full day, no change, still incorrect reading. I have a 2700 Mah battery and the charge indicater is completely wrong on it. I have cycled the battery as per reccoemndations, but still get wrong power remaining readings. Can remove the battery and resets itselft to a more correct reading.
I am out of ideas, guess we need someone from HTC to chime in with a hardware fix.
MWS
ms0529 said:
I am having same issue, reset the registry key to "0" and ran for a full day, no change, still incorrect reading. I have a 2700 Mah battery and the charge indicater is completely wrong on it. I have cycled the battery as per reccoemndations, but still get wrong power remaining readings. Can remove the battery and resets itselft to a more correct reading.
I am out of ideas, guess we need someone from HTC to chime in with a hardware fix.
MWS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have tried it too and it still does the same thing. i would still need to pull the battery and restart the device for the batt meter to get a more accurate reading. i could do it about 3 times before the battery dies completely.
is there this problem with all extended batteries or just with the larger ones?
the reason I ask is that I've got a $17 credit at Amazon and was thinking of grabbing a 1600mah battery, it's only like $22 with ship so I'll only pay a few bucks for it really...
I wanted to get the larger one but it's fat and won't fit standard carrying case, but the 1600 is slim and will fit in place a regular battery

Always power off without low power alert

If my HD has 20% power left and is running program, it will always power off without low power alert after a few minutes. Then, you must recharge it for power on.
In addition, I found that the refresh interval of power indicator looks slow, in other words, after it has been charged and run for a while, the power indictator is still 100%.
Can anybody tell me the reason and how to resolve it? Thanks!
Are you using the original battery?
Battery level is rather inaccurate, especially with 3rd party batteries, so don't take it for granted.
The battery is certainly an original battery.
Is there a possibility that the issue is relative to ROM version?
I have a experience that I flashed a rom of version 21109 into my HD, the issue occured every time. Afterward, I reflashed a stable rom of version 20769 back to it, the issue has never occured. But, several days ago, I flashed the newest radio into my HD, after that, the same issue occured anew.
I'd blame the battery, if it dies when your unit reports 20% charge, it must be in a pretty bad shape. If you can find a spare battery, give it a try...
was anything more found out about this? I also find my battery indicator very slow to update....soft reset my device and lost 5% power according to the battery...I have even had the reverse effect after a charge,....soft reset after a charge and seen MORE power than indicated.
This is making me paranoid and search for every last tweak to save power but it might be that the indicator is wrong in the first place - ideas?
Charge the battery full and let it drain to zero,and one time again.this should recalibrate the powermeter.
or your battery is old and broken...if you often charge your device when its not even required the battery will loose power and be dead in a very short time.
i know my english is not the best,hope you understand what i mean

[Q] Battery Drain

I´ve just come back from a two month expedition on Borneo. But when i got back to civilization and turned on my trusty N1 I quickly realized that my battery performance has dropped significantly. Before I usually had one day of heavy use (including Wifi, 3G, tethering and GPS usage), but now I only have about 7 hours standby with everything except GSM turned off. Which renders the phone useless for my (normal) use. The phone actually consumes so much power that the battery level drops while charging. The only way to charge it up is to turn the phone completely off.
I flashed the RoDrIgUeZsTyLe™ MIUIMOD -ROM before I left for my trip, so I thought maybe that was the problem (some bug i the kernel or something), so i flashed back to CM6 with no success. I have also tried a new battery.
Anyone knows what can be the cause?
All help is deeply appreciated --- I miss my good old N1!
I accidentally placed this in the wrong section - can anybody move it to Q&A?
Try the battery app in my sig to pull your battery values, then post in that thread and one of us can help you see what's happening with your battery.
maybe the charger is the problem?
Just throwing it out there... I've seen it happen for Laptop users...
Try the battery app in my sig to pull your battery values, then post in that thread and one of us can help you see what's happening with your battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Voltage (mV): 4035.84
Current (mA): -464.98
Temp (C): 30.2
Percent: 90
Batt age: 94
Full40(mAh): 1452
Min Chg Curr(mA):80
Min Chg Volt(mV): 4099
Empty Curr (mA):200.0
Empty Volt (mV): 3.426
Capacity(mAh):1273
Aged Capa(mAh): 1393
BTW...I have also tried several different chargers without any success.
Hi,
I had similar problems with my rooted N1 with stock Froyo.
The problem for me was a radio image older than regular. Baseband version should be something _4.06 or higher.
You can check this information in Settings ->About Phone
Sent from my Nexus One
Fulvio Minichini said:
Hi,
I had similar problems with my rooted N1 with stock Froyo.
The problem for me was a radio image older than regular. Baseband version should be something _4.06 or higher.
You can check this information in Settings ->About Phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got 32.41.00.32U_5.08.00.04 so it doesn't seem to be old, but I'll try to update the radio anyway with a custom stock rom from modaco. Will let you guys know if it helps
Update: I'm now back at *****_4.06****. No change
My first thought is: what level of power did you leave your battery with before you went away?
Lithium batteries are permanently damaged if the voltage drops below a certain level. Leakage will mean that any battery left for a while will lose charge.
Therefore, if you leave a battery with close to zero power left for a long time, leakage can mean the charge level drops below the critical minimum level and the cells become damaged.
As such, it is recommended to never store lithium batteries with below 40% charge, and to store them in a cool environment, since leakage is faster at higher temperatures.
Yeah, that was my first thought too, since I forgot to turn it off before I left (the phone was stored in a room with AC at least). However, I have now gotten a new battery and it doesn't help...
I have tried to check if there are any programs that are running in the background that draw unnecessary power, but i cant find any ---at least not with system panel. The cpu-load also seem to be normal.
Anyone got some ideas?
Thats really wierd... The only thing you can do is reflash the radio and flash it to stock. Then use the new battery and charge it overnight - so it overcharges slightly. Let it totally drain till the phone turns off, and repeat a coupla of times. Ignore the levels reported by the phone.
See if it starts to behave normally after that. If not you either have another dud battery or there's something wrong with the charging circuit in your phone.
If you have a friend with an N1, you could try charging your respective batteries in your phones, then swap batteries. See how much time each phone lasts
Thanks for the tip.
I'll try that before I buy a new cellphone.

Editing batterystats.bin

I just had an idea if it was possible to edit the batterystats.bin file. This way we do not have to calibrate whatsoever and possibly "trick" the phone to use the battery longer before shutting down.
As I understood from the forums, full charge 100% is around 4.2v and flat 0% around 3.5v. This bring us a delta of 0.7v = 100%. If we could edit and write say 3.3v at 0% then we would gain 0.2v and extend the battery life for another 20%+?
What do you think? Probably for a start, those with excellent battery life could help to post their batterystats.bin file and let the others with draining issues try out your calibration file?
Well it wont work.
First that file is basicly a logfile.
Second the sgs need that power to work right.
Third you can damage the battery if you try to lower the power to much.
So if you want better battery time you need to se what app you use and that kind of things.
You can also buy a battery so you have more power.
You can also try to change it under the day.
**DamianGTO Steam kernel. 348MB Ram. 1000HZ. ext2/jfs . js3 base**
Thanks for the reply.
Just thought that since the phone load is the same and thus power consumption rate remains, only possible issue would be the battery information to the phone is not accurate:
battery is either not yet fully charged before the phone cuts off charging and/or the battery is not yet fully depleted before the phone force shutdown thus showing the 'effect' of fast drain
coatercup said:
Thanks for the reply.
Just thought that since the phone load is the same and thus power consumption rate remains, only possible issue would be the battery information to the phone is not accurate:
battery is either not yet fully charged before the phone cuts off charging and/or the battery is not yet fully depleted before the phone force shutdown thus showing the 'effect' of fast drain
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well all is a calculation on the power in the battery, but the phone need to now what is the max value and the low value the battery have to make a right calculation. Thats way it often works to delete the file when you have full power.
So its very hard to use others file, it will not be how your battery is.
Maby there is some place in the system you can tweak this, but its not good for the battery to over load it or lower the power to much.
MAby you get a better battery life for some time, but the battery will get broken and bad alot faster, then you need to buy a new battery. So i dont see any gain on that..

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