Related
Need some feedback, any one has had a bad battery yet? I had mine charging up to 85% yesterday and went back to bed thinking that today (sunday) morning will wake up and do some early stuff but I woke up late and had a dead Streak next to me. I left it charging overnight (I know it was only 15%) but you never know when you're going to need that extra juice. I tried turning it on, no luck, took the batt out tried turning on with only the mains plugged in, no go, I had blinking LEDS for a short moment then it turned off and that was it until I decided to jump start the phone (I don't recommend doing this to no one) with a BB Bold Battery (3.7V 1500mAh) all of a sudden I get the battery with exclamation mark, like I had a dead battery, I've only had the device for 2 weeks, also this is a Beta Unit I bought "AS-IS" but the problem was a simple restore and not the battery. now I manage to charge the battery in a raw way, just hot wired into a 4.2v DC. now the big question...
I'm at 40% battery it is draining very little, I would even say it is under normal operation, but i can't tell I don't have a SIM on it ATM. but I checked on "spare parts" to see status of the battery and it all seems ok but the bit that says BATTERY STATUS: discharging
No matter where I plugged the wire it is discharging, the phone is being detected on windows/mac any computer I plug, the phone does detect where the source is coming it says AC when I plug into the charger that came with, if I plug it into the USB of the computer it does says USB but it will never say charging, I even transfered files to the phone to test the wire, seems to me I have a crappy battery but just need more feedback, anyone has had this problem before? on any phone should I call Michael Dell and order another batt?
P.S. I have a BB Javelin had the same problem did jump started the battery and now the mobile is charging no probs and it DOES hold charge.
UPDATE: Ok guys any of you running 2.1 (8105) on your USA Beta (probably regular too) and have this issue about not charging, I went back to 1.6 (4399) issue is gone, I also had the crazy screen couldn't unlock/answer phone, will see if that is gone too, more than likely it is but I'm not 100% sure.
if it wont charge using usb or mains but only by jump starting it, then the streaks charging circuit is most probably f***ed.
I installed/flashed Gingerblur yesterday and it was working fine for the whole day. At night, I put it back into it's case because I'm still waiting for my New Screen Protector and Case to come. I take really good care of it. Then I did not use the phone for the whole day. After having a really bad day, I started up my brand new Atrix for some fun and it was already at around 5% battery left so I went ahead and tried to charge it. I noticed plugging it into the computer did not work, so I tried wall charging it and that also did not work.
To sum it up,
Symptoms:
-Green Led for 2-3 seconds when I hold down the top main button then shuts off led. Note: Only happens/works if the phone is plugged into the wall.
-Green Led for 4 or more seconds if I plug in wall charger then shuts off led.
-No visual image on screen after battery drained out at all.
What can I do? I don't think I bricked it since it was working perfectly yesterday. Is there anything I can do? I have tried removing battery with no avail, it is plugged in to the wall charger still for the past hour.
This is a very weird problem and I don't know the exact answer..I just know i bricked my atrix before (failed to flash on a full battery) and couldn't charge the dead battery even on AC.
I ended up buying a universal battery charger from radioshack and then returning it once I got my battery fully charged and flashed the rom. Haven't had any battery problems since.
Hope this helps
Thanks, I will try this but it is night time right now. I hope someone else has had experience of this before and can guide me to any other directions.
I did not fail a flash, unless the flash can fail even if Gingerblur was working 100% before it failed. I don't know if thats possible.
Are you using the usb cable/charger that came with the phone?
I know it sounds ridiculous but the phone does NOT charge on any of my existing MicroUSB cables or wall chargers (used to have a nexus one). Pretty bummed about that :/
Yeah I am using the one that came with it.
I also want to update that I've tried my sister's HTC Inspire charger and an old Samsung charger I have left around.
Both are USB to wall Adapters (I am not using the same wall power adapter for each charger) so I wonder if I need the one that plugs directly into the wall?
Yeah, you probably just have a dysfunctional battery or charger, either way, you're going to have to diagnose which one is the problem (fingers crossed that it isn't the phone)
/e:
it sounds like its not the charger, from your most recent post.
I think your phone is the problem, it's not processing how to charge the battery from the cable.
Common problem. You need at least 850mA to charge the phone, so older usb ports wont work. The wall charger is actually working. Pull the battery out, put it back in, plug in the wall charger(don't press any buttons!) and let it sit for about 30min to get a decent charge. Should boot up after that.
designgears said:
Common problem. You need at least 850mA to charge the phone, so older usb ports wont work. The wall charger is actually working. Pull the battery out, put it back in, plug in the wall charger(don't press any buttons!) and let it sit for about 30min to get a decent charge. Should boot up after that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm, it's been charging for over an hour now and still hasn't turned on. But I did not do it exactly as you said. I unplugged the battery acouple times but I always try to hold the "fingerprint" on button right after plugging it in. I'll try not pressing anything this time. Thanks, I'll post back if I get any results.
The phone should turn on if charging, you don't need 850mA either. Standard USB is 500 and it just charges slower. I know this for a fact as I just charged it like that.
Take it into a store or contact where you bought it from.
Plugging in phone while off: Green LED for a bit, moto logo, battery icon
Power on, no charger : green light for a bit longer, moto logo, boot animation.
Try an at&t stores charger and see if theyll let you charge the battery.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix 4G on the network with the most backhaul, whatever that is. This post might have errors as I hate touchscreen keyboards.
Mgamerz said:
The phone should turn on if charging, you don't need 850mA either. Standard USB is 500 and it just charges slower.
Take it into a store or contact amazon support.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix 4G on the network with the most backhaul, whatever that is. This post might have errors as I hate touchscreen keyboards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With a dead battery you need 850 mAH. The phone needs 850 mA ti boot and it needs to boot to charge (strange yes but software controls the charge).
I would suggest trying all the chargers you can (the Moto one may be giving you to little amps) and if that does not work you can try to either 1) make a dev cable (post on how to in the dev section, though it requires soldering and such so you may not be able to do it if you don't have supplies) or 2) get a charger for the battery (one to directly charge the battery vice through the phone).
The battery method did not work, I did not try to hold the main button until 1 hour later to no avail. I'm going to Best Buy tomorrow for a replacement.
Edit: Oops..Too late to the party! I had the same issue that was fixed when I used a good quality micro-usb charger!
850ma? You sure?
I've charged and booted my phone from dead on a 700ma charger and 500ma usb on numerous occasions.
U need not worry .. put it in a wall charger .. and let it sit dere for atleast an hour .. the green led will come up when charge level reaches around 50% or more .. be patient ..
LivingChampion said:
I installed/flashed Gingerblur yesterday and it was working fine for the whole day. At night, I put it back into it's case because I'm still waiting for my New Screen Protector and Case to come. I take really good care of it. Then I did not use the phone for the whole day. After having a really bad day, I started up my brand new Atrix for some fun and it was already at around 5% battery left so I went ahead and tried to charge it. I noticed plugging it into the computer did not work, so I tried wall charging it and that also did not work.
To sum it up,
Symptoms:
-Green Led for 2-3 seconds when I hold down the top main button then shuts off led. Note: Only happens/works if the phone is plugged into the wall.
-Green Led for 4 or more seconds if I plug in wall charger then shuts off led.
-No visual image on screen after battery drained out at all.
What can I do? I don't think I bricked it since it was working perfectly yesterday. Is there anything I can do? I have tried removing battery with no avail, it is plugged in to the wall charger still for the past hour.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
I had the exact same issue the other day. I forgot to put my phone on charge at night, and it was dead in the morning. I plugged into the wall with my Moto charger, the phone turned on and went right to CWM. I rebooted from there, the phone showed 5% battery level, and within 10-15 minutes was at 20%.
I thought it strange my phone went right to the old Tenfar CWM even though I uninstalled it after unlocking my phone and installing the latest CWM from Tenfar.
It does seem that the shut off with the battery is 5%. I am assuming this is the safety factor built into either the Android OS, or the batteries themselves, as they do have circuits in them much like mini computers to shut them off before 100% discharge, as this will kill a Lithium Ion battery.
Some simple facts regarding the Lithium Ion batteries:
•They start degrading as soon as they leave the factory. They will only last two or three years from the date of manufacture whether you use them or not.
•They are extremely sensitive to high temperatures. Heat causes lithium-ion battery packs to degrade much faster than they normally would.
•If you completely discharge a lithium-ion battery, it is ruined.
•A lithium-ion battery pack must have an on-board computer to manage the battery. This makes them even more expensive than they already are.
•There is a small chance that, if a lithium-ion battery pack fails, it will burst into flame.
What I would like to know is why some people have problems getting a charge back in the Atrix after a complete discharge. There I was at 20% after 10-15 minutes using the Moto wall charger, while other people can't even get their phones to turn on after an hour on the wall charger.
I have the same problem, tried everything and finally found a solution
Get a warranty replacement.
The phone won't turn on, so they don't know what you did to it.
Got my new phone today, popped the dead battery in and voila, it charges !
Sometimes it's like people say, it's because of the charge, but your phone probably have issue, just get a replacement
I let it charge all night and it still has the same symptoms. Going to Best Buy in an hour when it opens.
When I get my new phone, should I Gingerblur it again or am I going to face this same issue? Was this software related or hardware?
Gingerblur was relatively easy to do, but I don't want to risk killing my phone a second time.
UPDATE: Got a replacement phone. Complementing whether I want to Gingerblur it again because that's the only thing that could have caused the battery issue other than it being hardware related.
LivingChampion said:
I let it charge all night and it still has the same symptoms. Going to Best Buy in an hour when it opens.
When I get my new phone, should I Gingerblur it again or am I going to face this same issue? Was this software related or hardware?
Gingerblur was relatively easy to do, but I don't want to risk killing my phone a second time.
UPDATE: Got a replacement phone. Complementing whether I want to Gingerblur it again because that's the only thing that could have caused the battery issue other than it being hardware related.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try it again should work fine for you. If not...
You can always use their phone and your "dead battery" and visa versa theirs into your phone. Then if same issue happens. Just warranty the phone. If your in warranty do it. I've had g1's for no reason not charge. Led says it, os says it, yet NONE of my working batteries were getting any charge off the phone. Especially when the phone was 3 days old. Warranty.... if its free do it.
tehrules said:
850ma? You sure?
I've charged and booted my phone from dead on a 700ma charger and 500ma usb on numerous occasions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, according to motorola it needs that much... so you never know
Ciloteille said:
You can try it again should work fine for you. If not...
You can always use their phone and your "dead battery" and visa versa theirs into your phone. Then if same issue happens. Just warranty the phone. If your in warranty do it. I've had g1's for no reason not charge. Led says it, os says it, yet NONE of my working batteries were getting any charge off the phone. Especially when the phone was 3 days old. Warranty.... if its free do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes if warranty then ok .. But we are here to do the impossible.. I just reconditioned a new battery just so it can turn phone on in same instance for a friend. So yes batteries and phones new can have charging issues.
There is an issue with smart-phones and batteries and has been since day one. If you are here then evidently you either love these phones and want to mod them or you are like me and love playing with electronics. Real simple if you in the smart-phone world there are a few rules of thumb..
1.) Never begin working without a fully charged battery (some say 51% or better I say 100% )
2.) Buy , borrow , get an external battery charger and/or stronger wall charger
3.) Extra batteries are always good.
4.) Read the damn stickies and wiki's ... People have taken plenty of time creating them. Those who know me know I have written some myself.
5.) The biggest problem is located between the chair and the keyboard .... (lol)
The USB charger does
not seem to power the device
enough to get it to power on. It needs a battery
that has been charged up.
When I ordered a new battery, the phone
powered right up! But, as I was
trying to troubleshoot the problem, the battery
eventually drained to 0.
The problem occurred after I replaced the front
glass. I upgraded to 4.3
after I ordered a new battery after draining the
original one. I was hoping that a fresh OS install
might help the problem,
but it did not. The phone ran the same with 4.2
as with 4.3. I handled the
motherboard with great care when doing the
repair, and the phone worked perfectly before
that. (I have done many successful phone
repairs). I suppose it's possible that the
motherboard was damaged somehow, but it has no
sign of damage and the only
problem is the battery not charging. charging
sign- It did show when the battery was charged.
Now that the battery has drained down,I will
sometimes get an orange light when plugging in
the USB charger.
The battery has drained to the point that the
charging animation indicator on the screen no
longer appears. The battery has been drained to
the point where it does not have enough
power to boot the phone..
shikhar623 said:
The USB charger does
not seem to power the device
enough to get it to power on. It needs a battery
that has been charged up.
When I ordered a new battery, the phone
powered right up! But, as I was
trying to troubleshoot the problem, the battery
eventually drained to 0.
The problem occurred after I replaced the front
glass. I upgraded to 4.3
after I ordered a new battery after draining the
original one. I was hoping that a fresh OS install
might help the problem,
but it did not. The phone ran the same with 4.2
as with 4.3. I handled the
motherboard with great care when doing the
repair, and the phone worked perfectly before
that. (I have done many successful phone
repairs).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My battery suddenly started dying extremely quickly, and sometimes the phone showed that it was charging from a USB cable to the computer instead of through a wall adapter. I have also replaced the front screen assembly and am on 4.3. What the hell is going on? Tons of people with issues like this.
just4ivaylo said:
My battery suddenly started dying extremely quickly, and sometimes the phone showed that it was charging from a USB cable to the computer instead of through a wall adapter. I have also replaced the front screen assembly and am on 4.3. What the hell is going on? Tons of people with issues like this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
go to original stock. you will come to know wheather is sofware problem or a hardware. you will be able to troubleshoot in a better way.
Already have. Looks like a hardware issue.
I gotta say...this phone has been all kinds of problems for me.
EDIT: My model is I9505
Whilst on holidays, I took my phone out of my bag (when I knew it was getting close to flat) to find it not turning on. I assumed the battery was dead, but when I plugged it into the charger it didn't charge. I fiddled around a bit, and eventually got the vibration and charging light - but it kept turning off before the green battery came on saying charging. Being on holidays I didn't have my USB jig, or even external battery charger with me. I assumed it was a loose connection with the charging port - as every time I tried to plug it into charge it would only sporadically say that it was charging - but never get past the picture of the battery and the swirling icon (prior to the green battery coming up).
Upon arriving home, I got out my external charger, took out the battery, charged it for a few hours, then tried it. Again - it wouldn't turn on.
I then tried plugging the phone in again - but to the 800mA charging doc micro USB, insteead of the standard 2 amp. Straight away I get the charging picture, and the little graphic showing me the phone is about 1% charged. I leave it, the screen goes off. I come back 15mins later, the phone is RIDICULOUSLY hot, and the screen off. I unplug and replug to find the battery is still at about the same 1% level. I turn the phone on - it boots, shows 1/2% and then turns off as soon as I unplug it from the dock - even if I plug it straight into a 2 amp charger. I now decide that maybe the battery itself is the issue - and it's not holding charge. So I whiz out and buy two replacement batteries (MPJ ones, as they were fairly cheap - and this was just for the sake of finding the issue).
I charge one for about an hour on the external charger (the phone didn't turn on when I put the battery straight in). Then put it in - same deal. Nothing. I plug it into the dock micro-USB out to charge - again it comes up as charging, and shows at about 1%. I turn it on, and again am shown 1/2% charge, and again as soon as I unplug from the micro USB dock it turns itself off.
It is almost as if the phone isn't taking any power from batteries, and only direct from the power outlet itself. I'm unsure what could possibly have caused this. I can only think it may have been an external battery which I was using for a while on holidays (which had a 1amp micro USB out, that I was using to try and keep my phone charged). That is the only thing I have done different over this period (at least as far as I can recall!)
So basically - in short:
i) Phone won't turn on unless plugged in to a low amp charger (Computer USB, dock micro USB out etc)
ii) Even after charging batteries in external charger (two different external chargers have been tried) the phone is showing 1/2% battery
iii) The phone turns off a few seconds after I unplug it from the power source.
Any ideas!? I will take the phone to get repaired after Christmas (if they still repair it, as it's running a custom ROM).
BTW. a USB jig worked for the first time this afternoon - when I tried it not long after taking the phone off the dock. It's also worth noting that the phone is ridiculously hot when on the dock (around the camera/sim/micro SD area).
Googling there seem to be a few in similar situations.
This YouTube shows it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5B2By7fGII
Sent from my R821 using Tapatalk
abbaskip said:
Googling there seem to be a few in similar situations.
This YouTube shows it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5B2By7fGII
Sent from my R821 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you even try with a spare battery? can you check if your battery swollen? it might be the battery's fault
Repulsa said:
did you even try with a spare battery? can you check if your battery swollen? it might be the battery's fault
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, thanks for the response.
As mentioned in my first post, battery was what I thought was the issue at one stage, but I've tried two other batteries too. The original battery isn't swollen, but in any case I'm having the same issue with the other batteries.
I've tried charging them all on external charger before using them in the phone, and I get the same issues regardless of what I do.
It just seems strange that the phone switches on (now showing 0%) when plugged in, but not when unplugged.
And the batteries aren't being read properly, as they show 0% regardless of how long I pre-charge for.
Experimenting tonight, I've found that if I try to boot into recovery - even when plugged into dock, it dies before it even gets into recover.
Yet, if I boot the phone, I get to the main Android launcher/lockscreen before it dies...
Really has me baffled.
abbaskip said:
Experimenting tonight, I've found that if I try to boot into recovery - even when plugged into dock, it dies before it even gets into recover.
Yet, if I boot the phone, I get to the main Android launcher/lockscreen before it dies...
Really has me baffled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello again, if you have any spare battery and its has 50 or 100% try to reflash the rom just to see the results. or try a different chargers and cables as well, If it all fails, i think you should send it to Samsung for the warranty. Software problems are somewhat easier to fix here than hardware, so your best option is to let Samsung handle it.
Repulsa said:
Hello again, if you have any spare battery and its has 50 or 100% try to reflash the rom just to see the results. or try a different chargers and cables as well, If it all fails, i think you should send it to Samsung for the warranty. Software problems are somewhat easier to fix here than hardware, so your best option is to let Samsung handle it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again for your response, but you're clearly not reading what my issue is before making suggestions. As I have now said twice - I have tried three batteries, and batteries that I have charged for hours on an external charger before using. But they still come up at 0%. Not sure how you imagine I flash a ROM
It may be a matter of taking it to my dealer it seems. If anyone else has suggestions before I get to that (after Christmas) it'd be much appreciated
The batteries fully charged on external chargers and I'm still getting the same issues.
I'm hoping it's not kernel related. Can anyone confirm that if it makes it to download mode Werth a jig (but turns off after a few seconds) that this would be a hardware issue? It only turns on with the jig when it's straight off the charger though - so seems it's still not using the battery for power, almost residual power somewhere.
Sent from my R821 using Tapatalk
abbaskip said:
EDIT: My model is I9505
Whilst on holidays, I took my phone out of my bag (when I knew it was getting close to flat) to find it not turning on. I assumed the battery was dead, but when I plugged it into the charger it didn't charge. I fiddled around a bit, and eventually got the vibration and charging light - but it kept turning off before the green battery came on saying charging. Being on holidays I didn't have my USB jig, or even external battery charger with me. I assumed it was a loose connection with the charging port - as every time I tried to plug it into charge it would only sporadically say that it was charging - but never get past the picture of the battery and the swirling icon (prior to the green battery coming up).
Upon arriving home, I got out my external charger, took out the battery, charged it for a few hours, then tried it. Again - it wouldn't turn on.
I then tried plugging the phone in again - but to the 800mA charging doc micro USB, insteead of the standard 2 amp. Straight away I get the charging picture, and the little graphic showing me the phone is about 1% charged. I leave it, the screen goes off. I come back 15mins later, the phone is RIDICULOUSLY hot, and the screen off. I unplug and replug to find the battery is still at about the same 1% level. I turn the phone on - it boots, shows 1/2% and then turns off as soon as I unplug it from the dock - even if I plug it straight into a 2 amp charger. I now decide that maybe the battery itself is the issue - and it's not holding charge. So I whiz out and buy two replacement batteries (MPJ ones, as they were fairly cheap - and this was just for the sake of finding the issue).
I charge one for about an hour on the external charger (the phone didn't turn on when I put the battery straight in). Then put it in - same deal. Nothing. I plug it into the dock micro-USB out to charge - again it comes up as charging, and shows at about 1%. I turn it on, and again am shown 1/2% charge, and again as soon as I unplug from the micro USB dock it turns itself off.
It is almost as if the phone isn't taking any power from batteries, and only direct from the power outlet itself. I'm unsure what could possibly have caused this. I can only think it may have been an external battery which I was using for a while on holidays (which had a 1amp micro USB out, that I was using to try and keep my phone charged). That is the only thing I have done different over this period (at least as far as I can recall!)
So basically - in short:
i) Phone won't turn on unless plugged in to a low amp charger (Computer USB, dock micro USB out etc)
ii) Even after charging batteries in external charger (two different external chargers have been tried) the phone is showing 1/2% battery
iii) The phone turns off a few seconds after I unplug it from the power source.
Any ideas!? I will take the phone to get repaired after Christmas (if they still repair it, as it's running a custom ROM).
BTW. a USB jig worked for the first time this afternoon - when I tried it not long after taking the phone off the dock. It's also worth noting that the phone is ridiculously hot when on the dock (around the camera/sim/micro SD area).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my view its a fault of charging IC . Since you have tried with replacing battery.
nishangrg said:
In my view its a fault of charging IC . Since you have tried with replacing battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, what is charging IC? If it was a charging fault, a fully charged battery would work wouldn't it?
So I took my phone to my SP - Telstra. The phone, being only about 6 months old, was still within warranty period. Not surprisingly, Telstra have said that as there is a Custom ROM on the phone, the warranty is voided. I stated that my understanding is that under Australian law, as it is a hardware fault, and not a fault caused by the ROM, the warranty still stands - however Telstra wouldn't budge and said I have 5 days to decide if I want to pay the $300+ for the repair.
What is my next course of action? Has anybody had a similar issue previously? Is the TIO the next port of call? Or should I be going to NSW Department of Fair Trading?
I'm sure I've read previously that phones are still covered under warranty after rooting etc, if it can be shown that it's a hardware fault, not a software fault. As the battery doesn't seem to be powering the phone, this clearly seems to be the case - esp. as it is the same in download mode and recovery mode.
Any help would be great. Please don't post pointing out that I rooted my phone so THAT's my own fault etc. These posts aren't helpful, I already have know that.
So I took my phone to my SP - Telstra. The phone, being only about 6 months old, was still within warranty period. Not surprisingly, Telstra have said that as there is a Custom ROM on the phone, the warranty is voided. I stated that my understanding is that under Australian law, as it is a hardware fault, and not a fault caused by the ROM, the warranty still stands - however Telstra wouldn't budge and said I have 5 days to decide if I want to pay the $300+ for the repair.
What is my next course of action? Has anybody had a similar issue previously? Is the TIO the next port of call? Or should I be going to NSW Department of Fair Trading?
I'm sure I've read previously that phones are still covered under warranty after rooting etc, if it can be shown that it's a hardware fault, not a software fault. As the battery doesn't seem to be powering the phone, this clearly seems to be the case - esp. as it is the same in download mode and recovery mode.
Any help would be great. Please don't post pointing out that I rooted my phone so THAT's my own fault etc. These posts aren't helpful, I already have know that.
Long-time lurker, first-time poster. I've gotten a lot of good insight from reading posts and figured I would join to share what I've learned.
Its a long one and if you get all the way through it you will understand why.
Nexus 6 XT1103 with original battery running stock 7.1.1. Started showing issues in early 2020. Apps would be slow to respond. Camera would take forever to open and take a picture. Scrolling through news feed would be annoying because it would register my scroll as a tap into a news story. Weird static sound coming from speakers during scroll. Phone started to shut off on its own at around 20-30%. Installed Accubattery and it showed battery was at about half its original capacity. Progressively got worse throughout the year. Got to the point where it would shut off around 50% or even at 80-100% if opening something that would result in high CPU use spike. It was time to replace the battery.
Looked up battery recommendations. Ebay batteries seemed iffy. Initial install reviews would be fine but some reports of lasting for a year and then crapping out, or just no long term follow-up. Review of Akku Polarcell for a Nexus 5 seemed promising. Email to Wannasee was answered quickly. Batch of batteries they were offering was made in late 2019. They could have just made that up but I had no reason to doubt them. Looks like an actual brick and mortar operation. Ratings are pretty high. $10-15 for unknown battery off Ebay vs $35-40 for something made in 2019 from a reputable vendor. I decided to go with the Polarcell. Bought it after trying to open the phone up the first time to make sure I could. Could have bought the Polarcell from Wannasee’s store on Ebay. Waited for one of those mythical Ebay coupons to show up in my inbox but that never materialized, by which time the phone was really in bad shape. Compared the price for buying the Polarcell off of Wannasee’s Ebay store to buying directly from Wannasee’s site. Went with the direct buy since it was a buck or two cheaper with the exchange rate at that time and I didn’t have any Ebay coupons to use anyways. Paypal payment using credit card. Pay attention to currency conversion setting in Paypal. Was better for me to have my credit card do the conversion rather than let Paypal do it, but that’s because my card doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees. Came out to $36.68 when I bought it. Their email comm is pretty good. They let me know when it was going to ship, when it shipped, when it was expected to arrive and provided a tracking number.
By the time I was ready bite the bullet and buy the battery, the phone wouldn’t even recognize the charger. Went through multiple chargers and cords trying to figure that out. Seemed possible that it was cord or USB port related. Sometimes if the cord was held just so it would charge. Got to a point where it wouldn’t charge at all while on. Wouldn't even recognize the charger was plugged in. I did figure out that it would charge while off, but even that was hit or miss (more hit than miss though). Even while off it did seem like it wanted a higher output charger. I had been using a 1.5A HTC charger mainly. Eventually that didn't work. I tried 2A Samsung and that didn't work. A 4A Asus charger seemed to work the most reliably. So at this point I am debating whether its worth it to buy an almost $40 battery if something is seriously wrong with the phone. What made it worse was that my first attempt to open the phone ended up slicing through a flex cable part of the wireless charging coil. So I could have tried to figure out whether the charging issues were due to the USB port by trying a wireless charger, but not anymore! I was using plastic cards to separate the back from the frame; nothing metal. But the amount of force required to push through the glue was enough that when it broke through the card slipped and it was enough to slice through the thin plastic and copper of that ribbon. Irritating due to the loss of ability to troubleshoot the charging issue further, but I wasn't too burned up about it because I never use a wireless charger so I just took it out and left it out. Works fine without it, except of course no more wireless charging ability.
Looked up lots of videos on how to open up the phone. Most helpful ones were:
Most warn about the cable for the power and volume buttons; rightfully so. None mentioned the wireless charger flex on the opposite side. The power/volume ribbon did get a decent crease into it as well, but luckily no damage. Straightened it out and it works fine.
22 screws. They are tiny but they come out easily. Pretty much everything I read and watched said they were T4 screws, but at least with my screwdriver kit the T3 bit is the one to use. Besides getting the back off the rest of opening the phone to get the battery out was pretty simple. The videos say to separate the two halves of the power/volume ribbon where they intersect but I didn't have to do that. I just removed the end that plugs into the board. Seemed easier than messing with the tiny connector at the intersect and it was. Removing the battery connector didn't work how it should have. The plastic had become brittle with age and just broke apart when prying at it from the opening in the frame. Had to get under the frame and pry it off from the back side of the connector where the ribbon cable goes into it. By the way, by luck I had a decent charge on the old battery before removing it. More on why that was important later.
The Polarcell didn’t come with a curve in it like the OEM battery; it was just flat. But it wasn't hard to massage the edges down. Used the old battery as a guide to bend the new battery into shape. Other than that it went in just fine. Ribbon cable was already folded in the right direction so it just plugged right in. Frame went back into place without any interference. The phone turned on just fine. I dont remember if it charged while on that first time, or if I had charged it while it was off. Probably the latter. But it went to full charge. I did get a capacity reading from Accubattery so it was charging while on. It was in the low to mid 90s vs the rated capacity. That was worth it for me. The phone didn't shut off randomly anymore. The apps were quicker. The camera took pictures the way I remembered it used to. No more static noise. But the charging issue was still there.
The back came off a few more times after that as I tried troubleshooting as best I could to see whether there were any issues with the charge port. There were no visible issues. I did end up picking out some dust with a needle, but not any significant amount that would have explained why it wasn't recognizing being plugged in while on. I probed with a meter on the backside of the USB port while the phone was apart and plugged in to make sure voltage from the charger and cord was coming through. No issues there, but also not advisable to do. The contact points that need to be probed are very tiny and very close to other things. I was lucky I didn't short the 5V to anything important. Pretty sure I did short it at least once and it didn't do any damage, after which I stopped while I was ahead. Cleaned out the port with an old toothbrush dipped in isopropyl alcohol. That definitely seemed to help it charge more reliably while off, but it still wasn't charging while on.
I’ve read posts that suggested the charge port was bad and needed to be replaced, but the fact that the 5V was coming through the USB port meant it had to be something else. Before I had opened the phone up the first time and was troubleshooting this problem I had tried a full reset. Backed up the whole phone manually. It wasn't rooted at that time. At the same time I unlocked the bootloader to get ready to root it once I replaced the battery because I wanted to use a charge limiter with the new battery to extend its life (whether or not that actually works to extend the life I don’t care, its worth the tradeoff to me). The factory reset had made no difference to my charging issue. I had not reflashed the factory image at this point. I was just doing a factory reset with the image that was already on the phone.
After I replaced the battery and it was still having issues, I tried flashing the factory image. Even going in and wiping cache and data through stock recovery made no difference. In addition to charging issues while on there would also be connection issues. It would connect and disconnect if the USB cable was not held in the right way. Not the ideal condition to be flashing a ROM but I managed to keep it connected for long enough. This was not just once. I tried a couple different methods. The first probably was using the Nexus Root Toolkit. Then when that didn't work I went in and manually flashed each file with adb from the command line. At some point I had gotten it to a condition where I did not recognize what it was doing during boot and it was just sitting on the Google screen before the animation starts. Didn't realize then that it should not be on this screen for long. I let it sit like that overnight. I had it plugged in to a charger but I had no way of knowing whether it was charging… it was not. Drained the battery just sitting on that screen all night. Phone came apart again. Battery was down to 2.7V and the phone would not charge. Green light in the speaker came on once (I didn't even realize that light was there before this). It would charge a bit, screen would come on and then immediately die. Started looking up how to charge a Li-Po battery outside of the phone. Eventually my brain cells started working and I pulled out the new battery and put the old battery back in. It had a 4V charge in it still. Was able to get the phone to boot into the OS for the first time after the ROM flash. Turned phone off, pulled old battery out, put new battery in, plugged it in while it was off and it started charging. I kept the back off and had a fan blowing across it while it charged to make sure it didn't get hot. It charged to full. I pulled it out again to see that I hadn't done any permanent damage. It felt the same thickness as before. Nothing was swollen. Will eventually know for sure when I have some more charge/discharge cycles on it, but I think it will be fine since it wasn't discharged lower than 2.7V.
Phone back together. Still only charging while off. Last thing to try is what other posts were skeptical about working. Time to root in order to get access to the batterystats files. Tried to flash TWRP to recovery. It would take but it would not stick. Tried a few times and then gave up and moved on to installing Magisk without it. Turns out Magisk will work just fine with the stock recovery. Used Magisk to patch the boot image. Flashed the patched boot image with adb (still with a wonky USB connection that seemed like it needed to be held just right, but it was only 8meg so it flashed fast). Went with FX File Explorer to browse root. Navigated to data/system folder and moved the three batterystats files off the phone. Kept the files on my computer just in case something went south and I needed to put them back. Rebooted the phone. Booted up without any issues. Plugged in the charger. Recognized immediately and started to charge while on for the first time in a long time. But then it would do the same thing again where the next time I tried charging it would not. It would recognize its plugged into power but would not charge unless I turned the phone on. After a while I realized it would charge while on if I just rebooted it. I still haven’t figured out why this is happening, but its a minor inconvenience. Went through a few weeks worth of charge cycles and Accubattery is showing the Polarcell is at 95% health which seems good to me. I also installed Battery Charge Limit and set it to 80%. Whether or not that’s really going to extend the life of the battery I don’t know but its working fine for me. I get more than a full day out of it before I have to charge again, but I’m not really putting a heavy load on it.
This summarizes troubleshooting and fixing that spans at least three months, for an issue that has been going on for about a year. I’m sure a lot of the issues I had are interrelated. There were definitely a few red herrings along the way. There is no physical damage to the USB port or cables or chargers even though the behavior would have indicated there was. I’m sure the old battery caused issues with either corrupting the batterystats files or just loading it with bad data, and that somehow caused the charging issues I was having. That also seems like it was causing general connectivity issues via the USB port.
Normal people would not go through this much trouble for a 6 year old phone that was presenting so many problems. Safe to say I’m not normal. But I like fixing things and I don't like waste. Hopefully this experience, or at least portions of it, helps someone else keep their Nexus 6 going or maybe even other phones since none of the issue I encountered seem to be specific to the phone.
Quite an adventure!
I would think that your USB connector is physically damaged. You should not have to fiddle with the cable to flash a rom, and also, charging isn't just passing 5V to the phone, it checks the data lines as well to identify the kind of charger.
People say that it is possible to replace the USB connector, but I guess you need to be a real pro at soldering. Maybe a repair shop can do it.
Replacing the charging coil is probably easier - I've done that, though it took some tries before I got the connectors aligned.
It could be the connector or it could be something further downstream (inside the phone). The connector looks physically fine; nothing obvious. Either way, if that's the issue it will be time for a new phone. I've seen those videos and that is well beyond my capabilities. The coil seems simple enough to replace but I've never used wireless charging anyways so I am fine without it.
However, I tend to think its more software related than hardware related just because I can do nothing else besides turn the phone off and it will start charging just fine. I have stood absolutely still, not moving the phone or cable at all and just turned it off and it will start to charge. And when I turn it back on it will still be charging and recognize that it is charging vs before turning it off it would seem like it recognizes its plugged into a charger but it would not be charging (Battery Usage screen goes from telling me how much time it estimates is left with the charge the battery has on it when the cord is not plugged in to saying "Not Charging" when the cord is plugged in).
Any pointers on where to read about how the operating system controls charging? I'm running stock 7.1.1 (N8I11F) with bootloader unlocked and Magisk installed.
Also, what controls charging when the phone is off? I'm assuming that its not the OS.
Thanks
You can always try clearing the bootloader logs:
[Q] Dying at 17% battery
My Nexus 6 is dying at around 17% battery. I've tried using battery calibration apps to fix it but they haven't worked. I've also factory reset, and went from LMY47D to LMY47M, both of which would die at 17%. Any suggestions?
forum.xda-developers.com
That should reset the battery status. It doesn't delete any user data.
I had tried clearing the bootloader logs before, and have tried it again. I had seen a response on a post (that i can't find anymore) that suggested the logs were cleared during a power cycle anyways. Not sure if there's any truth in that, but that's why i thought charging while powered off was working. However, i think i'm agreeing with you now that its the charge port. Last week it stopped working on the charger/cord combo (4A Asus charger and cord that came with some other device) that was reliable up to that point while powered off. Now it will only charge if i push in the cord real hard (won't work with the cord i was using, now i'm back on the OEM cord still with the 4A Asus charger). I think once this method stops working it will be time to move on to another phone.
Any battery recommend ?
I like the Polarcell. Accubattery says its at 94% health (3000mAh compared to the 3200mAh design rating). It hasn't changed since I first installed it two to three months ago. I don't use the phone for anything much more than phone/text/email/alerts so I don't have much screen-on time. I have other devices for that. With that lite use it will take two full days to drop about 50% charge before I put it back to charge. Phone is just as responsive as when I first got it. No random shutdowns or app crashes.
Vincent Adultman said:
I like the Polarcell. Accubattery says its at 94% health (3000mAh compared to the 3200mAh design rating). It hasn't changed since I first installed it two to three months ago. I don't use the phone for anything much more than phone/text/email/alerts so I don't have much screen-on time. I have other devices for that. With that lite use it will take two full days to drop about 50% charge before I put it back to charge. Phone is just as responsive as when I first got it. No random shutdowns or app crashes.
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Thanks for your post. Which ROM are you using?
Stock, 7.1.1, N8I11F