[Q] Battery overheating event - detailed case study - AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshootin

Historical phone performance:
Battery usage (slide 1) – phone uses up 21% in 9 hrs incl 1hr screen-on time and 23 minutes talk-time.
Charging (slide 2) - phone reaches peak battery temperature 105F as voltage increases past 70%, then battery temperature lowers. Max charging current 1500 – 2000 millamps, decreases back to zero causing the temperature to falls. Max voltage 3,450 millivolts.
Phone is rooted and generally operates great with very few problems.
The overheating event (slide 3)
9:50pm – placed phone on charger, using phone screen
10:30pm – stopped using phone, left phone on charger (normal routine)
11:20pm – batter reaches peak temperature of 110F as voltage increases past 70% and then battery temperature starts decreasing. Everythign seems normal at this point.
1:45am – battery temperature starts increasing again and increases to peak of 145F battery temp at 2AM. Bounces around in the 140-145F range.for the next three hours
NOTE – Even though at first glance it seems like a battery/charging problem, the current and voltage behave very similar to the previous normal charge. This seems to rule out battery/charging problem (?)
4:40AM – alarm goes off and I awake and find hot phone and unplug it from charger immediately. Took screenshot (slide 7) showing battery temp 135F and cpu temp 174F. (by the way in other screenshots, cpu temp is on the far right of my notification bar, battery level is on far left of notification bar, and battery temp is 2nd from left on notification bar... the battery temp showing on the notification bar in this particular screenshot is not updated yet because I just turned the phone screen on).
From this point on battery temperature drops significantly (in response to unplugging presumably). Note that GSAM battery monitor battery stats are wiped by unplugging charger, can’t retrieve what they were before.
04:52 – took GSAM battery stats approx. 12 minutes after unplugged. (slide 4) - Battery is down to 95% already and 56% used by apps (even though I have had screen on continuously). The two apps sucking up all the juice are Lookout and Mapquest. Lookout has been on for 13 minutes which is the entire time since the stats were reset when the phone was unplugged. Mapquest only shows as being on 10 minutes at this point. I checked GPS at this point and it was definitely enabled (I normally leave it enabled without any problem). I am not positive whether I disabled GPS at this point or not. I didn’t stop the apps… curious to see how they would behave. Turned off phone screen and left it alone approx. 05:05 until..
05:40 – took GSAM battery stats approx. 1 hour after unplugged. (slide 5) Battery is down to 79% (huge drain… I normally get 9hours plus before I get to 79%). Biggest users are again Lookout and Mapquest. Battery temp is 95F (in an ambient temperature around 70F) which is high considering the phone was not being used and not being charged.
05:45 - Uninstall lookout. I may have turned GPS off at this time (if I hadn't already done it at 04:52... not sure). Reboot. After reboot I did note GPS was disabled and Mapquest was not running. Phone has operated normally since (normal battery drain, normal temperatures).
Hypothesis – Rogue apps Lookout and Mapquest? But they didn't overheat much after battery was removed from charger (even though they continued to use abnormal battery). Maybe it only overheats with the combination of both the rogue apps plus the charging?
Also, would seem too coincidentl to have two different rogue apps show up at the exact same time. Maybe at least one of the rogue apps went rogue as a result of the high temperature.?
What do you think?

Update: charged overnight the following night and everything was normal, just like slide 2.

Related

battery metter unreliable

i have noticed that the battery metter is completely unreliable
for example it shows 28% left (btw, i installed FInixNOverBattery for percentage indication) and after a soft reset it shows 41%
or it shows 50% and after soft reset it shows 31%
in this way i can never estimate how long the battery will last
does anybody faced this issue? any solution fot it? (i also tryed to calibrate by completely drain the battery followed by complete charge withe the device turned off)
thank you in advance!
noris08,
it is completey normal to experience big jumps in % after a reboot. The battery % is just a representation of the actual voltage of the LiPoly battery, which usually recovers (rises) quite a bit when there is no load on the battery (even for a short time).
maybe what you say it is true, but i never experienced this behaviour with any of my previous phones. and i had a few, including wm for a few years
and variations of 10-15% - i find them too big
I noticed the same thing. Any explanation for this? Or it is just that FInixNOverBattery is not reliable/compatible/accurate ?
Voltage may vary/jump around due to environmental changes and power consumption or voltage sensor may be insufficiently accurate to provide reliable voltage readings for 1% steps. This is one of the reasons why many battery drivers in WM only provide remaining charge percentage in 10% steps.
In this light, voltage on its own is not a sufficient indicator of remaining charge percentage. Other parameters, such as voltage deviation and other factors, such as power consumption and temperature may need to be taken into account to obtain a more accurate evaluation.

[Q] Battery level showing problem 50% to 15%.

Samsung GT-T5800. Android OS 2.1-update 1, I5800XXJH1, Kernel 2.6.29 root SE-S603 #2.
The problem:
1. Battery till 50% discharges normally - about 10-15% per day, but after 50% it immediately shows 15% and asks to connect charger and phone switches off very fast. actually no chance to mane even emergency call. No 40%, no 30%, no 20% in battery level.
2. When connect phone to charger - battery charging level immediately set to 80% or every ~10 seconds: 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%. After that phone charges about 1,5-2 hours till 100% and after about 1-2hours it asks to disconnect from the charger. Battery temperature during charging and after it: 31-33C.
After 3d 8h 40min. (~80hours using applications: Battery booster and Memory Booster, no 3G) of battery usage phone switches off.
Battery usage was:
Android system: 61%
Cell Standby: 19%
Phone Idle: 12%
Bluetooth: 4%
Voice calls: 4%
Time from 15% to 5% - 15 minutes with no using the phone. Battery's temperature 20C, Voltage: 3588mV Phone switches off. I have tried 2-3 times to switch on the phone to make battery more empty and finally switched it on and at the same time connected it to charger.
Here is the interesting charging time line after phone died and was switched on to charge it (sorry - no in seconds):
0:00 - 1% - 20C/3588mV (temperature/voltage)
0:01 - 3%
0:01 - 5%
0:01 - 15%
0:02 - 15%
0:03 - 30%
0:03 - 40%
0:04 - 30%
0:05 - 15%
0:07 - 15%
0:09 - 30%
0:12 - 40%
0:14 - 30%
0:15 - 15%
0:16 - 30% - 28C/3698mV
0:18 - 40% - 28C/3718mV
0:20 - 50% - 28C/3730mV
0:21 - 40% - 28C/3727mV
0:23 - 50% - 27C/3728mV
0:36 - 60% -
0:36 - 50% - 26C/3769mV
0:37 - 60% - 26C/3774mV
0:59 - 60% - 26C/3807mV
1:24 - 60% - 26C/3807mV
2:06 - 70%
2:07 - 80% - 26C/3906mV
2:44 - 90% - 26C/3971mV
3:18 -100% - 25C/4101mV
4:03 -100% - 22C/4184mV - Asked to disconnect the charger.
After this charge GT-I5800 (with no any software changes) stoped to show 50% to 15%, but 30% disappears fast to 15% (it means one short call).
Possible that battery issue reason is that (I think) phone was charged partly switched off and partly switched on.
Maybe there are some battery level controlling OS software bugs, I do not know.
Is it official bug or issue?
Or some guru can comment that battery level issue? I saw I was not first user having it.
should be from the firmware
it seems this happening to all
Well i also have exactly the same issue...
I have observed that when i make/recieve a call the battery voltage decreases greatly because of which the battery also decreases and after sometime the battery voltage comes back to normal but NOT the battery.
My battery also drops down from 50% to 15% or 5%.....It's really very annoying...
I think that this is a frimware issue but i am not sure..I am scared that it could be a hardware issue...
Well i have mailed Samsung also regarding this issue so that they fix this issue in the next frimware upgrade and hope others also do the same so that we have a better chance of this bug getting fixed.....!!!
pravarthegreatest said:
Well i also have exactly the same issue...
I have observed that when i make/recieve a call the battery voltage decreases greatly because of which the battery also decreases and after sometime the battery voltage comes back to normal but NOT the battery.
My battery also drops down from 50% to 15% or 5%.....It's really very annoying...
I think that this is a frimware issue but i am not sure..I am scared that it could be a hardware issue...
Well i have mailed Samsung also regarding this issue so that they fix this issue in the next frimware upgrade and hope others also do the same so that we have a better chance of this bug getting fixed.....!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And when I switch off / on the phone then it shows probably correct vallue. For an example. It shows me 15% and after restart it is 60 %. What a stupid bug - I've never have this problem with any device before. Even phones 10 years ago were able to show correct battery status. I think this problem was also with original 2.1 android firmware.
Can someone who has upgraded to froyo pl. confirm that this issue is resolved in the new firmware?
Sent from my GT-I5801 using XDA App
TekkenLaw said:
Can someone who has upgraded to froyo pl. confirm that this issue is resolved in the new firmware?
Sent from my GT-I5801 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, in JP9 / froyo is still this battery problem. When I switch on / off the phone then it's ok. Does someone resolved this issue please ?
My issue still exists. Froyo did not help. Also I can't understand why does one time on charging battery becomes hot, another time -cold.
same for me, and today i charged my phone and after charging just put it on my table after 1h i saw that there are only 80%. Didn't see this on other firmwares
Same here. I thought it is because of my battery manager widget which I had installed, but un-installing/master clear also did not help. Looks like it is major problem. Moreover, few of the battery widgets mention that in some devices they report 1% level battery change, but in Samsung I5801, it will be 10%.
what about this issue at JPA ?
when you was installing JPA did you hard reset your phone ? (factory settings)
If yes which application do you use for restore all of the datas and settigns ?
Yes, it was done. Hard reset seems is not related, and did not help.
Same problem here...
Since built in battery meter is not accurate at all Im using custom one but problem remains.
might fix battery issue.
might work...saw it for Epic 4g and gave it a shot (as its Samsung too). Some sites say LiON do not have memory like NiCd did but somehow it worked for me. Now I stay on 100% for 5hrs or so. lasting 2 days with 45mins call time and some Wifi use. Like today charged full 100% at 9AM and now its 2230 and I have 80%.I have switched off a lot of things. See below.
http://androidforums.com/epic-4g-tips-tricks/171804-recalibrating-battery.html
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=701567
Above needs to be done once only. If it doesn't work then go to service center. Remember battery has 6 months warranty only so be quick and try above on new battery.
I also run LauncherPro instead of stock. Disabled data and enable when out of AP range (only use Wifi when needed and have an AP). Background data/synch is always off unless I use market. All apps are set to never except Gmail. Use K9 Email too and ATK. Am on DDj6 FM. Have removed a lot of apps, foursquare included and run 2 screen with LauncherPro widgets only.
Settings to switch off are here.
http://jvoegele.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-improve-battery-life-for-samsung.html
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-hack-your-htc-evo-4g-increase-battery-life-373058/
afalak said:
might work...saw it for Epic 4g and gave it a shot (as its Samsung too). Some sites say LiON do not have memory like NiCd did but somehow it worked for me. Now I stay on 100% for 5hrs or so. lasting 2 days with 45mins call time and some Wifi use. Like today charged full 100% at 9AM and now its 2230 and I have 80%.I have switched off a lot of things. See below.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As long as I know li ion batteries doesnt have the memory effect but they still have to be recalibrated from time to time, lets say once a month. That means dont charge the phone until it goes off and then charge to the top.
I wasnt willing to wait for 11 hours for phone to charge when I bought it and after few days I ve notice that battery last very short. After that I ve performed the full cycle (drain to the bottom - when phone turn itself off, then after few minutes turn it on, wait until it goes off - repeat few times until its completely off then charge it fully - I usually turn off the phone while charging ).
As long as I know all modern devices like phones, notebooks etc shut down before the battery is completely drained because they want to have safe margin of the battery power because of, as long as I know, when li ion batteries become completely drained then could be damaged completely so you cant recharge them again. Anyway with that "turn on then its drained" I believe that I use the battery more than normal and that phone will recalibrate to the new situation figuring that battery have more voltage than phone "expected".
Anyway with few recharging cycles like those I ve described above I can use the phone now for a 2 days with moderate usage...
That 50-15 problem still exist but 100% period last quite long and also phone can be used a long time from the moment battery reach 15% ...
Try doing it the other way round!
Keep your device on constant charge or at least as much as possible for 10 days from new and you should have now problem.
I have run tests on Lion powered devices for the past 5 years and I have never had to "calibrate" once.
My battery usage is always consistent and seemingly accurate.
And this method encourages max power from the battery.
Sent from my Ideos S7 using XDA App
i just flashed my I5801 with Froyo (XXJPB and then XXJPA), but having very low battery back up, can anyone advice something which can help boosting the performance of the battery? Please help.

Battery Level Issue - Fix Suggestion

I don't know if my suggestion is wrong or if I'm a total n00b or what the deal is, but what is up with the battery level issues on this phone? It goes from 100% down to 80% in like a matter of minutes even with no usage, it then drops steadily down to 50%, then it drops suddenly to 15%, then goes down to 10%, then 5%, then 1%. How can it be so hard to calculate a battery level?
Now I bet someone is going to come in here and bash my idea, and I apologise in advance if I look like a moron, but shouldn't the calculation for the battery level be something along the lines of:
((Current Voltage - Minimum Voltage) / (Maximum Voltage - Minimum Voltage)) * 100 = Current Battery Percent
If that would work (even if only a little better than the current method), can someone PLEASE write at least a widget or something that displays the actual battery level, not this inaccurate level that Samsung claims it to be, and if possible modify whatever it is that calculates it and replace it with said formula?
I tried this formula on my phone using a simple calculator (using 4.1V as my max and 3.5V as my minimum and a battery level widget to display the current voltage) and it seemed to work fine for me and it was a lot more accurate. I just wish it could be automated.
I think that's a common issue on Galaxy 3. Sometimes it's accurate, sometimes not.
I unplug it, after half an hour it's at 80%, then drops by 10% down to 50% and after that suddenly to 5%. Then I turn it off and on again and it returns to 50% or 60%.
But as I said, sometimes it's accurate, but I don't know what causes it.
I've tried some battery widgets, but they all display the same information.
That was a common issue that happens more frequently when you flash your phone without a full charged battery, when that happens i try to wait until the batery ends and wait 2 o 3 hours and charge the phone while its off until it shows full charge
Racoen said:
I think that's a common issue on Galaxy 3. Sometimes it's accurate, sometimes not.
I unplug it, after half an hour it's at 80%, then drops by 10% down to 50% and after that suddenly to 5%. Then I turn it off and on again and it returns to 50% or 60%.
But as I said, sometimes it's accurate, but I don't know what causes it.
I've tried some battery widgets, but they all display the same information.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, its the same with my G3.. But it always was like that, with eclair and now with froyo.
These are the files that regulate it (its in c, but you my be able to understand some parts of it without it).
They didnt calculate it like that, but used an if..else if ...else method. and with fixed values of multiples of ten (except for lower battery).
I dunno how to compile from the sources, when I do I'll change it and send it to KARMA.
Also, sometimes when its low it doesnt show it correctly. Try rebooting if you suspect that.
I've noticed that last 20-30% stays for almoust 10h, but first 80% only 1 day.
If it was only the faulty display of the percentage I normally wouldnt even care. There are many widgets that display the actual battery voltage which gives a much better indication of the actual SOC.
BUT: what really gets on my nerves is, that when the calculated battery level drops below some 10%, the G3 reduces the display brightness, doesnt let me use the camera, doesnt let me start my music app... even if the battery voltage is still at 3.7-3.8V.
The problem seems to be (correct me if i am wrong), that the G3 calculates the battery level with the minimum of the measured voltage in that discharge cycle. So if I use some app which consumes more power, or if I have many active downloads or whatever, the voltage of the battery can sag for a short time, which also causes the calculated battery level to drop. When the phone is idle again the battery voltage goes back up, but the percentage is stuck (in worst case at a very low level).
Since a reboot seems to make the phone re-evaluate the actual SOC, the question is, if there is an app (or if someone can make an app) that forces the phone to re-evaluate the SOC without rebooting (and so also reactivates camera etc.). Even better if the firmware was modified in a way, that the algorithm for determining the battery level uses a filtered value of the battery voltage so that a short term voltage sag does not affect the calculated battery level.

[Q] Periodic battery usage fluctuations

In the past few months, the battery on my (2012) Nexus 7 has been completely unreliable. It charges very slowly (roughly 2-5% per hour), and continues to discharge if used while plugged in. In general if left overnight it will charge to a full 100%, but last night it lost 3% from where it had been. Using Battery Monitor, I saw a recurring pattern in the current drawn by the device while plugged in. One or two times an hour, it would spike downward to between -700 and -1000 mA, before returning to a positive charging state. Looking at Battery monitor after a period of light use (chrome, pandora, facebook), the pattern remained consistent. Does anyone have any thoughts on what might cause such a periodic heavy power draw? Thanks very much!

Too fast charging to 100% - weird battery behavior?

Yesterday I've notice it for the first time [1 month old device] - I plug the device on charger when it was ~60% after 1h I came back, turn screen on and notice its 'Charged' - 100%, while it still on charge I've played a little bit with the device and notice the battery is on 65%!
I looked at the GSAM battery logs [of all the battery indicator precents] and notice that it jump from 60% [when I put it on charge] stright to 100%, then it goes down under 60 [while I played with it], also weird thing - at the GSAM graph it shows that the screen was on all the 1h charging time [I can tell the screen was off!].
After reconnect to the charger it went fine [maybe it was fine right after its relized the real precents/indicator].
Anyway - today I've notice a little different thing: while it charges the battery indicator shows 93% for a while, while I'm playing with device [still on charger] then it jumps to 100%.
I looked at GSAM battery indicator history [log] and notice something strange - when the indicator went to 82 it goes up to 83 then goes down to 82, then 83 again, 84, 83, 84, 85, ....93, 100.
At this case seems like the indicator has right on the jump to 100% - I checked it and seems it decreases linearly as it should be.
Don't know why is it happening but at other early log of cherging [on gsam] I notice that other charge had something quite similar - on 81 up to 82 down to 81 up to 82 and continue regular....
- I'm on stock 4.2.2 [no root or other stuff], using only the original charger [1.2A], the battery wasn't heat at all and everything seems fine.
Does any one have any idea why is it happens or any reason for that?
I can say its the first [and second] time I notice it, so its not happens all the time.
BTW - could this behavior damage the battery [for the long term]?
Maybe this is one of the reasons for too many [people in here and outside] having problems of 'damaged' battery, because of not noticing it and keep it in charge while the indicator stuck on xx% but the battery is full (100%)...
Anyway if you are not following the battery indicator- charging/discharging history you'll never notice it.
Had this thing again - few days ago.
I put the charger and notice it jumps stright to 100% 'charged', reconnect the charger and its back charging as usual...
Anyone notice it and/or have any idea why is it happens sometimes ?

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