Database Users

[Q] Red Light - Charging without back?

So, I plugged my Nexus 4 into a generic car charger and it went black instantly. The battery was at about 92%. With the hope that a proper AC or computer USB charge connection would bring up the white battery icon and fix things, I stopped by an out of town T-mobile. The manager tried the button battery-reset (up volume + power for 60sec) and I googled alternatives and tried the - enter recovery by pressing those buttons for 15sec off the charger and connecting while still holding down the buttons - trick. Neither worked.
The manger seemed familiar with that and the other button pressing tricks, and said that really, my only real hope would be to reset/replace the battery, but that would void my warranty. However, although the T-mobile site claims my Google bought phone is under warranty (and I've been paying for it each month), technically, it isn't. Under them or Google (any more). So, I purchased the tools to open the phone, as well as a replacement battery. In the interim, I tried to use all the button combos and various charging connections to get it to come back to life. I *did* manage to get it charging the old battery. I know because the blinking red light turned constant for an hour or two, and the battery got warm. I can only guess that the battery was too damaged to keep the charge however, because I could never get it to turn on during or after. My best guess is that the software battery reset allowed the phone to send a charge to the battery - at least once.
After getting my tools and replacement battery, I managed to get the phone open (with great effort - I think there must be a difference between batches there). I removed the old battery connection and looked to see if I could get the charge icon with it unattached and on the charger. I couldn't. Reconnecting the old battery didn't seem to make any difference.
I was about to go through the process of prying up the old battery when I realized that you can actually connect the new battery to the board connector without getting the old one out. So I did that. Leaving it charging like that for awhile didn't do anything, so I decided to do another software battery reset and I'm letting it sit on the charger overnight. All of this has been without reattaching the back.
So my major question is - does anyone know for sure if the phone actually charges the battery with the back off? I know there are important circuits there - which seem to shut down the phone after the battery or google image when not detected (at least that's my deducement after reading posts). But are those connections also used in charging? The Qi goes though the back to the charger function, so perhaps that connection has to be there? I would like to try and find out though beforehand. It took 2 hours and two mangled guitar picks to get it open the first time, and the second may be just as trying. (And believe me, towards the end, I was not concerned with being gentle.)
I am also curious about the four prong battery connection. I've seen the post about charging the battery using external sources by connecting to the two outer pins. Does that mean the two inner pins constitute a second circuit between the charged battery and the phone? And if I find another 3.8v battery fully charged, I could perhaps connect that to the phone instead by wires and get it booted into recovery? As to why I'd want to do that, I don't recall the last dated CM version I had installed, so finding that in their folder plus pulling off everything from /data... assuming I replaced this with another Nexus 4, I might be able to save myself a lot of setup hassle.
In terms of the red light... it actually seems to be an error code. When triggered, it blinks 7 times, and on the eighth stays lit for a bit before repeating.

cetkat said:
So, I plugged my Nexus 4 into a generic car charger and it went black instantly. The battery was at about 92%. With the hope that a proper AC or computer USB charge connection would bring up the white battery icon and fix things, I stopped by an out of town T-mobile. The manager tried the button battery-reset (up volume + power for 60sec) and I googled alternatives and tried the - enter recovery by pressing those buttons for 15sec off the charger and connecting while still holding down the buttons - trick. Neither worked.
The manger seemed familiar with that and the other button pressing tricks, and said that really, my only real hope would be to reset/replace the battery, but that would void my warranty. However, although the T-mobile site claims my Google bought phone is under warranty (and I've been paying for it each month), technically, it isn't. Under them or Google (any more). So, I purchased the tools to open the phone, as well as a replacement battery. In the interim, I tried to use all the button combos and various charging connections to get it to come back to life. I *did* manage to get it charging the old battery. I know because the blinking red light turned constant for an hour or two, and the battery got warm. I can only guess that the battery was too damaged to keep the charge however, because I could never get it to turn on during or after. My best guess is that the software battery reset allowed the phone to send a charge to the battery - at least once.
After getting my tools and replacement battery, I managed to get the phone open (with great effort - I think there must be a difference between batches there). I removed the old battery connection and looked to see if I could get the charge icon with it unattached and on the charger. I couldn't. Reconnecting the old battery didn't seem to make any difference.
I was about to go through the process of prying up the old battery when I realized that you can actually connect the new battery to the board connector without getting the old one out. So I did that. Leaving it charging like that for awhile didn't do anything, so I decided to do another software battery reset and I'm letting it sit on the charger overnight. All of this has been without reattaching the back.
So my major question is - does anyone know for sure if the phone actually charges the battery with the back off? I know there are important circuits there - which seem to shut down the phone after the battery or google image when not detected (at least that's my deducement after reading posts). But are those connections also used in charging? The Qi goes though the back to the charger function, so perhaps that connection has to be there? I would like to try and find out though beforehand. It took 2 hours and two mangled guitar picks to get it open the first time, and the second may be just as trying. (And believe me, towards the end, I was not concerned with being gentle.)
I am also curious about the four prong battery connection. I've seen the post about charging the battery using external sources by connecting to the two outer pins. Does that mean the two inner pins constitute a second circuit between the charged battery and the phone? And if I find another 3.8v battery fully charged, I could perhaps connect that to the phone instead by wires and get it booted into recovery? As to why I'd want to do that, I don't recall the last dated CM version I had installed, so finding that in their folder plus pulling off everything from /data... assuming I replaced this with another Nexus 4, I might be able to save myself a lot of setup hassle.
In terms of the red light... it actually seems to be an error code. When triggered, it blinks 7 times, and on the eighth stays lit for a bit before repeating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I RAN INTO A SIMILAR PROBLEM
I found that holding the power button for a while allowed my nexus 4 running stock Lollipop 5.1 to boot back up.
Have considered that you may have a faulty USB port ?
Just pop the old battery out install the new one plug in the charger and it will charge. You can boot up without the back on. The back contains the antennia.... and the NFC circuit board.
Good luck

Blacksmith5 said:
I RAN INTO A SIMILAR PROBLEM
I found that holding the power button for a while allowed my nexus 4 running stock Lollipop 5.1 to boot back up.
Have considered that you may have a faulty USB port ?
Just pop the old battery out install the new one plug in the charger and it will charge. You can boot up without the back on. The back contains the antennia.... and the NFC circuit board.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, still no luck. I ended up putting the new battery in and closing it up to try the Qi charger, but all I can get is either 7 or 10 red blinks followed by a short solid light. No white battery charging symbol or anything else.
When you say a faulty USB port, what are you referring to? The cable works (though I've also tried my Nexus 7 one too) and even though it won't boot, my computer does recognize that something is there when I plug my phone into it (it just can't figure out what's plugged in - which is normal). I want to say that it's trying and failing to charge the new battery. At this point, I think the charger messed up more than just the battery.

Battery information - where is it store?

I was wondering if anyone can explain to me where the charging history and battery history are stored?
Obviously it is something separate from the system partition because it keeps its history through upgrades and off charging.
That is my first question.
My second is if anyone is aware of malware that can infect the executable part of the battery charging code?
Not too long ago my MXPE started to behave strangely and I noticed that in fasboot the modem is always busy.
There is some kind of activity going on with the modem partitions that are keeping them locked.
This started happening exactly at the same time the phone starting draining like mad, even through hard power off (power + vol down for 15 seconds). I did notice that hard power off does reset the problem but it quickly reappears like something remote is installing over the modem.
Some of the symptoms are:
1) battery icon that shows the charging symbol all the time.
2) battery refuses to charge when running android unless hooked up to a data cable (4 wires + ground).
3) the device drains power even while it is supposedly off
So I am thinking something has lodged itself in the executable part of the battery charging firmware and would like as much information as possible. I know the charging part of the phone has firmware just like the phone does but I do not know if it is updated ever or if it is just a small flash prom that gets ignored.
I think figuring out where it stores the info is the first part of this and maybe dumping that and dumping the partition or files that it runs when you plug in a power source.
Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Edge 7 freezing, no power, overheat

Hello people,
I have problem with my Samsung Edge 7 and please if you can just tell me what can be a problem and on which way should I go to solve this problem I would appreciate it very much. No need for step by step solution just tell me what can I do except send it to Samsung repair shop or recycle it. I will take it apart by myself if needed but I don't have a clue which part should I look to replace or what.
So... the problem is that I manage to charge the device one day when it don't want to charge and after that I managed to turn it on. Everything was working fine, didn't try anything much just unlock screen and put it to sleep.
After that I turned it off so it don't consume battery while I would be able to backup my data. When I was able to do backup I turned it on and it powered up normal so I proceed to backup my contacts (export to SD card).
When the export finishes phone just froze and I have to turn it off with POWER + VOLUME DOWN button combo.
After that few times when I try to power it on it just froze on boot up logo and I turned it off that few times with the same button combination as before. Until it don't want to power on anymore. So I tried to put it on charger to see if anything will happen, and nothing did.
I just left it to sit on my desk and I noticed that the phone is heating but I got no reaction at all from the phone (powering on or charging)
The day after when the battery was drained obviously I managed to charge it up again but when I power it on after it got to 100% charge it froze again and there goes same procedure as before (button combination restart, no response, heating, battery dead, charging...)
So now I can't even charge it anymore and I took out SD card to check if my contacts are there at least. But nothing, that contacts vcf file is not even saved on SD card even I choose that option when exporting my contacts.
Now I don't know what else to do since my phone wont even charge or power on and I would like to backup my data at least and then I can recycle it if I must.
So please if you have a clue just tell me where can I look at what can I try to do.
Thank you in advance and have a nice day

some of sgs has these problem. The motherboard is broke, i had same problem and sent to samsung service, they changed motherboard. I guess it's related to cpu temp sensor, inside the cpu.

Thank you Ganjax for your reply. That was the thing I was afraid of. So all my data goes away with motherboard?
I will wait few more days with some replies even I find your very useful and accurate since you had the same problem.

hey I also have the same issue, putting the phone in the freezer and letting it freeze makes it so that it can turn on for only 5minutes or till when it drops back to room temperature hopefully this will be enough to get your photos back.

millkyway4 thank you for you reply.
I am not in a possibility to try your method because I disassemble my phone and striped down battery for research purposes.
Neither I think that those 5 minutes will be enough to transfer all my data but if I ever reassemble my phone I will give it a shot.
So... Considering my research and striping down the battery the things goes like this (if someone is interested in this topic):
I disassemble the phone and remove the battery. Battery is connected on motherboard by some connector that I don't know the name or type, so if someone knows I would like to know too.
Since I couldn't find positive and negative lead on that connector (because of microscopic leads) little bit down on flat cable, near the battery, I removed coating and manage to find leads and measure voltage of the battery to confirm positive and negative lead.
By the measurements I assume that battery voltage is fine (~3.7V), but when I connect it to external charger which have built in ampere meter the battery doesn't charge as other batteries and ampere meter readings vary by 100mA +/- I set up to be initial charge. In normal case when I charge batteries amperes only goes down by the time the battery charges so I find this event an anomaly.
Since that is the case I removed the chip (from which the flat cable is coming out) that is on the battery assuming that it is causing that anomaly. Leaving the battery with only positive and negative lead that I connected and also measure and put on my external charger. But the same thing happens as with chip, or what is called, on the battery.
Going further with my research I cut down flat cable from battery chip (electronics) and connect positive and negative lead, I found before, directly on my charger on which I adjust voltage on ~3.75 volts and connect the connector with flat cable back to motherboard. So you probably see what I did here but if you don't the research I want to conduct is that my external charger acts as battery for the phone and I try to power it on like that.
In this case ampere meter shows 0 since the current which is flowing trough the phone is none. After I am sure that this is the case I tried to power on my phone with connected external charger like that and my ampere meter shown a current draw of 100-200mA on the POWER button pressed but the phone doesn't turn on.
So now I need someone with a little bit better knowledge of the phone, batteries, working order and type of connections like this to tell me what did I do right and wrong so I can prove that Ganjax statement, and my assumption, that motherboard is dead is really correct.
Ganjax don't mean I don't believe you or something, I appreciate your reply, this is just for research purposes because I would like to play with this stuff and that is the things that interest me.
And if there is some "fanatic" like that to tell me what can I do next and try or point out what should I do and don't make next please leave a comment and we can discuss this matter together and find out something about this case.
Thank you all and have a nice day

Galaxy s5 won’t boot up

Please can someone help me with a problem I’m having with my Samsung Galaxy s5.
I put my phone on charge before I went to bed and when I woke up it was still showing a red LED. I knew this was wrong because it should have had enough time to charge and turn green. I had not powered the phone off before putting it on charge and I plugged it into the same USB 3.0 charging lead I have been using for the past six months. I unplugged the phone and pressed the power button to light up the lock screen but it didn’t light up.
I’m thinking possibly something has either shorted or over heated and fried something either on the charging port assembly or one of the chips adjacent to the port while the charger was plugged in. It seems like only a trickle of power is getting through to the phone. When I plug a different USB 2 charging cable into the phone, without trying to power on, the charging icon appears but shows no charge at all in the battery.
I have also tried the spare battery I have but it’s still the same. I know the spare battery is 100% fully charged because I store it in a separate charging/storage box which shows a green LED when it is full. In fact the one which was in the phone at the time is also fully charged according to the charging box. Neither battery has got warm at all inside the phone. I’m confident both batteries are fully charged and totally fine and the problem isn’t with the batteries.
At this point I removed my sim card and also the MicroSD card. I needed the sim to use in my spare phone and I wanted to see if the sd card could be causing the issue but after again trying a normal reboot it made no difference.
I’ve tried several possible things I found on google but nothing has worked. Between each different thing I tried I had to remove the battery for 10 seconds and insert it again to get it out of the boot loop so I could try something else.
Initially when I tried booting into safe mode, then recovery mode and then download mode it brought up the screens for those but in each case after a few seconds the phone powered off and went into a boot loop so I couldn’t attempt any recovery options such as clearing cache etc. Now I cannot even get it to start any of those modes at all and all that happens is the phone does a little vibration, displays the Samsung logo and then just boot loops no matter what I try.
I have tried removing the battery and leaving the phone for a few hours then powering on again but it still just loops.
I have tried pressing and holding Vol-down when plugging it into my PC using a different USB 2 cable and windows acknowledged a phone was plugged in but said it couldn’t connect or recognise the phone and suggested the phone could have a fault.
I don't know if maybe my USB 3.0 lead has a fault that could have caused it or if there could have been some electricity spike while the phone was plugged in, or as I said a component has just fried.
I strongly suspect this is a hardware fault and not a software fault but as I’m not a phone engineer I have no idea about how to trace any possible hardware issues or what might have gone wrong. I would really appreciate any help or suggestions about what the problem might be as this has been a great phone for the last 2 years since I got it and I’d be sad to have to junk it and buy a new one.
Thank you.

I would not junk it yet......
You had mentioned that you go through a lot, just to get phone into Recovery ( " Initially when I tried booting into safe mode, then recovery mode and then download mode it brought up the screens for those but in each case after a few seconds the phone powered off and went into a boot loop so I couldn’t attempt any recovery options such as clearing cache etc. Now I cannot even get it to start any of those modes at all and all that happens is the phone does a little vibration, displays the Samsung logo and then just boot loops no matter what I try." )
OK, just my 2 cents here on this... Why not trying to goto Recovery by pressing and holding the Volume Down (vol-); Home button, and The Power button all at the same time. (yes, if you have a Recovery, and its works, you should be able to boot right into Recovery- >Now, (I would, cause I've been there..) I would also have a PC going with Odin open (Plus the Latest Stock Rom) ... If it works, you would flash the Stock ROM, to clean up anything, giving you all stock, but you can change that of course ...then go from there...
Second, if you can not still get to Recovery.... Have you tried a Stock USB Cable, only asking.... Obliviously something is a miss... with Power... IF phone is off, and you plug it to a power source ... then system has power, and these can power up with just the usb cable, without having the battery in..... Been there. Can add the simple fact, if using just a Micro SD cable, they can bend the Power Board. Believe me (Had to fix the Wife's S5 a few Frinkin' times....) That is why, I say using the Stock Cable, or even a USB 3.0 Cable (like the stock one) does help with power issues when the Micro has bent up the power board...
Will check back and see if this may have you to Recovery or fixed... sure hope this can help you out

Thanks for replying godofsalt.
At the time the phone was plugged in to my USB 3 lead which charges faster and all I can think is that perhaps there could be a fault with the lead or the higher ampage of using this lead caused a circuit to burn out.
I have around a dozen USB 2 leads and I've tried your idea with 3 different ones but none of them will fire up the phone at all with the battery taken out.
I am sure this is going to need some kind of replacement either of the charging port or the motherboard. I don't rate my chances of trying to do it myself and I don't think it will be economic to take it to a shop so I've found a better option by buying the same phone which is second hand but in good condition. That way I know I have all the additional accessories already for probably the same price any shop would charge to fix it.
In future I'll stick to using a decent USB 2 lead on the 1 amp charger I used to use before and hopefully this will not occur again.

G500F battery graphic/boot loop
Had the same problem a few days after installing a 9.0 Rom. My battery is brand new and all cables aren't too aged, so I thought this had to be a physical fault of some kind, but then I had the thought to flash an older bootloader and just like that my battery started taking a charge again and I could boot up. Switched to Flyme os for a while the went back to 9.0 again, with the lastest bootloader and the thing stopped working again. Don't know too much, but I'd try and flash a different bootloader to see if there's any difference. My device failed right at the Galaxy logo, then looped the charging graphic endlessly but would strangely go into download mode and not fail. Don't know if this helps, just thought I'd share my solution.

Thanks for replying henderia93.
My symptoms are very slightly different in that the phone couldn't maintain any of the modes I tried for more than a few seconds before going back to the boot loop again so there was no chance of trying any software fixes including flashing the ROM. Now it won't enter any of those modes at all. I'm certain that's due to only a trickle of power getting through to the main board, not enough to maintain any recovery modes, so there is just enough power for it to attempt to boot, but no more so it just keeps looping, most likely caused by something that has blown while on charge.

MarylinC said:
Thanks for replying henderia93.
My symptoms are very slightly different in that the phone couldn't maintain any of the modes I tried for more than a few seconds before going back to the boot loop again so there was no chance of trying any software fixes including flashing the ROM. Now it won't enter any of those modes at all. I'm certain that's due to only a trickle of power getting through to the main board, not enough to maintain any recovery modes, so there is just enough power for it to attempt to boot, but no more so it just keeps looping, most likely caused by something that has blown while on charge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ha e taken so many of these a part... Like I may have mentioned, there is a Board, just for the USB (data and power (i still have 2 of them)).... In short, you really have to pretty much take the phone a part. Being very careful with the Screen, and the "Sticky" LEDs and the Home button. There is a lot to it actually.
Like I said, been there done that... Cheap to get, takes some time but it is possible to replace that board. It's a separate board different from the actual main CPU board.
I would have to find it, but I had a manual, for taking these a part.

godofsalt said:
I ha e taken so many of these a part... Like I may have mentioned, there is a Board, just for the USB (data and power (i still have 2 of them)).... In short, you really have to pretty much take the phone a part. Being very careful with the Screen, and the "Sticky" LEDs and the Home button. There is a lot to it actually.
Like I said, been there done that... Cheap to get, takes some time but it is possible to replace that board. It's a separate board different from the actual main CPU board.
I would have to find it, but I had a manual, for taking these a part.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I've been looking for answers about this I've seen teardown videos for the s5 so I can see what the port assembly looks like with it's little PCB behind it. As I have a replacement s5 on it's way all I need to decide now is whether to keep the old handset for spare parts or see if I can follow the teardown video to try and install a new port assembly to get the phone working again as a spare.

MarylinC said:
While I've been looking for answers about this I've seen teardown videos for the s5 so I can see what the port assembly looks like with it's little PCB behind it. As I have a replacement s5 on it's way all I need to decide now is whether to keep the old handset for spare parts or see if I can follow the teardown video to try and install a new port assembly to get the phone working again as a spare.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, me too, seen many vids on the tear down. I decided to go a bit more, IMHO, to have an actual manual, PDF, when I did my first one, many years ago. So, can read, and use photos wisely. Seen too many Utube crap, where the break it, destroy it..... crazy!
Well, at this age, not too sure what to do my self. In our case, our present service is cheaper to Keep these. Grandfathered in, and we pay a but less, than going to any other carrier. Plus, these newer phones are not cheap at all.
True, it up to you. hope all goes well.

Sorry I am a novice so please excuse my question.
Are you assuming that the usb port is shorting even when no usb cable is inserted? As you put a fully charged battery in with no change it would seem that the act of charging is not involved.
Have you tried a voltmeter to check the voltage at the battery charging pins?
Have you tried to check the voltage at the two pins commonly used for a wireless charging adapter (to the upper left of the battery) to see what the voltage is?
Sorry if I am off base.

SM-T530NU "Overheating", calibration?

Have a Sm-T530NU that has misbehaved for a long while, originally the OEM battery was thought bad. Yet after it was changed to a new off-brand battery and working on and off for a year and some, the tablet has started misbehaving again, mostly not charging and turning off alone. And recently has started showing the temperature warning icon while charging while off.
So, I've opened it again and digged down, and discovered the battery connector on the PCB wasn't well soldered, the contacts danced in the pad, so I retouched the soldering with flux and a little new solder and it seems ok (I can recheck again later if needed be), so I tested the original battery with multimeter and seemed acceptable, so I installed the original battery back. Charged it for a while, and, again, warning icon for temperature while off, and it switches back and forth between charging and warning... I turned it on, and it works, but throws an error once in a while about being too hot and closes all apps... this, I think should be something related to cpu heat and not battery one... (also wasnt charging during this). So, I read online that some of these tablets with a modem have a service menu (*#0*#) but of course this one has no dialer, so I've tried several programs to try and get into the service menu, my idea is to see if it's possible to recalibrate temperature sensors, for battery and for cpu, but I've not been able to open the service menu by any means (the last mean I have is trying an intent initiated by am but the tablet is not rooted and there's permission issue for asking an intent of uid 2 from uid 0....).
My questions are:
1) Is it possible to get to the service menu of this model somehow? with or without rooting? Is it possible to recalibrate sensors from it?
2) Should I recheck the battery connector? would a battery "overheat" (caused by a bad connector connection to the sensor cable, or a miscalibration) cause app shutdown during run? or is it related to cpu/gpu overheat? I see some phoen models (S2) can cause this message from torubles with the usb connector/pcb, this doesn't sound too logical on my case, but, is it a possible source of problems for this tablet too?
3) If it IS a cpu overheat (though tablet feels cool to the touch) is there anything can be done to help with this issue? micro disipator maybe?
Thanks for any advice. I'm willing to try odd or hard stuff to fix this.