[Q] Battery capacity/ calibration problems - Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi there. New here.
I have a Galaxy S I9000 running CM7.1.
Recently, I have bought one of these fat batteries from here:
dealextreme.com/p/3-7v-3500mah-high-capacity-battery-pack-with-back-cover-for-samsung-i9000-galaxy-s-54276
I did not have much expectations, but the reviews were pretty positive, so I went for it.
To my "surprise", the thing did not work much better than the original battery. Obviously I went around looking for what could be the issue (I did not give up on it just yet), and I found all sorts of data about "battery calibration" techniques and such.
I charged the thing to 100%, and used the "battery calibration" APP from the Market. Did a reboot, and took it for a spin (day of avg. usage). Nothing changed about the performance of the battery.
I gave up and returned the old battery. Re-did the calibration procedure from above ("just in case").
To my surprise, all these games apparently "damaged" the battery life of the original battery somehow!
I got down to 50% charge after 10hrs of *no usage* at all (The battery stats show 40% for "cell standby"). No CPU intensive processes were running during this time.
Now, it's obvious that the battery itself did not get damaged in any way. What this does show, however, is that this "calibration" procedure did have some unexpected "persistent" impact.
One thing for sure, is that I do not understand what actually happens during this "calibration" procedure. From what I read, it deletes some "battery stats" file that is later regenerated by the OS over time.
My questions are as follows:
1) Any one seen anything like this before?
2) Will the "life" of the original battery "improve" as time goes by (as the battery stats are collected), or am I screwed without doing something about it?
3) Is there still hope for the fat battery I bought? Seeing that there are significant "energy losses" dues to some software calibration issues.
4) Is there a "right" way for switching between batteries with different capacities?
4) Anyone can recommend some APP that shows better stats about the battery? For instance, a representation of the contents of this "battery stats" file? How many MAHs the battery "has"? Any kind of interesting "debug" data?
I'd really love to have my (battery) life back.
Thanks.

Bump.
Anyone?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1283316
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium

keyme said:
Hi there. New here.
I have a Galaxy S I9000 running CM7.1.
Recently, I have bought one of these fat batteries from here:
dealextreme.com/p/3-7v-3500mah-high-capacity-battery-pack-with-back-cover-for-samsung-i9000-galaxy-s-54276
I did not have much expectations, but the reviews were pretty positive, so I went for it.
To my "surprise", the thing did not work much better than the original battery. Obviously I went around looking for what could be the issue (I did not give up on it just yet), and I found all sorts of data about "battery calibration" techniques and such.
I charged the thing to 100%, and used the "battery calibration" APP from the Market. Did a reboot, and took it for a spin (day of avg. usage). Nothing changed about the performance of the battery.
I gave up and returned the old battery. Re-did the calibration procedure from above ("just in case").
To my surprise, all these games apparently "damaged" the battery life of the original battery somehow!
I got down to 50% charge after 10hrs of *no usage* at all (The battery stats show 40% for "cell standby"). No CPU intensive processes were running during this time.
Now, it's obvious that the battery itself did not get damaged in any way. What this does show, however, is that this "calibration" procedure did have some unexpected "persistent" impact.
One thing for sure, is that I do not understand what actually happens during this "calibration" procedure. From what I read, it deletes some "battery stats" file that is later regenerated by the OS over time.
My questions are as follows:
1) Any one seen anything like this before?
2) Will the "life" of the original battery "improve" as time goes by (as the battery stats are collected), or am I screwed without doing something about it?
3) Is there still hope for the fat battery I bought? Seeing that there are significant "energy losses" dues to some software calibration issues.
4) Is there a "right" way for switching between batteries with different capacities?
4) Anyone can recommend some APP that shows better stats about the battery? For instance, a representation of the contents of this "battery stats" file? How many MAHs the battery "has"? Any kind of interesting "debug" data?
I'd really love to have my (battery) life back.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) You're running CM7 which is known to be a battery hog so dont expect phenomenal battery life with it. Also a lot of the aftermarket batteries are fakes with their actual mAH being even lesser than that of the original samsung battery the i9000 ships with. And the battery you bought costs $15 which is way too cheap for a 3500mAH battery which basically means the battery is a fake and you were ripped off.
2) After deleting the battery stats during the calibration process it takes a few charge-discharge cycles for the battery 'life' to improve. Give it a week to settle in.
3) there is no hope for the battery you bought, unless you can return it for a refund maybe? if you cant return it, you might want to take off the battery label and see the actual mAH of the fat battery (as this is sometimes printed on the plastic shell of the battery underneath the label).
4) When switching batteries you simply run the battery calibration after you've fully charged the new battery in your handset and then you drain it until the phone fails to boot. Then you charge it to 100% without turning the handset on
5) Battery Monitor Widget is an app you might want to take a look at but it does not have the exact battery capacity for each phone pre-fed into its databases since the battery capacities vary with the manufacturer and model of each handset. It relies on you entering the exact battery capacity from your battery label into the application before it can function properly.

Thanks for the response.
I'll do a few charge / discharge cycles, and see if it improves over the week.
Just for science, I peeled off the label of the fat battery and found no useful data there. Only some kind of S/N which did not show any results on Google.
Shame. I guess I'll just leave a negative review for the battery and be smart enough the next time.

Related

Spare battery + Wiping battery stats?

So...I don't think this has been brought up here before, so I figure I'll be the dummy who asks. If I recalibrate (bump charge), and wipe battery stats, is it safe to assume that swapping out batteries (spares) will mess this up? I plan on picking up a spare battery, but wondered about this. Any input? Thanks in advance.
Not sure about the "bump" policy around here. but...........BUMP
Just charge the battery and use the phone. Don't get caught up in the whole wipe stats to create longer battery life craze.
I just swap batteries when needed about midday. I ignore the battery stats. They don't affect my use of the phone.
newter55 said:
Just charge the battery and use the phone. Don't get caught up in the whole wipe stats to create longer battery life craze.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand that wiping stats does not "improve" battery life. but I have no problem believing that with a recalibrated battery (@ 100%), wiping stats will help the phone/battery meter "read" more correctly.
ua549 said:
I just swap batteries when needed about midday. I ignore the battery stats. They don't affect my use of the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought so too, but I believe coupling it with a bump charge helped me a lot. I'll explain:
I recalibrated my battery about a week ago, (didn't know about wiping stats) I improved by about 3 or 4 hours daily, bringing me up to about 15 hours of use on a charge.
However,before I posted this thread, I did a recalibrate along with a wipe, then allowed the battery to drain and then a complete recharge. As of right now (27 1/2 hours later) I'm still looking at 30%
However, thats not why I started this thread though, I am simply wondering if swapping batteries back and forth will affect the stats and how the phone reads the state of the battery. (makes sense that it would I guess)
any input on THAT would be awesome, thanks in advance.
True. Unplugging the charger as soon as it shows 100% won't give you a full charge since it's not really accurate. I believe the charge complete notification is triggered by the charger shutting down. Not positive but I have noticed that can be triggered at varying times after 100% is reached.
Swapping batteries does mess it up but I can't say how much. There's always going to be a difference in charge between the two, and depending on different brands, a difference in the battery capacity and voltage at different % levels.
In short: The charge circuit measures amps going in and coming out, and remembers voltage levels at different times, so swapping batteries or using external chargers probably confuses it a bit.
Would it be possible to just create a separate batterystats file for the spare battery and swap out the files when the batteries get swapped out?
There was a post recently by a Google engineer, Dianne Hackborn (can't link yet, just google "Dianne Hackborn battery stats" and you should find it).
It explains that the battery stats come from data/system/batterystats.bin and are reset every time you unplug with a "relatively full charge." The file is reflected in the battery use screen.
It won't affect how much battery level is shown to you or how long your battery lasts.

[Q] Why in Battery stat "display" is showing 98%

Dear Android Community,
Overcome-day to all!
I've upgraded to "Overcome-Jupiter" 3 days back and though admittedly the new ROM is smooth and fast I believe am noticing some irregularities on the battery.
I have a question and situation, wherein in battery statistics is is show that "Display" is using around 96% of the batter, all other task including the "Android system which is only 2% is for the remaining 4%.
Furthermore for a full charge, am getting around 14-17 hours usage on the batter.
I've done a "battery wipe" and have done two discharge cycle.
Any other Galaxy tab7 user here having the same issue, your comment, suggestion and recation on my query is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Xmen88
Overcome-Jupiter proud-user
As for display that is normal since Froyo especially with heavy use, the beast display consumes the battery more than anything. As for the battery life if its on moderate to heavy use that seems quiet normal even good actually (remember official stock firmware gives you 7hrs on heavy use). Finally read the tips and tweaks section on our website for more info.
I have heavy drain on the battery after upgrading from Hermes to Jupiter. (All apps and setting being similar)
I can get only close to 5 hours of continuous usage compared to about 7 hours on Hermes. You're not the only one to be affected...... I've posted my cries for help :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1176978
I'm still monitoring to see if there's improvement after a few charge cycle.
Darkpal,
Thanks for the quick reply, I have to agree with you on the display thing. What I wanted was actually, just a confirmation from other users that they are having the same battery statics. This will then confirm that everything is normal with my "precious/fragile SGT".
I will do further testing and monitoring.
To PCdumb,
Cheer-up buddy, still I believe our SGT is one of the best tablet out there. ADB and the Overcome team can only do so much nho.
To Darkpal,
On a final note, will the "app lucher" (am using "go launcher EX") will have and effect on battery usage, any launcher you can suggest.
Thanks again for the help
Launchers if coded correctly shouldnt have that much impact if at all on the battery. I personally am using the stock launcher only because am too busy or lazy to configure ADW launcher EX which I have an recommend
DarkPal said:
Launchers if coded correctly shouldnt have that much impact if at all on the battery. I personally am using the stock launcher only because am too busy or lazy to configure ADW launcher EX which I have an recommend
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Darkpal,
Thanks again friend/sadiq,
Am hearing good review on "ADW launcher", i'll try this and will let you know if there will be any improvement in battery consumption.
Again thanks and best regards;
Xmen88
Overcome-Jupiter Proud-User
battery % weird
Hi. I have a strange question in relation to the topic. I use a P1000 running Gingerbread (stock no mods). I hope you guys have some solution to share to me.
I had Battery Monitor installed so I can check the battery usage and percentages, and Juice Defender Ultimate to you know, save juice.
1. There are few instances that when the unit still has 10% or below power, I sometimes encounter unit shut down (powers off) while I am browsing. So I turn it on again, the Samsung animation appears, but still turns off. Therefore I am forced to charge it (using mains plug). Is that normal?
2. Coming from a critical low battery (5% or lower), with the unit off, I leave it charging (using mains plug) until the battery goes full green (full). 4 hours or so if I am not mistaken. When I turn it on, Battery Monitor displays only 76% or 81% power.
I find that strange since it is supposed to display 100% right?
3. At 76% or 81% while unit on, I plug it to charge again, but does not increase percent anymore.
4. Upon my gut assessment, the unit still performs normally, the standby time and usage time are still as expected, the battery is working fine.
TO DO:
I am thinking to just clear data and reinstall battery monitor.
I am also thinking to install another battery application to display percentage for comparison.
In any case, is there a way to calibrate the unit when turned on to display 100% when it is really full when charged off?
I am not modding or rooting it, I am just a basic user. Any ideas? Thanks!
jtdc said:
Hi. I have a strange question in relation to the topic. I use a P1000 running Gingerbread (stock no mods). I hope you guys have some solution to share to me.
I had Battery Monitor installed so I can check the battery usage and percentages, and Juice Defender Ultimate to you know, save juice.
1. There are few instances that when the unit still has 10% or below power, I sometimes encounter unit shut down (powers off) while I am browsing. So I turn it on again, the Samsung animation appears, but still turns off. Therefore I am forced to charge it (using mains plug). Is that normal?
2. Coming from a critical low battery (5% or lower), with the unit off, I leave it charging (using mains plug) until the battery goes full green (full). 4 hours or so if I am not mistaken. When I turn it on, Battery Monitor displays only 76% or 81% power.
I find that strange since it is supposed to display 100% right?
3. At 76% or 81% while unit on, I plug it to charge again, but does not increase percent anymore.
4. Upon my gut assessment, the unit still performs normally, the standby time and usage time are still as expected, the battery is working fine.
TO DO:
I am thinking to just clear data and reinstall battery monitor.
I am also thinking to install another battery application to display percentage for comparison.
In any case, is there a way to calibrate the unit when turned on to display 100% when it is really full when charged off?
I am not modding or rooting it, I am just a basic user. Any ideas? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to reflash or factory reset then monitor the battery without installing the battery monitor.
I use "battery doctor to save battery" from the market. You can try that but try first without a battery monitor app.
did you try to use another usb cable? or perhaps your charger is not the original? loose internal battery connector? there are so many factors that might cause your problem not mentioned.
bongski55 said:
Try to reflash or factory reset then monitor the battery without installing the battery monitor.
I use "battery doctor to save battery" from the market. You can try that but try first without a battery monitor app.
did you try to use another usb cable? or perhaps your charger is not the original? loose internal battery connector? there are so many factors that might cause your problem not mentioned.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the reply bongski. Without any battery monitor app, the problem is I cannot see percentages. But anyway I will do the factory reset, it is another option but I find that drastic and will be the last choice. Also, the USB cable and the charger is the one that came with the Samsung box so they're original. The loose internal battery connector is a bit far fetched, the battery is not user accessible and also the unit is not dropped and carefully handled.
Hopefully I get accurate readings, I will update here.
The battery percentage is in settings/about device/status/battery level.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk
bongski55 said:
The battery percentage is in settings/about device/status/battery level.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok. well i did the following
1. clear data and reinstall battery monitor.
2. install another battery application to display percentage for comparison.
i tried the battery doctor but provided the same percentage reading.
so i just factory reset the thing, and i am observing now (ie. charge later and see if the issue persist). i've no knowledge on how to reflash the thing.
well ok to clear all my doubts i just factory reset it. then i reinstalled my initial apps (including battery monitor), used it til it died (1% until it off itself). plugged to mains, turned it on, and let it charge while ON (of course screen is off). took 174 minutes (3 hours) when it reached 99% and stayed 99% (looks like it does not touch 100%) 4176mV. after 5 mins of non use, it still remains 99% but at 4012mV. with the 1% missing, i guess i can let that go and dismiss as normal now... although i read related thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=866011
and some resetting technique here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=921848
but anyway my simple mind would just like to say, "ok its displaying normalcy now".
now i did not figure what caused the tab to display erratic behavior before this, but once i got it i will update again.

[Q] Weird Battery Life

Hello all,
I'm having a weird battery problem and am not sure if it is software or hardware. Basically, I have charged and it will last about halfway through the day. I'll look at it and between 50-55% of battery life it will turn off and go dead. I'll turn it back on and the battery is at 0% - no warning or anything. I have to then charge it back up and it seems to take a while from 0-25% and then it will skip to 90% and finish charging to a 100%. I've tried several different roms and all are giving me the same problem - currently on oxygen 2.3.7
How old is your battery, and is it a stock battery?
You may want to calibrate your battery. There is an app on the market that is specific for the N1 and instructions for it can be found http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=9583271&postcount=340
It isn't the easiest thing to do, but if you do have a decent battery (some cheaper knockoffs don't have support of figuring out your battery age), it can get your phone to properly detect your age of your battery and show the correct stats for it.
As for it dying half-way through the day... have you checked to see if apps are chewing up your battery time? If they aren't, it may be time to get a new battery anyway.
bassmadrigal said:
How old is your battery, and is it a stock battery?
You may want to calibrate your battery. There is an app on the market that is specific for the N1 and instructions for it can be found http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=9583271&postcount=340
It isn't the easiest thing to do, but if you do have a decent battery (some cheaper knockoffs don't have support of figuring out your battery age), it can get your phone to properly detect your age of your battery and show the correct stats for it.
As for it dying half-way through the day... have you checked to see if apps are chewing up your battery time? If they aren't, it may be time to get a new battery anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is the stock battery I got when I got my phone in May of 2010, so I can expect to be not as a good as a new battery but it's bothering me that i can't have a an accurate reading on how much battery I have left. I feel like I have half a battery left and then all of the sudden it will die. I'll try the calibration and see what that does. I don't think its apps because I've flash and reflashed my phone and never have many apps as a result

[Q] Testing how much juice does my batteries hold

I have about 8 batteries (new & old), and want to figure out which are worth keeping or binning. My thoughts were:
1. Charge battery
2. Reset stats
3. IMPORTANT!!!! Put battery in phone
4. Boot and run Juice Offender until dead.
Does this make sense, or is there another way/app to make it easier. Thanks, Ian
Well, yes and no because atleast in my phone, it takes a while for a new battery to settle so that u truly see how long it lasts. And Juice DEFENDER(not offender,lol ) also needs a good time to settle with the batteries info
Thanks for your post. Actually, it is Juice OFFENDER (purpose - switch everything on to drain battery)
For my purposes I don't believe the battery needs any settle in time. It is after all just an energy source, and as long as battery stats are reset I think the OS will treat all batteries the same. Am working on it, will report back my findings just n case anyone else reads....
Oke amigo
Get the "Nova Battery Tester" app. It has the ability to do a short ~15 minute benchmark of the true capacity of your battery. My >2 year old orginally 1500mAh battery only had around 900 "true" mAh left. I bought a new battery and finally restored my battery life.

S3 mini Displaying Wrong Battery Percentage After Replacing battery and New Rom.

Hey guys, its my first post on this forum (or on any forum for that matter) so I apologize if this is in the wrong section . But recently I've been having a problem with my S3 mini and hoped I could get some help on here. So a few days ago I got a 4000mAh - 3.7V extended battery for my phone because my old one had broken. The old battery was the stock battery that came with the phone. Before I bought the new battery I also installed the PacmanROM on my android. But since I got the battery the percentage my android displays has been completely wrong. I'm pretty sure that the battery is fully charged after over 16 hours of charging but the percentage the phone displays is only around 65% and no matter how long I charge it the percentage never reaches 100 and it will stay on a certain value that will randomly fluctuate if I restart the device. So is there anyway to make my phone display the correct percentage? Thanks for your help!
In my opinion, extended batteries are more trouble than they're worth. I have dabbled with them but all have failed at some point (even brand new). If you put the battery on a flat surface and it 'wobbles' at all then its duff. I use stock batteries. Sorry if this is not what you want as an answer but just my experience with extended batteries.
Sent from my GT-I8190N running CandyKat
Thanks for the input anyway! I've never tried any other extended batteries so I ignorantly decided to get one hoping it would work well. But anyways I believe that its not the battery that's at fault since the battery seems fine to me (no bumps showing a faulty battery). I have a feeling that its my old battery that's at fault or the system still possibly assuming its a stock battery. Well I'm no expert .
Awfully I can post the link for fix this..
The APP for fix this 'bug' is "Battery Calibration", it delets a battery file, and after restart the cellphone, that file is remade with correct data.
Well I looked into Battery Calibration and have managed to find a fix! I charged my phone to "full" (which my phone only displayed as ~50% at the time) and once the battery percentage stopped increasing I left the phone to charge for a few hours after that. Then when I was sure that the battery is actually full, I installed a battery calibration app and "calibrated" my battery which deleted the batterystats.bin file. I then waited for my phone to completely run out of charge, which I sped up with an app called "battery discharge", then when I let the phone switch off by itself from an empty battery. Once the phone restarted the battery percentage displayed was correct.
Try Battery calibration
isnt battery callibration a complete myth and placebo? deleting batterystats.bin shouldnt help as it just contains data about what consumed battery juice

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