Battery showing random charge - Captivate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm not sure if this is a common problem or not but lately I've noticed that when I unplug my phone after it says 100% charged, it immediately drops to a lower number. At first it would stay between 97 and 99, but i have seen it go as low as 45. I've tried several things like not installing the ROM until it is fully charged, calibrating the battery, and a few others but nothing fixes it. Is it possible it's just a kernel glitch or hardware issue?
Darky's 10.2.2 DarkCore 4.1 KG3 modem
Thanks in advance all!
Edit: Spelling error
Sent from my Samsung Captivate using XDA App

Its not a problem its a feature. The phone will stop charging when the battery gets to a certain temperature. So it will say 100% but it can go as low as 90%. I have no idea why your battery goes down to 45%...thats not normal. Try wiping battery stats from recovery or reinstall your rom.

I've had a similar situation. It helped to fully drain the battery until the phone shuts off.
Wait a while, then restart the phone without plugging in the charger. There should be enough charge to load the ROM.
Then plug in the charger and charge to a full charge.
If you are calibrating the battery, wipe the battery stats only after a full charge, and then be sure to run the battery down all the way before recharging.
2-3 cycles helps.

It's strange because the charge is shown accurately when the phone is off and plugged in. Like if it says 100% while the phone is on and I shut the phone off without removing the charger, it will show the actual amount the battery is charged on the battery meter. it's as if the kernel is having a problem reading the current battery state.
Thank you both for the advice though. I was very careful to install the rom with a full charge this time..or the base anyway..
Sent from my Samsung Captivate using XDA App

It doesn't matter what the battery is at when you flash, the "flash at 100" rule is just a precaution to make sure your battery doesn't die mid flash. I flash as low as 20%
That is a well known bug with gingerbread...yes the feature stops charging at 100 and us let drain to 95 and then starts charging again, the bug is that it Bebe starts charging again at 95 it continues to drain, so even though it says charged as Dijon as you unplug it drops to the actual percentage.
it's really random, and not everyone sees it, and those who do can't replicate it consistently, thus no solid fix has been found.
Some have said turning wifi off while charging helps, some say turning it on...

Well that's a relief. You just saved me the tedious task of fully
Charging my phone before flashing back to froyo. Darky's 9.5 seemed a lot easier for daily operations than the reoriented gingerbread roms. I had to remap my softkeys for starters, and was having a lot of force close issues with apps I used a lot, the battery problem was just the most recent headache.
Thanks for all the help. Hopefully I'll have time to start learning development instead of wasting my time fixing my phone.
Sent from my Samsung Captivate using XDA App

Related

Froyo FRF85B Battery Life Quirks

I don't know if I am the only one seeing this, but when I had Eclair, I had crap battery life, to the tune of 10 hours or so. (Granted this may not be crap for Nexus One but it is crap based off past phones I have had.) I installed FRF85B last night and discovered some weird glitches.
First off, when it was in my car dock, it wasn't charging yet the battery life kept dropping, I powered off the device, and powered it back on 10 minutes later (still in the dock) and no change stayed at 91%, still wouldn't charge. I then powered it off, took it out of the dock, plugged in the car charger cable directly and powered on my N1, when it turned on, it said I had 100% battery life. I then plugged it back into the car dock, and voila it started charging.
Secondly, originally when I had unplugged my N1 this morning I used it for about an hour at 5AM and it dropped 2% I plugged it back in to top it off expecting the same crap battery life from Eclair, yet so far, my phone has been fully topped off (from the car dock) for the past 40 minutes and I've made about 20 minutes of phone calls on it, yet it still is reporting 100%. So either Froyo can't properly report battery life, or it has the potential to have absurd battery life. Anyone else experiencing anything like this?
First off - you still didn't search this forum, so you're still thinking that an overcharging protection that doesn't allow you to charge unless you drop below 91%, is a quirk. It's not.
Second, wiping battery stats and making battery calibration procedure ONCE will give you a good starting point to measure something.
Jack_R1 said:
First off - you still didn't search this forum, so you're still thinking that an overcharging protection that doesn't allow you to charge unless you drop below 91%, is a quirk. It's not.
Second, wiping battery stats and making battery calibration procedure ONCE will give you a good starting point to measure something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The quirk isn't that it wouldn't let me charge that way, the issue was, my battery reported 91% yet when I rebooted the device with the charger directly plugged into it, it immediately showed 100%. So pretty much over the course of 30 seconds I gained 9% battery life.
I wiped my device to factory settings before upgrading to Froyo, and after as well, since my device is not rooted, my understanding is I cannot wipe my battery calibration log.
I did drain my battery fully after upgrading to froyo last night and did a full charge as well.
What you're describing looks like the statistics of the battery is "lying" a bit. I believe it can be thrown a bit off by trying to charge it when it's in 91-100% range, but I don't know the exact way it works, so I can't say much about it.
Indeed, if you're not rooted, wiping battery stats is not an option. Several times of full charge and long discharge (you don't need to go below 20%, to prevent harming the battery) are helpful in correcting the statistics.
If you get a chance to try, please repeat this again (having the phone at >90%, turning it off, plugging it into the charger and turning it back on). If it shows "Charged" again - it might be a bug worth reporting.
Jack_R1 said:
What you're describing looks like the statistics of the battery is "lying" a bit. I believe it can be thrown a bit off by trying to charge it when it's in 91-100% range, but I don't know the exact way it works, so I can't say much about it.
Indeed, if you're not rooted, wiping battery stats is not an option. Several times of full charge and long discharge (you don't need to go below 20%, to prevent harming the battery) are helpful in correcting the statistics.
If you get a chance to try, please repeat this again (having the phone at >90%, turning it off, plugging it into the charger and turning it back on). If it shows "Charged" again - it might be a bug worth reporting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll have to try it again tomorrow morning, first see if it happens under the same circumstances and go from there. One thing I do remember is the widget I was using "Battery Left" reported that at 91% I had 4100 mAh left in it, which was interesting, and when it went back to 100% it had 4120 mAh which makes me think the OS wasn't actually reading the voltage and thought it was just draining the battery instead.
EDIT: Just realised I had my wall charger with me, battery was at 90% figured I would try, real quick to attempt to replicate the problem, I was unable to, with a direct battery connection, but it could be due to a voltage issue or be related to why plugging it in directly to the car charger resolved the issue. My gut feeling is, it has to do with the dock itself and the pins it uses.
my battery often is charging and it hits 93% and immediately jumps right to 100%. it skips the last 7% or so. i think what is happening is you just finally experienced this issue, which many of us have already posted about in battery threads, but it just happens to coincide with froyo so you are thinking its new and related. the nexus ever once in a while battery meter just gets thrown off and will jump up to 100% because it really was full, just had to catch up the meter. you really should pay attention to the voltage more than percentage, using battery life widget. i know my battery is fully charged at 4.172 volts. and sometimes it hits that but still only shows 94%, so it adjusts itself in one fell swoop.
The issue is I did an extra full charge about an hour ago so I can make it till midnight and it went through all the numbers from 89-100 with no issue
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Addendum: Also it seems to be voltage is not that good of a decider of how much my charge is. Before Froyo, until I dropped below 94% I was always above 4 Volts, now I drop below 4 Volts at 96%.
So this morning I was able to replicate the problem, only it was outside of the car dock, I was able to get this problem to reoccur with the wall charger. I unplugged it from power, used it a little bit and then topped it off for the day, it was at 96%. I saw the green light go on, and thought nothing of it, 20 minutes later I went back to it and it was still at 96% and showed that the battery was fully charged.
I checked the Battery Left widget and it was saying the battery was fully charged even though it said 96% left also. I did make a crappy video uploaded to youtube from my backflip to show as well what I am talking about.
AFAIK, The green LED will light when you're anywhere above 90%. It's not a function of charge being complete. Check it.
Also, if you plugged it in with 96% - this is the behavior to be expected, since the phone won't start charging unless it has below 90% to begin with, and it'll show "Charged" - because it's not charging (to prevent overcharge).
Again, fail to see any problem in what you're describing.
Jack_R1 said:
AFAIK, The green LED will light when you're anywhere above 90%. It's not a function of charge being complete. Check it.
Also, if you plugged it in with 96% - this is the behavior to be expected, since the phone won't start charging unless it has below 90% to begin with, and it'll show "Charged" - because it's not charging (to prevent overcharge).
Again, fail to see any problem in what you're describing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yet my phone has always been able to charge when above 90% before froyo. This behavior is new to froyo for me at least.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
It means that you've never paid attention to that until now. It's working this way since the phone was out (with stock Eclair) and if I'm not mistaken - it's not controlled by OS at all.
I did pay attention to such actually because of the fact that I had been getting piss poor battery life. This has never happened before. In the morning I would use the device a little then top it off because I noticed that works give better battery life.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Well, you had a buggy phone that has now corrected itself. Welcome to the way it was supposed to work from the beginning.
Topping off the battery at 90%+ contributes to battery degradation - heating from overcharging. So you were actually damaging your battery.

[Q] Battery charges to 85% maximum

I never had this problem until recently i've flashed to Cog 4.
It started after i did a full charge. It discharges to 80% and to 50% and to 20% and to 5% and then died off within an hour. My phone heated up even though when it is not active.
Now, after changing a new battery. I find that i can't charge it above 85%. I re-flashed with Phoenix and Serendipity. The maximum charge still stays at 85%.
I've cleared the battery stats and nothing changed. I need help here.
You might find this thread useful
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=806211
It has some discussion about cog and battery life, but I suspect it might be outdated. Either way, it should have good info for you on how to get the battery fully charged
First of all, with custom roms, battery drains much quicker than normal, but i think you need to do a calibration. Charge your phone for like 12 hours to make sure its completely full, then drain it all the way until it dies. Then make sure its completely dead and wont turn on (sometimes the phone thinks the battery is dead, but its not. To solve turn on and off until there is no more responce. Take out battery, then try and power on. This will get rid of any static charge in the phone. Put battery back in and charge for another 12-15 hours to make sure its completely full. Go into recovery and wipe battery stats. Then let it die. That should do it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Dupontrocks11 said:
First of all, with custom roms, battery drains much quicker than normal, but i think you need to do a calibration. Charge your phone for like 12 hours to make sure its completely full, then drain it all the way until it dies. Then make sure its completely dead and wont turn on (sometimes the phone thinks the battery is dead, but its not. To solve turn on and off until there is no more responce. Take out battery, then try and power on. This will get rid of any static charge in the phone. Put battery back in and charge for another 12-15 hours to make sure its completely full. Go into recovery and wipe battery stats. Then let it die. That should do it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes and no.
custom roms wont necessarily use more power, in most cases less. and technically most power consumption is controlled by the kernel, and secondly the installed services in the ROM. new kernels useually come with a new rom but you dont have to keep it or you can upgrade it ect. But yes, when changing the kernel either by itself or with a rom you should reset battery stats.
I suggest drain it dead, plug it in until it is full, reboot into recovery and wipe batt stats (or use SGS tool script) WHILE PLUGGED IN, unplug.
or if you have an external batt charger, wipe batt stats in CWM then put in full battery.
Trusselo said:
yes and no.
custom roms wont necessarily use more power, in most cases less. and technically most power consumption is controlled by the kernel, and secondly the installed services in the ROM. new kernels useually come with a new rom but you dont have to keep it or you can upgrade it ect. But yes, when changing the kernel either by itself or with a rom you should reset battery stats.
I suggest drain it dead, plug it in until it is full, reboot into recovery and wipe batt stats (or use SGS tool script) WHILE PLUGGED IN, unplug.
or if you have an external batt charger, wipe batt stats in CWM then put in full battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I said custom roms i meant that when you are on something other from stock. And for the most part, unless you are on a minimalistic rom, you do get worse battery. It is a known fact. Sure I have gotten 50 hours out of a rom/kernel combination, but it was never consistent. I had to flash back to stock and masterclear because i have random shutoffs and need to return it, and im seeing easily 30 hours out of stock with 3 hours usage of web email phone. Maybe its not the same for you, but stock has had the best consistent battery life for me.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

[Q] Battery only charges to 94%

Speedmod K13C and Serendipity 5.12 on my i896
So, whenever I wake up in the morning, my battery is at 94%. Occasionally it might be a little lower, but mostly low 90's. So last night I turned the phone off and left it plugged in for 12 hours and the phone read 100% in charge mode (for lack of a better term). When I booted into Android, it says the phone was charging at 94%, but the battery icon in the top left said the phone was charged, and when I unplugged the cable, I only managed 94% on my battery.
I tried plugging the phone back in for 30 minutes, then wiping the battery stats, but this did no good either.
Any suggestions?
This is a known issue. Mine only goes to 98% after unplugging. As long as you can make it through the day don't worry about it! There really isn't a"fix"for it.
Sent from my Captivate with Serendipity 5.12 via XDA App
Run your battery dead, charge it up all the way to 100% with it ON, I guarantee it will go no lower than 96% when you unplug(whether u wipe battery stats or not)
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897
its a feature of Lion battery used in our phones actually...
but this can also happen if u flash ur rom without battery fully charged...not a bug...at all

[Q] CM (and others?) battery meter complete screw-up

My battery never charges above ~76% when plugged in. After rebooting however, it is very much at 100% and lasts for a good amount of time. This is not necessarily a question, but I wonder if others are experiencing this too and if there is a fix? Read below.
I noticed that my battery life got very bad after installing custom roms. I also found out that this happened because I sometimes kept the phone plugged in while flashing, something that totally screws up the battery reading. So, I followed this guide to calibrate my battery and it worked.
Now, whenever the phone is plugged in it NEVER goes to 100% when charging. Maybe 80% if leaving it for a while (10 hours overnight). I'm worried about frying the battery. Is there a fix?
It is only a matter of presentation. It actually doesn't mean your batt is broken. Plug it and charge it overnight. Then discharge only for few percent and plug it back in. It should go to 100%.
Sent from my HTC Legend
Thanks, I'll give it a try.
What I'm concerned about is if the phone "thinks" the battery isn't recharged and keeps squeezing juice into it when in fact it is full (which a reboot will show)? That's not good for the battery. It should go into trickle charge after reaching 100%..
The process described in the desire forum is also known as formatting the battery. In fact most of battery manufacturers (lithium battery manufacturers) recommend doing this in a slightly different way:
Before first use:
1.) Before powering the device on, plug it in and let it charge until the LED is green (fully charged)
2.) Then take the battery out of the device and wait an hour (to make sure all the chemical processes in the battery are as idle as possible)
3.) Then plug it back in, while still off and let it charge untill green LED
4.) use the device....
You can practice this slightly modified with first step being:
Discharge the battery (by normal use)until only few percent are left (1 - 5 % are OK)
I've done these steps with my Mugen extended battery and I was getting around 4 - 5 days on Legend, now I'm getting 2 - 3 days on Desire S, but the ROM isn't very optimized yet, I believe it will be better in time...
Just one thing... Why is this in Development!?
No Idea.....
can mods move this?
BlaY0 said:
It is only a matter of presentation. It actually doesn't mean your batt is broken. Plug it and charge it overnight. Then discharge only for few percent and plug it back in. It should go to 100%.
Sent from my HTC Legend
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sz1a did this solve your problem? Have the same problem with every firmware i've tried....
peddalion said:
sz1a did this solve your problem? Have the same problem with every firmware i've tried....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely did not solve it but at least the battery performance is ok. It just stays at 78% for a few hours drops from there. Very weird but as long as the battery doesn't get broken I guess it's ok.
Do you have some 3rd party battery installed in your Legend? I have one 1,5 Ah in mine and it is acting the same way. It doesn't bother me too much coz it was cheap... it lasts 48 hrs with data always on and moderate usage. I noticed this that when I charge it overnight and it reaches 80%, unplugging it stays at 80% for several hrs and just after it starts dropping if I plug it again, meter reaches 100%. It's weird but as I said I can live with that
I've got exactly the same issue with stock 2.2 ROM. I've never rooted or CM my phone; I was wondering if CM would do it, but doesn't look like it.
android forums /htc-legend/265545-battery-doesnt-fully-charge.html
(sorry, I can't post links; maybe an admin can fix the link for me?
This seems to indicate it's a phone hardware fault and requires a new Legend to fix! My big worry is, as stated, that the charging light never goes green; therefore is pumping lots of power into a potentially full battery.

Rebooted and battery went from 45% to 10% WTF

Anyone ever heard of this? What the hell is that about?
Thanks
Happened to me all the time.
Sent from my GT-N7000
Has happened to me many times on both phones. I'm guessing battery calibration goes bad and when reboot it tries to adjust. Also note that when this happens, battery will slowly recover as if the phone is charging. Say it dropped to 10%, leave the phone aside after the reboot, battery will increase to somewhere around 20%. I've had this problem on the stock ROMs of both Note and the SGS II. Hope this helps.
--
Sent via XDA Premium from SGS II
Try calibrate your battery by letting it blackout then take out your battery for two minutes then put it back again, dont reboot yet, let it charge to full, then go directly to CWMR and wipe battery stat and reboot.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
same here, happened to me a few times.
Does battery calib really work or its all a myth??
I don't know to consider this a bug, or what.
But.. battery calibration won't help. I've tried.
On my device, it happened :
*) when my device got very hot (when use certain kernel), I reboot, then voila.... the battery drop around 20-30%.
At first I said WTF... then I faster charge (because at that time, after drop, my battery left only 1%)
The next time happened, I was on the road, and can't charge my handphone. So I just leave it there, laid in my bag.
Surprisingly, after some times, the battery start to increase again, though it's not coming back to the same percentage as before it drop.
So is it a bug ? Perhaps... but only happened when your device got very hot.
And when your device is very hot (under certain kernel), and you never reboot / switch off first, you will see that the battery flow like water.
But when you switch off, let it cool, then boot up again, the battery will stagnant at the same percentage when you switch off. Go up and go down at the same percentage for minutes to 1 hour+.
So you want to consider this is a bug ? perhaps, but.... not everytime happen. So long as you are on the correct kernel that suit your device.
:victory:
Huge drain may affect the stats.
The percentage is calculated based on the voltage of the battery. On heavy drain the voltage may drop unpredictably (for the ROM). Also, the temperature will affect the voltage (thus percentage).
With my phone if happened only once, the night after update to LRQ so I assume this is connected to battery stats.
But also, certain ROMs can affect this behavior.

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