Android System or Battery.

[chrispche]

Obviously I have a Samsung Galaxy S4. Well my battery is draining so fast. 6 hours at most. In the Battery Stats, it is showing Android System to be taking up 30% of the battery. However, my battery has become swollen. My question is will a new battery clear up this annoying mess. I've had the phone for about a year and a quarter.

Thanks.

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[Lucy Davies]

Seems the battery is swollen you need a new battery ASAP as swollen batteries are dangerous. I've read things on the Internet about swollen batteries exploding or causing fires etc. Get a new battery then see how the android system is.

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[Rukbat]

1) If the battery is swollen after only 1 year, you're obviously letting it drain WAY too far between charges. The optimal charge point is 50%, but you can let it get down to 40% without much loss of lifetime.

2) That 30% isn't "of battery capacity" it's "of total battery usage". So if the battery is at 75%, and Android System used 30%, it used 30% of 25% usage, or 7.5% of the battery capacity.

3) Since the battery isn't working the way it's designed to work, and since the state of charge indication is really an approximation (it measures the voltage at the battery terminals when the battery is under load - "measuring" the actual state of charge would take a chem lab), the numbers you see there - both state of charge and how much charge any given app used - are plus or minus almost any number you care to use. IOW, they don't mean much, other than that an app showing more usage is probably using more battery than an app showing less usage (and even that's only probably, not definitely).

Will Android System take less percentage of the battery usage if you replace the battery? Possibly. It depends on what in Android System is using it. But a new battery will hold more charge than one that's just about shot, so it should last longer between full charge and 40% than the bad one does.

(Don't just throw the bad one out - go to a store that has a disposal bin [Best Buy does if you're in the US - right as you enter the doors] and dispose of it properly. Lithium is poisonous, and you don't want it leaching from your town's garbage dump into your drinking water. You'll discharge fast if you drink lithium compounds.)

@Lucy:
Not just swollen batteries. If a lithium battery goes into thermal runaway - even a brand new one (ask Sony about that problem) - it can burn or explode. Which is why I'll never own a phone I can't remove the battery from. If my battery starts getting hot, I just dump it out of the phone and get upwind of the fire, before asking someone to call 911 and ask for HazMat to respond. (The PHMS Administration wants anything with a lithium battery legally classified as a hazardous material, but business interests have prevented that because it would cost them more money than the campaign contributions to kill the bill.)

 

[chrispche]

Yes I would never throw the old one into the rubbish. My local pharmacy has a battery recycling bin.

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