Galaxy S3 AT&T Battery Going Crazy

[Dyno0919]

Hey all,

My phone is basically just being incredibly stupid and I have no idea how to fix it. Let the following speak for itself:

This started happening out of nowhere, a couple months back. My phone will lose battery at an incredibly fast rate, then swoop back up (without being plugged in), then fall, etc etc until it hits 0%. I can then turn it back on and it says 50% or what have you, and the same process repeats. These are the things I've tried:

1. Bought a new ZeroLemon battery because I thought my battery might be broken. All this served to do was increase the number of swoops. The battery still barely lasts half a day.
2. Cleaned the contacts of the battery
3. Installed all kinds of battery helpers and battery recalibration apps. Here's a screenshot of an app telling me, after I charged the phone to 100% (with a separate battery charger so I know it was at 100%). It appears the phone is just reading the battery incorrectly. Not only does it report 60% but it also reports 3800 mV, which a fully charged battery should be around 4200 or 4300 correct?
4. Now here's the weird one: I blew on the contacts. This made things work better for a week or two. The new battery lasted about 3 days, which I thought was pretty good. Now it's back to where it was again.

It seems like I've tried just about everything, and it's a problem with the phone. Only problem is, as you can see, I have CM installed and the phone is over a year old, so any kind of warranty is long bye bye. Any suggestions my fellow S3 owners? I've tried googling this problem everywhere and it seems I'm the only one with it.

Thanks so much

 

[Snake Griffin]

This may or may not help but have you considered the possibility that this could be software related? Do a factory reset and install CM afresh, are you running a stable version of the ROM or a nightly?...get a stable version. Custom kernel? Go back to stock. If that doesn't work factory reset to TouchWiz.

 

[Dyno0919]

This may or may not help but have you considered the possibility that this could be software related? Do a factory reset and install CM afresh, are you running a stable version of the ROM or a nightly?...get a stable version. Custom kernel? Go back to stock. If that doesn't work factory reset to TouchWiz.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. I have tried basically all of the above of what you said. I hate TouchWiz though so I went back to CM after I realized that wasn't the problem. Unfortunately, it's probably not software related :/ Thank you for the reply!

 

[fhp3]

I had the same thing happening. In the end I sent it to Samsung under warranty and the said it was "beyond economical repair" The I/F pad was lifted from the board which basically means the USB port connections to the board were broken due to "abuse".
It seems like the S3 has a few issues with the USB port. In some cases people cannot connect to their PCs but the phone will charge. In my case I could connect to the PC no problem but the battery would intermittently stop charging. It kind of pissed me off....

 

[Snake Griffin]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. I have tried basically all of the above of what you said. I hate TouchWiz though so I went back to CM after I realized that wasn't the problem. Unfortunately, it's probably not software related :/ Thank you for the reply!

Figured you might but I guess it was worth mentioning/checking. I'm sorry to hear that it's being a piece of crap.

I had the same thing happening. In the end I sent it to Samsung under warranty and the said it was "beyond economical repair" The I/F pad was lifted from the board which basically means the USB port connections to the board were broken due to "abuse".
It seems like the S3 has a few issues with the USB port. In some cases people cannot connect to their PCs but the phone will charge. In my case I could connect to the PC no problem but the battery would intermittently stop charging. It kind of pissed me off....

Huh, that would explain why mine doesn't sometimes register when I plug it into the charger.

 

[Dyno0919]

I had the same thing happening. In the end I sent it to Samsung under warranty and the said it was "beyond economical repair" The I/F pad was lifted from the board which basically means the USB port connections to the board were broken due to "abuse".
It seems like the S3 has a few issues with the USB port. In some cases people cannot connect to their PCs but the phone will charge. In my case I could connect to the PC no problem but the battery would intermittently stop charging. It kind of pissed me off....

I was hoping it wouldn't come to that. I'd really rather not spend $600 or whatever it is to renew my contract and upgrade my phone with ATT, especially when a new wave of phones will be coming soon. Is there any place to get a cheap unlocked S3? Or cheap unlocked phones at all. I just can't justify that price right now...

 

[D16RR]

...a new wave of phones will be coming soon...

Go on, really? Even if you buy on release day, by the time you get used to a new device the next big thing will be hitting the shelves. You can get a cheapo GoPhone that ATT will swap over to your subscription account. They have an android slider on clearance at Radio Shack if you hurry. About $120.

 

[Dyno0919]

Go on, really? Even if you buy on release day, by the time you get used to a new device the next big thing will be hitting the shelves. You can get a cheapo GoPhone that ATT will swap over to your subscription account. They have an android slider on clearance at Radio Shack if you hurry. About $120.

I think you might have misunderstood my post. I don't care about the next big thing, if I did I wouldn't be waiting 2 years for a new phone . All I meant by that was why in the world would I spend $600 right now when I could wait a month or two for a new phone to come out and spend the same amount. Besides, I believe the nexus 5 should be coming out in a month or two as well and those sell around $300 unlocked. That would be a pretty nice deal too. Also, I'm grandfathered into unlimited data. I don't know if messing with a Go Phone would change that, but I'd rather not mess with it.

 

[Snake Griffin]

Try the classifieds here or try http://swappa.com/?ref=mobilenations&data1=UUacUvbUpU3077048 you should be able to find a used att phone for a reasonable amount of money.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

[Dyno0919]

how about the usage of the battery? Does it flat suddenly?

Nope it pretty much does exactly what it does in the picture I posted 100% of the time. Though just recently it has been only charging to 54% on the money every morning when I take it off the charger. I put in a fully charged battery and it said 54%. I don't know what that's about.

 

[D16RR]

I think you might have misunderstood my post. I don't care about the next big thing, if I did I wouldn't be waiting 2 years for a new phone . All I meant by that was why in the world would I spend $600 right now when I could wait a month or two for a new phone to come out and spend the same amount. Besides, I believe the nexus 5 should be coming out in a month or two as well and those sell around $300 unlocked. That would be a pretty nice deal too. Also, I'm grandfathered into unlimited data. I don't know if messing with a Go Phone would change that, but I'd rather not mess with it.

Why would it eff your unlimited plan? That's based on your plan, not your hardware. It's just a cheap way to replace a phone while you wait for whatever you're waiting for.