Battery Won't Charge Fully - help!

[dcboardman]

Hi all, I've had my Thunderbolt for 5 months now, and everything worked fine for about the first 3. But over the past few weeks, I've noticed that the phone won't charge fully, while on or off. Using stock battery, stock original firmware. Used to be able to get to 100% overnight fine with stock HTC charger and a bestbuy Rocketfish charger. But now, I haven't seen the green "fully charged" light for over a month. The LED stays orange even after 12+ hours of charging. I even finally got the OTA update last week thinking that it may help, but it didn't change anything. I've tried battery pulls, different chargers including my old blackberry charger, LG charger, car charger from verizon, and nothing will give the battery a full charge. Phone Info app now says the phone is around 80-85% charged after a full 10 hour night.

I just recently downloaded the Battery Monitor Widget off the market and noticed that the stock HTC charger/usb cord charges at least 500+ mA initially, but when my battery gets up to somewhere between 75-78% charged, the charger only puts out below 35 mA, usually 10-20 mA. So I'm thinking that there's something wrong with the battery/sensor. Anybody else have this problem or heard about it?

 

[worwig]

What voltage does the battery monitor widget show after an overnight charge?

 

[anon(394005)]

Sounds like it may be the battery. Do you have another to try?

 

[Cyber Warrior]

Had the same problem after flashing a rom on a low battery. I plugged the phone in at the last second and received a warning that I was using an incompatible charging device.. unplug or it may cause damage. Well I didn't and it did cause damage. My phone never hit full charge and would only get to about 78-79%. I tried different chargers, outlets, batteries and tried recalibrating the battery with no luck. Ended up calling Verizon, got a refurb covered under the 1 year warranty. Everything is working better then ever now.. I'm still using my old battery and charger and everything works perfect.. the problem was with the phone.

 

[dcboardman]

What voltage does the battery monitor widget show after an overnight charge?

Last one was 1120/1350 mAh. Voltage i think around 4020 mV.

 

[dpham00]

Had the same problem after flashing a rom on a low battery. I plugged the phone in at the last second and received a warning that I was using an incompatible charging device.. unplug or it may cause damage. Well I didn't and it did cause damage. My phone never hit full charge and would only get to about 78-79%. I tried different chargers, outlets, batteries and tried recalibrating the battery with no luck. Ended up calling Verizon, got a refurb covered under the 1 year warranty. Everything is working better then ever now.. I'm still using my old battery and charger and everything works perfect.. the problem was with the phone.

Just out of curiosity, what charger were you using? I am using a cheap $4 charger that I got directly from Verizon, not htc though. Been using it for several months, no problems though, and it does charge to around. 850ma just like HTC charger.

 

[worwig]

Last one was 1120/1350 mAh. Voltage i think around 4020 mV.

The voltage at full charge is usually just under, and very close to 4200mv. Looking back at my battery monitor logs, 4020mv is near 85%.

Odd.

 

[baztekdroid]

My original TB did the same thing. I had it since day 1 and all of the sudden about 3 weeks ago it started not fully charging. I call vzw and they walked me through the trouble shooting and said if still not charging tomorrow call back and we will send a new battery. Well, of course it didn't charge fully so I called vzw back and ended up getting connected to teir 2. After about a 2 minute conversation he told me the problem was with the hardware and the sent me a CLNR. Had a problem with the proximity sensor on that one but battery was charging fully, sent that one back and received a second replacement which has performed flawlessly since. I am still impressed with the TB and wouldn't trade it for anything available currently.

 

[baadams52]

I had the same problem called VZW they sent me a new phone. no problems now

 

[Jarhead_74]

I started having the same trouble about 3 weeks ago. I went into the local Vzn Store becasue I knew one of the guys in there had a TB and he wasnt having issues. I was using a Battery Monitor/Charger on the phone and it would charge to 100% all the time. No its been a while since I have seen my green light and the battery seems to die quicker now.

 

[nxslt1]

This seems to be a common problem with the TB. Mine does the same thing. Your battery is being fully charged, just check it with a meter after a full charge (8 hours or so) and it will read 4.2 volts regardless of what the battery percent shows. You can't go by what any app says the voltage is because they read it wrong for whatever reason. The way mine does is it drops to 2% pretty quick but then it will stay at 2% for a really long time. with NONSTOP use of internet youtube Facebook games etc I get at least 6 hours of use from my seidio 3500 mah battery and when it gets to 2% it will stay at 2% for at least 2 hours of NONSTOP use.

I have a different problem now. I've been using gingerbread aosp roms but for some reason they cut my d/l speed to half or less. So I switched to a froyo Rom and got my d/l speed back up to 15-20 mbps BUT now my battery won't last but 3 hours with constant use. So tonight when the phone shut off I checked the voltage and its at 3.9 volts which tells me that froyo is turning my phone off waaaaaay too early. It should read 3.6 to 3.7 volts flat dead with a meter. So I can either have good battery life with crappy d/l speed or crappy battery life with good d/l speed.

 

[jdoute13]

I had this EXACT same problem and interestingly enough, mine started about three weeks ago. Up until then I didn't have any complaints or issues with my TB. My battery would not charge past 89-91% and I have to differ with an earlier post that states regardless of what the percentage shows, it is being fully charged. In my case, it definitely wasn't because my phone would die in less than 3 hours (once off the charger) with barely any use - previously atypical with my phone. Verizon sent a new battery - same issue. I am now awaiting a replacement phone and crossing my fingers it's not a lemon.

 

[jdoute13]

I also find it extremely interesting that of the people who have posted that they are having the same problem - it all seemed to start a few weeks ago. Hmmm...

 

[FrankXS]

I also find it extremely interesting that of the people who have posted that they are having the same problem - it all seemed to start a few weeks ago. Hmmm...

Lessee, 8 months of hard battery use and abuse, since release... for a lot of people. Hmm...

-Frank

 

[mpciii]

My wife's had the same problem. There was something wrong with the charging port. The charging light would come on like it was charging but it wouldn't fully charge. I even got rid of a battery first when I thought that was the problem. They ended up sending another phone, which I would swear was brand new, and that solved the problem.

 

[jdoute13]

Update: Happy to report I received my replacement (refurb) phone on Friday and so far so good. Interesting to note, however, that I could not receive the OTA update on my old TBolt. Everytime I checked, I would get the message it was checking and then....nothing (and I tried pulling the SIM, etc). No screen to tell me no new updates, just nothing. When I put my SIM in the replacement phone and turned it on for the first time I was instantly informed of an OTA update. I'm knocking on wood because the charging issue has been resolved, battery life is very good and I haven't experienced any bugs (yet)....

 

[Badmeat]

I'm having the same problems as stated above. Started happening a few weeks ago. It seems (according to my battery calibration app) that my phone won't charge past 4,000mv or 79%.
I'm running BAMF 1.0.8

 

[tiki240]

Same here, issue started about 2 weeks ago after I got my seido 3500 battery. it takes forever to charge, and never gets past 99%, then, once off the charger, it dies FAST like... 3-4 hours fast. my verizon expanded battery would last almost all day before we got 4G, even after 4G it could make it about 10 hours before it was flat.

 

[SoDev]

I'm having the same problems as stated above. Started happening a few weeks ago.

This. FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!

 

[Badmeat]

I've ordered an external wall charger. I'll report back once it arrives and I charge the battery, out of the phone.