USB tethering - battery reported empty, phone shuts down, starts up, 86% charged?

[Bampe]

Hello

I'm using a secondary phone - a HTC Desire 601 - as a tethered mobile modem for my laptop when I travel.

All is well, except that if I pull out the cable after a couple of hours the phone clamors about being unable to charge and then promptly turns off. Up until I pull the cable, it does not say anything and keep working indefinitely.

After an immediate reboot, the phone says it has good battery power, like 86% or so.

I tether it to an USB port that charges even with the laptop sleeping, and I get this behavior with other computers as well - even with USB ports that are supposedly designed for charging devices what with their extra power output capacity or whatever, so I do not think it has anything to do with the USB connection per se.

Also, as mentioned, if I do not pull out the cable it chugs along without fail. It is only when I remove it from the computer that it gasps and dies. For no apparent reason, it apparently has plenty of juice in the battery.

Is this something I can fix? I'm getting tired of having to reboot the phone all the time, holding it to my belly to silence the ironically loud "SILENTLY BRILLIANT" chime at booting, in the middle of the night.

Thanks for any help!
/M

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! It sounds like a failing battery. See this article: http://forums.androidcentral.com/ambassador-guides-tips-how-s/479461-guide-my-battery-shot.html

 

[Bampe]

Thanks for the response!

Could be, but I doubt it. It is a Mugen 4300 mAh extended battery that is six months old and the phone shows no sign of failing in any way outside of this tethering issue.

Also, my (admittedly old) HTC One Mini also do this error I mention, although I only use it as a mobile modem infrequently. Its battery does seem to have lost a little wind over the last two years though, it usually works fine all day only to jump from 11% to 0% within minutes.

Thus, both phones behave similarly, although I mostly only use one as a mobile modem. Of course, it could be that both phones have bad batteries, but when I use them as WiFi hotspots they endure pretty much exactly as they should.

So I rather suspect there is some bug in the charge monitoring software. Just now I unplugged my Desire 601 from a wall plug charger and it instantly clamored about 1% charge and turned off. When I rebooted it, it reports 93% charge. It should have been 100% though, it has been plugged to the wall all night.

 

[Bampe]

Hello again.
No, you are absolutely correct. After some thinking and poking around I realize that the batteries are bad in both my phones. Hence they behave similarly.
The Desire 601 has been connected 24/7 to a workstation and the Mugen extended battery was either less-than-stellar quality to begin with or the constant tethering has killed it prematurely. The Once Mini is just plain old.

So: You were right, and thank you!

 

[B. Diddy]

Let us know if things work better with a new battery--we'll hope for the best!

 

[Bampe]

Heh, a week later the back cover of my Desire 601 popped off. Turned out the battery had swollen to twice its thickness.
I put it in a ceramic jar and carried it carefully to the recycling station.:-\