HTC 10 sudden battery drop to zero, restarts

[ajchee]

Hi guys,

I have a HTC 10 that has been restarting randomly, maybe averaging once a day or two, over the last week or so.

The first few times it happened I didn't notice any link with the battery.

The last few times it happened, it couldn't restart because the battery was almost at zero, even though it was well above zero a minute before. The logo would come up, then black screen, then logo, repeat repeat repeat until I plugged it in.

Here are a couple of screenshots of the battery history:

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And here:

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Does it look like my battery is shot to you?

 

[jejiv]

I too have the same issue. My phone will boot loop when my battery goes below 40% and the only way I can stop it is to let the battery completely drain down or plug the phone into a charger.

I'm getting anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 hours of screen on time only now. I hit the 2.5 hour mark if my phone let's me drain the battery to 10% or so. I use to get between 3 to 3.5 hours but that all changed a few months ago.

Over at XDA there is a thread on this topic.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3690547

 

[sitlet]

Same thing here. Started a month ago. Once it gets below 40 percent it will shut off and boot loop. The first time it happened I had it plugged in overnight and still wouldn't boot. Had to do a factory reset. Happened again last night, I was able to get it to stop by holding the power and volume down button. Still had to charge it over an hour to get it to come back on.

Besides that, my battery overall lasts about 6 hours max, about 2.5 hours if I'm actually using it.

I'm worried because I still have 6 months left to pay to Verizon before I can get an upgrade.

 

[Mooncatt]

For the OP, I'm thinking the battery is shot. Shutting down at well above zero, then coming back with it almost at zero, is a key sign of it being bad. You may also be seeing a need for longer charge times, which can be another symptom (Though, this is also symptomatic of other issues as well, like a bad USB cable).

I've never seen a bootloop caused by a battery being low, only unexpected full shutdowns without going through the shutdown process. That sounds like a software bug. If the folks at XDA are working on it, I'll defer to their wisdom on that.

And if you're only able to get 2.5 hrs when using your phone, I again suspect the battery is getting rather weak. Unless this phone just has an undersized battery to begin with, I would expect at least 3+ hours even with solid gaming.

 

[Geezerb]

For the OP, I'm thinking the battery is shot. Shutting down at well above zero, then coming back with it almost at zero, is a key sign of it being bad. You may also be seeing a need for longer charge times, which can be another symptom (Though, this is also symptomatic of other issues as well, like a bad USB cable).

I've never seen a bootloop caused by a battery being low, only unexpected full shutdowns without going through the shutdown process. That sounds like a software bug. If the folks at XDA are working on it, I'll defer to their wisdom on that.

And if you're only able to get 2.5 hrs when using your phone, I again suspect the battery is getting rather weak. Unless this phone just has an undersized battery to begin with, I would expect at least 3+ hours even with solid gaming.

I'm having the same problem

 

[ajchee]

Well, I still have the problem - it happened twice again in the last couple of hours. The first time it restarted fine, battery still around 30%, and the second time it bootlooped (ah, so that's what it's called) until I plugged it in, at which point it started up and said I've got around 19%. At least I'm glad I'm not alone in this problem!

 

[sitlet]

So after reading some threads on XDA, I found a manual way of resetting the battery calibration. Turn the phone off, then hold all three side buttons for 2 minutes. The phone will boot into the bootloader and then restart a bunch of times, just make sure you hold all three buttons down the while time. Now, my battery life is still crap, but it doesn't boot loop when under 30 percent, and it won't randomly shut off under 30 percent.

 

[Geezerb]

Mine keeps restarting at 30% if I pick it up from idle. Problem is my passwords for many apps are erased when it restarts so something bad is happening to the memory.

 

[Rukbat]

They all sound like a dendrite problem. (A possible fix has finally been found, but it's probably going to take a few years before we see batteries using it. Until then, the only solution is replacing the battery. Since the battery is considered a consumable, it's usually not covered under the warranty - but if the phone is under warranty, you can try.)

See Lithium Battery Dendrite links for more information, especially this one about the solution.

 

[Geezerb]

I watched a video on replacing the battery. Not a job for me as it is very complex & I'm sure I will do more damage than good.

 

[BruceCk]

Mine was starting to show the battery history graph incorrectly. I turn it off at night and recharge it while off until a while after the green LED comes on. Sometimes it was fine, but others it was only showing around 75% when turned on, but the graph stayed flat until it got below that, then resumed a normal trace. It also didn't reset, but showed previous days. The actual battery life was still OK.

I took it back to Carphone Warehouse (two years old in April), who just re-installed the OS the first time, no better. On the second return, I was expecting a replacement, but they actually opened it up, put in a new battery and LCD (the square LED button no longer lit up fully). Good as new now, and nicely timed for the Oreo update the day I got it back - working well apart from the horrid squircle folder icons! They did a good job, hardly any marks from opening it up. I suspect they destroy the LCD getting into it.

I rarely used the quick charger, which I think may cause others problems by shagging the battery earlier. I will avoid quick charging it unless really necessary. It's still a great phone, which will hopefully now last another year or two.

 

[sitlet]

So, I have an interesting update. Since I was out of warranty, I talked Verizon into letting me purchase a replacement HTC 10 for 99 dollars. Got it in yesterday, didn't put the Sim card in as I wanted to download all my apps and let them sync first.

Well I only had time to literally turn it on and sign into my wifi. However, when I got home, it was turned off. Battery was completely dead, after being full when I left. Last night, I let it charge to 100, then turned it off. This morning, it's at 0 again. I again charged it to 100, turned it off, and an hour later it's at 60 percent, and again it's off.

So I don't know if I just got a dud replacement or what, but this is obviously not how this phone should work.

 

[mwake4goten]

So, I have an interesting update. Since I was out of warranty, I talked Verizon into letting me purchase a replacement HTC 10 for 99 dollars. Got it in yesterday, didn't put the Sim card in as I wanted to download all my apps and let them sync first.

Well I only had time to literally turn it on and sign into my wifi. However, when I got home, it was turned off. Battery was completely dead, after being full when I left. Last night, I let it charge to 100, then turned it off. This morning, it's at 0 again. I again charged it to 100, turned it off, and an hour later it's at 60 percent, and again it's off.

So I don't know if I just got a dud replacement or what, but this is obviously not how this phone should work.

That sounds like a bad battery especially with the extreme drain whilst switched off