[HELP] My S4 charges very slowly, battery or charger problem?

Jasonlwe

Member
Jun 13, 2014
14
0
0
Visit site
Hey everyone, so basically my s4 started to charge very slowly recently and I think there could be two possibilities , either problem with the battery or the charger or both.

1. I think it's the battery because I always charge my battery while calling my girlfriend. And by always, I mean ALWAYS, 90% of the time.

2. I think it might be the charger or cable because I'm using an iPad charger and i guess that might damage the cable?

This problem only came up recently all of a sudden. Can someone please help up? What should I do? What's the problem?
 

Paul627g

AC Moderator All-Star
Moderator
Nov 25, 2010
15,963
2,752
0
Visit site
My opinion I would look at the possibility of a battery going bad. Overcharging before the battery is depleted or living on the cord could lead to early failure of the battery. You could use a few different apps available from Google Play that will give you a better idea if its a bad battery by telling you more in depth details health speaking on you battery.

As for the iPad charger, nah.. I've used Blackberry, Palm and varying OEM's chargers and cords over the years and yes even my daughter uses her old iPhone charger adapter on her Android phone with no obvious signs of damage. Maybe she's been lucky but I doubt it for the amount of time shes been doing it.
 

dpham00

Moderator Team VP
Moderator
Apr 23, 2011
30,108
200
63
Visit site
Any quality cable and charger won't cause damage. The phone will only take whatever power it needs.

You can install battery monitor widget to set up battery monitoring and see what rate you are charging at to see if there is a problem.

dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3
 

Jasonlwe

Member
Jun 13, 2014
14
0
0
Visit site
Any quality cable and charger won't cause damage. The phone will only take whatever power it needs.

You can install battery monitor widget to set up battery monitoring and see what rate you are charging at to see if there is a problem.

dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3

So do you think it could be the battery problem? I've been charging it for like 3 hours from now and if finally charged to 30%. I didn't even touch it.
 

dpham00

Moderator Team VP
Moderator
Apr 23, 2011
30,108
200
63
Visit site
Any suggested apps? :)

Have you tried battery monitor widget which I mentioned in post 3?

e8uvygeh.jpg


dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3
 

dpham00

Moderator Team VP
Moderator
Apr 23, 2011
30,108
200
63
Visit site
So do you think it could be the battery problem? I've been charging it for like 3 hours from now and if finally charged to 30%. I didn't even touch it.

Log with battery monitor widget while charging and post screen shot. It could be a charger or cable problem.

dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3
 

dpham00

Moderator Team VP
Moderator
Apr 23, 2011
30,108
200
63
Visit site
Yes, I've installed it. What information can I get from it and what would show me my battery has a problem?

Set up battery logging every minute, then let it run for an hour or so, and check on the chart similar to what I posted. My guess is that the charging rate is very slow, but a log could confirm.

In the app :
Settings - battery monitoring - monitoring intervals - every minute (accurate but may consume more data)

dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3
 

Jasonlwe

Member
Jun 13, 2014
14
0
0
Visit site
Here are the results

Sent from my GT-I9500 using AC Forums mobile app
 

Attachments

  • 1402669259515.jpg
    1402669259515.jpg
    123.9 KB · Views: 16
  • 1402669275989.jpg
    1402669275989.jpg
    126.9 KB · Views: 16

Jasonlwe

Member
Jun 13, 2014
14
0
0
Visit site
Set up battery logging every minute, then let it run for an hour or so, and check on the chart similar to what I posted. My guess is that the charging rate is very slow, but a log could confirm.

In the app :
Settings - battery monitoring - monitoring intervals - every minute (accurate but may consume more data)

dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3

The %/h even got to negative while i was posting the screenshots with my phone.
 

dpham00

Moderator Team VP
Moderator
Apr 23, 2011
30,108
200
63
Visit site
Can you tap on the %h and retake the screen shot? It should give you "ma" similar to my screen shot

dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3
 

Jasonlwe

Member
Jun 13, 2014
14
0
0
Visit site
Can you tap on the %h and retake the screen shot? It should give you "ma" similar to my screen shot

dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3



Sent from my GT-I9500 using AC Forums mobile app
 

Attachments

  • 1402671850367.jpg
    1402671850367.jpg
    121.8 KB · Views: 15
  • 1402671863620.jpg
    1402671863620.jpg
    121.9 KB · Views: 15

dpham00

Moderator Team VP
Moderator
Apr 23, 2011
30,108
200
63
Visit site
Certainly slow charging rate. I would suggest trying another quality charging cable and charger.

dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3
 

Jasonlwe

Member
Jun 13, 2014
14
0
0
Visit site
Newest shot , there was a sudden increase then decreasing in the milli ampere

Sent from my GT-I9500 using AC Forums mobile app
 

Attachments

  • 1402672792287.jpg
    1402672792287.jpg
    118.3 KB · Views: 15

Jasonlwe

Member
Jun 13, 2014
14
0
0
Visit site
Certainly slow charging rate. I would suggest trying another quality charging cable and charger.

dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Do you think this could also be caused by battery problems or are you sure that it's the cable and charger problems? I think it can't be the charger's problem since when I use the cable with my powerbank, it's the same situation. So the cable?
 

dpham00

Moderator Team VP
Moderator
Apr 23, 2011
30,108
200
63
Visit site
Something else to test is to let it monitor when not charging and see what battery consumption is.

Your charging rate seems odd.

Also I would clean the charging contacts. Use a toothbrush and rubbing alcohol.

dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3
 

Kolten Nay

Well-known member
Nov 28, 2013
120
0
0
Visit site
Hey everyone, so basically my s4 started to charge very slowly recently and I think there could be two possibilities , either problem with the battery or the charger or both.

1. I think it's the battery because I always charge my battery while calling my girlfriend. And by always, I mean ALWAYS, 90% of the time.

2. I think it might be the charger or cable because I'm using an iPad charger and i guess that might damage the cable?

This problem only came up recently all of a sudden. Can someone please help up? What should I do? What's the problem?

It could be the fact that you aren't using the original charger that came with it. The original charger works with Qualcomm quick charge, and when I charge my phone with any other charger, you can definetly see the difference. Hope this helped.

Posted via My Ever-Bloated S4
 

mjs416

Member
Feb 15, 2012
7
0
0
Visit site
Nearly impossible to tell if you have a bad battery or charger unless you are able to have a spare of each and swap them out.

A way to look at it is if you have a 1500 mAH charger - that means it can supply enough power to charge a 1500 mA battery in 1 hour. You need to check the charging rate of the charger and the amp rating of the battery.
 

Jasonlwe

Member
Jun 13, 2014
14
0
0
Visit site
Something else to test is to let it monitor when not charging and see what battery consumption is.

Your charging rate seems odd.

Also I would clean the charging contacts. Use a toothbrush and rubbing alcohol.

dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Here's the discharging rate without any interference

Sent from my GT-I9500 using AC Forums mobile app
 

Attachments

  • 1402703637000.jpg
    1402703637000.jpg
    121 KB · Views: 11

Trending Posts

Forum statistics

Threads
942,404
Messages
6,913,924
Members
3,158,396
Latest member
Chelrie