Battery Issue?

[tony868]

Hi all, I bought my E4GT on Saturday night and I'm loving it! This is a huge improvement in every way over my trusty Hero! I have noticed a strange thing with the battery/charging though and wonder if this is a known issue or if I maybe have a bad battery. A few times I have left it on the charger overnight and wake up with it saying it is fully charged at 100% but as soon as I unplug from the charger it goes down to about 85% charged. Does this seem normal? I understand that there could be errors reading the battery stats but after > 6 hours on the charger and a 15% difference that seems to be something different. I want to have a full charge to get me through the day and I haven't been able to get it to say 100% after charging yet. Thanks for any help!
tony

 

[Murphy5111]

Hi all, I bought my E4GT on Saturday night and I'm loving it! This is a huge improvement in every way over my trusty Hero! I have noticed a strange thing with the battery/charging though and wonder if this is a known issue or if I maybe have a bad battery. A few times I have left it on the charger overnight and wake up with it saying it is fully charged at 100% but as soon as I unplug from the charger it goes down to about 85% charged. Does this seem normal? I understand that there could be errors reading the battery stats but after > 6 hours on the charger and a 15% difference that seems to be something different. I want to have a full charge to get me through the day and I haven't been able to get it to say 100% after charging yet. Thanks for any help!
tony

Mine drops immediately to 99%. 85 seems kind of low. Sometimes when phones reach a full charge they cycle off for a little and then start charging again after it drops a certain percent. I would give it a few more cycles tks see if it improves and if not try swapping out the battery. Just my opinion though. Sometimes LI batteries take a few cycles to settle in

 

[JayWill]

No that's not normal. What does your battery graph look like? Settings > About phone > Battery usage then click the graph at the top of the screen. Does it start at the top then drop down on a straight line to 85%? It could be a bad battery, but it could also be bad calibration. As suggested, give it a few more charging cycles to see if things change. If not, then you may want to try a factory reset before your take it into a store. If a factory reset doesn't fix things then you likely have a faulty battery.

 

[Slingbox]

Hi all, I bought my E4GT on Saturday night and I'm loving it! This is a huge improvement in every way over my trusty Hero! I have noticed a strange thing with the battery/charging though and wonder if this is a known issue or if I maybe have a bad battery. A few times I have left it on the charger overnight and wake up with it saying it is fully charged at 100% but as soon as I unplug from the charger it goes down to about 85% charged. Does this seem normal? I understand that there could be errors reading the battery stats but after > 6 hours on the charger and a 15% difference that seems to be something different. I want to have a full charge to get me through the day and I haven't been able to get it to say 100% after charging yet. Thanks for any help!
tony

Nope not normal.
Do battery pull drain down to 5% give it a full charge a couple times.
If that doesn't resolve issue you more then likely got defective unit time to swap out.

 

[tony868]

Thanks for the suggestions. The battery life has been all over the place so far which leads me to believe it's a bad battery. The first couple days I attributed it to not being able to put it down (that screen!!!) but Tuesday I got around 12 hours and yesterday I got a full 24 hours on a charge with minimal changes. Today looks like it will be closer to 12-14 hours again. I'm monitoring with Better Battery Stats and other things but haven't been able to pinpoint it to one thing yet. I do have the high AOS that others have which could be a factor, too. Thanks again!
tony

 

[JayWill]

Keep in mind that a high AOS can sometimes be a function of simply not using the phone much. It all always has to add up to 100% of course. For example, I had my phone off the charger while I slept last night. So right now, I'm just a touch under 12 hours off the charger. My AOS is 36% and Display is 23% with just 33 minutes of display on time. This is not a bug, simply a function of everything that's used my battery so far always has to add up to 100%. Normally, my display is 50% of my battery consumption and AOS is in the low teens.

I'm not saying there is not a bug with suspend functions that can result in high AOS percentages by the way, only that a high AOS is not always representative of a bug.

 

[mrcminnesota]

You say that you leave it charging overnight - Was the blue light on/message saying it is fully charged? Also, you should not leave the phone charging after it has reached fully charged.
I am one that also has noticed that my battery "never" says 100% after a full charge once I unplug it from the charger. I have reported this on Sprint's forum in the issues log.
Also, do you have a problem with your stock charger and being able to use the phone while it is charging? There is a reported bug regarding the touchscreen being unuseable (intermittent issue) with the stock AC charger.

 

[Drummerboy1975]

Why shouldn't you leave your phone on charge once it's fully charged? That's really the only way mine will ever get a full charge is at night while I'm sleeping since I stay on it most of the day.

Is there any evidence that with will harm the phone or battery?

 

[JayWill]

Leaving your phone sitting on the charger overnight or when it's fully charged does no harm and is perfectly okay. You cannot overcharge your battery. The system stops charging, let's it discharge a bit, then charges again, in small increments and in a perpetual cycle until you pull it off the charger. I believe this is how current LI batteries work anyways. I also believe the immediate drop to 99% is a function of this feature, as even though the phone is reporting 100% while on the charger, the battery itself has stopped the charge at 99% (or something just below full in order to avoid overcharging). The immediate drop to 99% is normal and has been reported by many Android owners across multiple devices.

Simple Guidelines for Charging Lithium-based Batteries

A portable device should be turned off while charging. This allows the battery to reach the threshold voltage unhindered and reflects the correct saturation current responsible to terminate the charge. A parasitic load confuses the charger.

Charge at a moderate temperature. Do not charge below freezing.

Lithium-ion does not need to be fully charged; a partial charge is better.

Chargers use different methods for “ready” indication. The light signal may not always indicate a full charge.

Discontinue using charger and/or battery if the battery gets excessively warm.

Before prolonged storage, apply some charge to bring the pack to about half charge.

Over-discharged batteries can be “boosted” to life again. Discard pack if the voltage does not rise to a normal level within a minute while on boost.

 

[tony868]

I haven't had any issues with the touchscreen when it is charging. I have used the stock charger and a couple others with no problems.

 

[oskar1995]

I'll add a +1 to those experienced the 99% as soon as the phone is unplugged for the charger. I've had some phones that drop to 99 and others that were 100 for a period of time. Not something of significant importance to me, but just a quirk of the device.

As for the OP, I think that is absolutely a sign of something being wrong with the battery. Considering it is paired with inconsistencies in battery life, I would talk to Sprint. They can do a couple of tests to see what the issue might be. I would also suggest taking it to the store pretty close to fully charged and try to recreate the problem. That usually makes it easier to get service/replacements.

Best of luck to you. I've been fortunate to have a device that hasn't had some of the issues other have reported.