Strange Battery Problem - Need Help

[lancehart]

I need a little help with a strange battery problem... or it could be a phone problem I suppose.

Over the past week this has happened three times on my stock Epic Touch running the latest Sprint public build, FI27, Android version 4.0.4

In each case, I was using it in some kind of high battery drain function... either watching a movie or running GPS software.
In two of the three cases, this was started right after unplugging the phone from the charger for the night, so I had a full charge,
but suddenly, without warning the phone just shuts off dead. No power down animation, no nothing... just goes cold black dead.
In each case, I know I've had about 60-75% battery left just before it died.

When I power up the phone, it beeps low battery, and say I have between 1-3% power left and eventually powers down from low battery.

However, if I pull out the battery and let it sit for a minute or two, then put it back in and restart, I've got battery power back again, at a slightly
reduced level. I happened to catch it in action this morning with a screen capture a little after 8am where you can see after the reboot, it reported
having about 55-56% before rapidly plunging down to 48-49% power remaining. Then the battery percentage began to grow over the next hour
rising up to about 56% by 9:30am before starting a very slow drain. It's now noon and I'm still got 50% remaining according to the meter.

Any idea what is going on? Is my battery going bad, or is this some kind of new bug from the FI27 build?

 

[JayWill]

What you're seeing is the way fuel gauge works on this phone. The gauge is designed to converge towards the "true" battery level over time, which is why the battery on this phone doesn't need calibration. However, sudden unexpected shut offs can throw the gauge off, which is why your graph falls off a cliff on the reboot. Then, the gauge converges with the true battery level, which is why the battery level moves higher, even when unplugged.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[lancehart]

That makes sense for why it showed a rise in power after the reboot, but my real concern is why did the phone shut off and die on it's own with over 80% battery power remaining (after a full night charge) and when I reboot it the first time, it only had 1% power, and shut off again. Only after I removed the battery for 2 minutes and put it back and rebooted it again did it come back to life, reporting a 50% charge.

A little more of an update, I've kept it out of the charger, and at 2:30pm, with 40% power on the meter, it shut off dead again.
I pulled the battery and restarted... only to discover it was at 1% power again and on the verge of a true power shut down.
Now the fuel gague could have still been messed up, but it seems to me that my battery is shorting out or something, even when near full power,
there is no way I can explain the huge chunks of power loss, or shut downs that I've never experienced before this week.

 

[mfsanso]

This EXACT same thing happened to me. I was playing a stupid game and the thing would just shut off. I would power back on within seconds of it power down and it would booth to 0% battery and then shut off again. After 2-3 minutes of letting it rest, it would power back on but instead of being at 85% battery or so, it would be at 40%. If I were to do ANYTHING, even simply pull up the app drawer, it would shut off - no animation shut down, just black screen off.

I assumed it was my battery health. I've been whaling on it pretty hard the last few months because I got so frustrated with not being able to use the GPS on my drive home without draining the battery (even while using my old 600mA car charger) so I bought a 2A car charger and was able to actually charge the battery while using the GPS on my drives to and from work. Luckily I had bought a 3800mA battery a while back and I'm using that until I can get to the true bottom of the issue here. I'm going to try to "restore" my battery by letting it slow drain over night and then slow charging it. I hope a few cycles of this will help restore the battery to good health (even though all my battery apps tell me the battery is in good health).

By the way, the 3800 mA battery lets me use my phone as I want all day and I still have 20% battery life at the end of the day; bright screen, WIFI on all day, GPS on all day, two 45 minute GPS trips, checking email, streaming radio, googling randomness, the whole nine yards. I love it. The only draw back is that it is fatter and requires a bumped out back cover (included) but I think it makes the phone slightly easier to hold in one hand. Just my own opion. Not bad for $17.

Amazon.com: Samsung Galaxy S II (Sprint) Epic 4G Touch SPH-D710 Extended Battery with Door Black 3500mAh: Cell Phones & Accessories

 

[lancehart]

This is getting to be a more serious problem... At first there was a few days between it happening again, yesterday when I wrote in, it happened twice in one day for the first time.
It happened again this afternoon... while not even using an intense battery draining app like GPS, I was just browsing with Chrome with about 70-80% power before it crashed.
Rebooted to find only 4% power... and it shut down again less than a minute later. Without turning it on or taking the battery out, i plugged it in to find it showing only about 40% power,
which climbed back up to 74% after 15 minutes of powered down charging before I turned it back on.

I'd hate to spend money to get a new battery, only to find out that the problem may be related to the hardware in the phone instead.
Though it never happens (yet) when the phone is plugged in either in my car, or in my desk dock at work, which is why I was leaning towards
it being a battery issue.

 

[JayWill]

Take your battery out and spin it on a flat surface. If it spins rather easily you probably have a bulging battery and need a new one. If it doesn't, I suggest you first try a factory reset, and if the shut downs continue, take it to a Sprint tech center.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Neruda6000]

I've had the exact same problem since last week and has increased in frequency as well.

My son has an SII too, so I swapped out batteries to see if it's the battery or the phone. Phone seemed to function without issue having his battery in there, so looks like I will go with a new battery.... Oh well

 

[lancehart]

Problem is still ongoing, so I ordered a new battery. Will update in a week or so once it arrives and I have a few days to test it out.

 

[kgzero]

My wife's phone is having the exact same problem. I swapped our batteries to see what happens. I'll report later.

 

[srkmagnus]

Please keep us posted on the issue; I'm curious to know if a new battery solves the problem.

 

[kgzero]

So her battery is now in my phone. It was charging and according to the phone it was 100%. Pulled it off the charger and it immediately indicated it was at 90%. So far after 15 minutes it still says its 90%. I'll keep watching it let you guys what happens.

My wife's phone, which has my battery is acting normal for now. Again, I'll keep monitoring.

 

[kgzero]

woke up with 12% of the battery left with nothing obvious running in the background, although the battery says android OS used up 66% of the battery while I was sleeping. My phone does do this from time to time. So far nothing out of the ordinary. I'll have to talk to my wife at the end of the day to see how her phone is holding up.

 

[ReDDevil2112]

I had this issue as well. New battery fixed it, hadn't happened since.

Sent from my Galaxy S II

 

[kgzero]

Yup, its the battery. I had it on the charger up until a few mintues ago. Decided to play a game during some downtime, and after about 5 minutes the phone crashed. Turned it back on and when it booted up, I unlocked it and the battery meter read 20% (down 80% in 5 minutes of playing a game). Not only that but the screen looked like it was starting to flicker (like it was running out of juice) and crashed again. Turne dit back on again, now it says its at 69% and acting normal.

Looks like its time to replace the battery all together.

 

[mfsanso]

In case anyone's curious what the 3800 mA battery can allow throughout the normal work day. Its simply liberating.

 

[mfsanso]

Wow, I've found a surprising development. After reading JayWill72's suggestion and reading about swelling batteries, I took a closer look at mine and low and behold, not only did my battery spin on my desk, but it was visibly swollen, as discussed in THIS thread. I'm thinking now that as the battery gets put into high demand and begins warming up, the swelling disconnects it from the prongs and that's why we're getting the blackout crashes. I may try replacing the battery to see how well my phone performs on an brand new stock battery.

Any suggestions as to where to buy an authentic SAMSUNG battery?

Anyway, here are a few pictures of my battery - one while its spinning, one showing the actual bulge and two showing the corners of the battery not touching the desk surface.

 

[abha]

Hey there.. i m facing the same problem with my phone.. Any1 got any clue wot cud b the problm?? btw i just chkd the battery.. it feels a little swollen...

 

[ReDDevil2112]

I got my battery here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005L...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU2358864

Price went up a few bucks since I got it tho. It arrived very quickly.

Sent from my Galaxy S II

 

[lancehart]

At first I didn't think it was bulging, but looks like mine has the same bulging battery problem that is going around like wildfire lately. Spins like a top too. Waiting for a new battery to fix the problem, or will sprint replace it for free with insurance?

 

[JayWill]

Well, you can add me to the list for the great battery bulge epidemic of 2012. I've experienced a few random shutdowns recently and upon reboot the battery gauge is zero followed by another shutdown. I checked the battery and mine is indeed starting to bulge on one side. Strange that this issue has become so common.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2