Battery problems

[jrb363]

Hey everyone. My wife has the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 which she purchased a few months ago new from AT&T. Overall she has loved the phone but her main complaint has been about the battery life. One of the reasons she picked the phone was because of the supposed great battery life, and the phone does fine...when it charges. It will trickle charge some nights and others it will charge normally. She typically uses the same outlet every evening and when she plugs it in the remaining battery life varies from the phone being dead to having a 40-60% charge.

We've tried using different outlets in the house recently and it's still the same problem. Sometimes the phone charges great and other times she's lucky to get a 10-20% charge overnight. If anybody else has had these types of problems and come up with a solution I would like to know what you did or just battery/Samsung help in general. Thanks!

 

[Golfdriver97]

Hey everyone. My wife has the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 which she purchased a few months ago new from AT&T. Overall she has loved the phone but her main complaint has been about the battery life. One of the reasons she picked the phone was because of the supposed great battery life, and the phone does fine...when it charges. It will trickle charge some nights and others it will charge normally. She typically uses the same outlet every evening and when she plugs it in the remaining battery life varies from the phone being dead to having a 40-60% charge.

We've tried using different outlets in the house recently and it's still the same problem. Sometimes the phone charges great and other times she's lucky to get a 10-20% charge overnight. If anybody else has had these types of problems and come up with a solution I would like to know what you did or just battery/Samsung help in general. Thanks!

Plugging into the stock charger with cable I am assuming?

 

[jrb363]

Plugging into the stock charger with cable I am assuming?

Yeah, it's all stock. The original battery (only 4 months old) and the cables/plug that came with the phone.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Yeah, it's all stock. The original battery (only 4 months old) and the cables/plug that came with the phone.

I would contact Samsung. If it is a hardware problem (kinda sounds more software though) the faster you contact them the faster you get on record that you called well within warranty.

Sent from a SlimROM S3.

 

[jrb363]

I would contact Samsung. If it is a hardware problem (kinda sounds more software though) the faster you contact them the faster you get on record that you called well within warranty.

Sent from a SlimROM S3.

Well, I looked at her phone and she is running a few customizations like Go Launcher, some moving background and a swirling thing when she flips pages. (I have a stock HTC One and have never bothered to mess with it since I like mine vanilla which is why I'm unsure what exactly she has.) Anyway, do you think these other programs could be causing the problem? I really appreciate your help!

 

[Golfdriver97]

Well, I looked at her phone and she is running a few customizations like Go Launcher, some moving background and a swirling thing when she flips pages. (I have a stock HTC One and have never bothered to mess with it since I like mine vanilla which is why I'm unsure what exactly she has.) Anyway, do you think these other programs could be causing the problem? I really appreciate your help!

Give this a try. Nearly drain the battery...like to 15%. Reboot the phone, then plug in. She may be inadvertently leaving a high consuming app open.

Sent from a SlimROM S3.

 

[jrb363]

Give this a try. Nearly drain the battery...like to 15%. Reboot the phone, then plug in. She may be inadvertently leaving a high consuming app open.

Sent from a SlimROM S3.

Thanks, I'll give it a try over the weekend and post Monday letting you know how it went. Have a good weekend!

 

[Golfdriver97]

Thanks, I'll give it a try over the weekend and post Monday letting you know how it went. Have a good weekend!

I'd be interested to find out.

Sent from a SlimROM S3.

 

[jrb363]

I'd be interested to find out.

Sent from a SlimROM S3.

Not a great improvement. I had her plug the phone in at around 15% (a little less, I forget exactly) and it only charged up to 65% overnight. I also went in and tried to manually kill everything the phone was running. I'm beginning to think this is a Samsung problem with either hardware or software. Let's just say my wife is very disappointed and frustrated with her phone. It barely makes it through the day after 10+ hours on the charger. She's unfortunately grown to hate Samsung and if she could throw it away she probably would. Unfortunately between spending $299 on the phone plus costs for a case and a few other extras we can't justify getting rid of our ~$400 investment and still being on contract.

P.S. She plugged it in last night around 20% and it actually WENT DOWN to 14% before plugging it in a 2nd time to restart the charging cycle. It eventually went up to 28% but of course that's not enough to make it through the day. I have no clue what's going on with this phone but we're both very frustrated with the situation. Like every good consumer with a faulty product she now hates Samsung and I'm out of ideas/explanations.

 

[rgarcia900]

You have a deffective device. Call your carrier and arrange for an exchange. If you waited too long, you might get a refurbished. At this point, your wife probably just wants something that works and I don't blame her. The phone should last an average of 20-24 hours. I know I can get between 24-36 hours with light usage, so with moderate use, it should last the work day.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[dancing-bass]

because it's so intermittent and inconsistent, I'd actually start looking at hardware. My first suspect would be the charging cable itself. Try charging with a different USB cable (as short as possible!) to see if that makes a difference. Based on my experience with my Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the USB port on the phone itself can be a weak point. If you look at the USB port on the phone itself, the little nub in the middle should be just that, in the middle and not closer to one side or the other. If it is, power the phone off and VERY GENTLY pry it back to center. If possible use something plastic to do so. Last I would suspect the charging block. Try charging your wife's phone with a different charger, or use your wife's charging block to charge a different device then her phone. See if the speed or depth of charge changes.

Of course this might be a few days late. Hopefully you can find a solution, and your wife can be happy with her phone again.

 

[jrb363]

Well, I finally took her phone and got rid of everything she had put on it. All of the Go crap and other 'enhancements' she added. (I'm running stock HTC One so...yeah. I'm not into that extra stuff. *ahem*) Her phone is performing MUCH better thankfully. I'll probably never know what it was, since I refuse to waste time reinstalling everything individually to test it, but the phone is charging 100% faster now and it's back to lasting almost 2 days per charge for her. Thanks for the help everybody.

 

[msndrstood]

I would also get an extended battery, they're pretty cheap and still give you many more hours. I have the 6500 and can get 10 hours of on screen time with 30 hours battery time. You can get much more battery life with less screen time obviously. I'm a heavy user plus I like the extra bulk, more to grip onto and it still fits in my wristlet wallet.

Sent via Note II