Galaxy S4 won't charge

[Thanh Ngo]

sam here @@" it very slowly......

 

[IslandGuy]

Well the thing is that it was the very same charger I was using. It's good to monitor charging rate to be able to see what you're getting.

But it seems that something strange could be happening to our phones when the battery gets really low. It took me unplugging the charger from the wall and plugging it back in for it to properly charge.

Sent from my AT&T Samsung Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk II

My charger was very inconsistent because it would give me 1350mA one time and then 500mA another time. It was never the same charge rate when I plug, unplug and plug again. Since Sprint replaced the charger I always get 1900mA output when charging.

 

[Anthon Telesford]

I am having the same exact problem as you. Did you find a solution to this problem?

 

[vasekvi]

I am having the same exact problem as you. Did you find a solution to this problem?

He got his charger replaced.

Sent from my AT&T Samsung Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk II

 

[Bazooka15]

Hi all,

So I got the phone in store on Wednesday 5/1 with Sprint. First day things worked ok except for the fact it wouldn't connect to my home wifi (but I'm currently in the process of buying a new router/modem anyways and was reading that it could be a compatibility issue?). Last night I tried charging the phone and it seemed to be ok before I went to sleep. I wake up to see the phone is completely dead (it was like 5% before I went to sleep) and not charging. I thought it was my outlet so I tried a different one and still nothing. Took out the battery, plugged it in, and it showed it was charging. I left it for a few mins and came back, the phone stopped charging. Tried another outlet and took out the battery again, it showed it was charging for about 10 seconds and stopped. The phone then got really really hot, to the point where it made handling it not so easy. So now it's not charging and my phone is completely dead. Anybody else with this issue? I did make an appointment at the store to have it checked out today.

Hey, I encountered the same problem you did. All I had to do was, unplug the phone, take the battery out, put the battery in, and plugged into a different wall outlet. If you get a battery with a little green at the bottom and a loading bar, then you can turn on your phone back on. It worked for me, and I hope this can help.

 

[jokout1]

Took a little time to research this issue and found that Lithium Ion batteries are quit different then other rechargable batteries we all may have used in the past! Much has been published since the big flap over the Boeing battery problems which involves the same type of battery that our Galaxy S4 uses...it seems that there are several posible problems with this battery type, overcharging, over voltage charging, charge consistency and overdischarge! All of these conditions are/should be controled by IC circuitry in the charger and battery. If any of these control circuits fail, you will see issues with the battery ranging from overheating/failure to non-charging/failure! It would seem that somewhere in this circuitry, battery or charger, some units are developing a problem controling the charging process.
Interestingly, inconsistency in charge rate is quite distructive to Lithium-Ion batteries and will cause failure to take charge, likewise over-discharge will "kill" the battery!

It should be noted, a Lithium Ion battery should NEVER be intentionally fully discharged! Period! Unlike Ni-Cad batteries this is distructive to the battery!

Cheers

 

[patrick hayden]

It seems there are variations of this issue for some folks. Some have issues with the chargers, some batteries, and some the actual phone.

I've been dealing with this for a while (check page 1 and 2 of this thread) and here is a list detailing my issues and what I've tried.

1.) Phone worked and charged perfectly until the first time I let the battery get so low that the phone shut off. Would not charge at all after that. USB connection worked, but no charging at all. Tried every variation possible with different outlets, a 1 amp charger, the factory 2 amp charger, a 2.1 amp charger, 3 different computers, and 3 different USB cables, all known to work on other devices. None worked. Solution - factory reset fixed it.

2.) Same as #1 above, but this time the factory reset did NOT work. I started charging my battery on an external separate charger and even bought a spare battery to have one in the phone and one charging at all times. Issue present with both batteries. Deletion of battery stats file has no effect. Solution - none known at this time.

3.) If your battery is in the phone and even slightly charged, you can power the phone off and leave the USB cable plugged in and the phone will vibrate every 5 seconds or so. I *think* this is the phone trying to charge but it is not able to do it. The green battery charging screen does not come up any longer either. I charged one of my batteries to 100%, put it in the phone but did not power it on and just left it with the USB cable plugged in so it did the 5 sec vibration thing just to see what the outcome would be. In less than 2 hrs it completely killed the charge of the battery and the phone (and battery) got super hot. I let it cool down, swapped to another fully charged battery and booted up the phone. Now USB doesn't work at all! No recognition that you have plugged in a USB cable by the device! If you power the phone off and have the USB cable plugged in, it will still do the 5 sec vibration thing so it DOES recognize the USB cable with the phone off, but not when it's on anymore. I don't see anything in logcat indicating issues with USB or that it even notices that a cable has been plugged in or disconnected. Changing settings in build.prop have not helped it recognize the USB anymore even though I try to force it to mount various ways. It's as if the USB port or firmware are inoperable, but remember - it still "works" if you power the phone off and have the USB plugged in because it will do the 5 sec vibration thing until the battery dies. Solution - none known at this time.

I really don't know what else to do at this point except turn the phone in for a warranty replacement. If anyone has ideas of anything else I can try, please let me know and I'll fill you in on the results.

 

[patrick hayden]

UPDATE:

Fearing that there was something physically wrong with the phone, I decided to take it apart and look for myself. Sure enough, the solder connections for the USB port are in terrible condition. There are 3 traces that look like they somehow shorted out. They look burnt, have a nice layer of corrosion, and the furthest one to the left looks like it got shorted to the ground solder point of the USB outer metal shell.

I'm running TWRP recovery, and CM10.1 so I have to convert it back to stock before I can turn it in for warranty. Problem is, the currently available method to do that requires using Odin..... and the USB connection. If you know of another way to flash the stock recovery and ROM, let me know!

 

[vasekvi]

We're you monitoring the charge rates while you were trying these different things? I hope you get this resolved. I guess you can't exactly tell them you took the phone apart.

Sent from my AT&T Samsung Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk II

 

[asg749d]

Hello IslandGuy - where can we find that Samsung Charging App?
I can't seem to find it in the Play Store.
Thanks in advance!

 

[vasekvi]

Hello IslandGuy - where can we find that Samsung Charging App?
I can't seem to find it in the Play Store.
Thanks in advance!

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ils?id=com.manor.currentwidget&token=6Xa6zfag

Sent from my AT&T Samsung Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk II

 

[pbbennettjr]

Purchased a Galaxy S4 from Verizon 10 days ago. Worked and charged ok for several days using a cable (USB) I had from a previous phone although when plugged into my computer, the computer reported "Unknown USB device" and I could not see the phone in the list of devices. Yesterday and today the phone would not charge at all despite being plugged in overnight with power off. Finally I decided to try the USB cable that came with the phone. So far it seems to work. Phone is charging. Computer automatically down loaded a driver and recognizes the phone. Not sure way this is the case but there must be something specific about the Samsung cable.

 

[Ricketts223]

Hi gents - purchased my S4 last week - trying to use the current widget, but all I see is the settings menu, I cannot see anything else. Rebooting is the same. If I launch the current widget, I only get the settings menu.

Any thoughts?

Thanks - awesome phone so far!

 

[vasekvi]

Hi gents - purchased my S4 last week - trying to use the current widget, but all I see is the settings menu, I cannot see anything else. Rebooting is the same. If I launch the current widget, I only get the settings menu.

Any thoughts?

Thanks - awesome phone so far!

Ya gotta add the widget to one of your home screens. Tapping in the app itself just launches the app settings.

Sent from my AT&T Samsung Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk II

 

[eyecon82]

Didn't even realize that there was a widget. Thanks!

 

[Ricketts223]

My bad...got it, thanks! I guess I should have been alerted to the name Current "widget"...What got me was that it put the settings icon on my home screen, so I assumed I had to click it to start the whole process.

Thanks again,

Rick

 

[bistwo]

Try a different charger and cable. If you don't have another charger, you can use a USB port of a computer, but that will be very slow to charge.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[ItsJulieBroCx]

I was wondering if you've found the problem because I'm experiencing the same exact problem with my galaxy s4 from sprint, I've had it for a little over a month and I've never had any trouble with it. it's really frustrating. thank you

 

[ulrish]

Hi everyone, there is any fix for this issue?, cause i tried everything, including another battery.-

 

[sarah8888]

i suffered the same thing, My phone just purchased one week ago, it suddenly do not charge.

I am looking for the ways to change one