Problem with battery charging or incorrect charge amount display?

[jdoute13]

I have only been seeing this problem for the past couple weeks - and I have not installed any new apps (I have updated several existing apps). I leave my phone on at night and plugged in to charge. By morning - I do not have a full charge, the battery meter is around 70%. I've checked to make sure everything is connected (plug, etc) securely. I restart my phone and upon restart the battery meter will jump to about 90-92%.

I've pulled the battery and "discharged" the phone by holding the power button down (and pulled the SIM), several times and this doesn't make a difference. For work purposes my phone stays off all day. When I turn my phone back on in the afternoon, I'm lucky to get about 3 hours of very minimal use (usually zero talk time) before the battery is fully drained.

I am not rooted, I have the original battery and I did not get the Gingerbread update. Again - this battery/charging issue is NOT typical for my phone and has only been happening over the last couple weeks. I can't think of any changes (other than app updates) that have taken place. Wondering if anyone has experienced an issue like this and if it's a phone problem or the battery is going bad. I consider myself one of the lucky TB owners, I've never experienced random reboots, problems with texts, and while my battery life hasn't been great, it's been acceptable until now.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[FrankXS]

Re: Problem with battery charging or incorrect charge amount disp

From your description, I'd guess you have a bad battery.

-Frank

 

[jdoute13]

Re: Problem with battery charging or incorrect charge amount disp

I was afraid of that....I wonder what the chances are that Verizon will replace it at no cost.

 

[natehoy]

Re: Problem with battery charging or incorrect charge amount disp

I was afraid of that....I wonder what the chances are that Verizon will replace it at no cost.

What's your time worth? HTC OEM replacement batteries are going for $10 at Amazon. It's worth a shot to try for a free one, but only if the Verizon store is on your way home from work or something. If you have to drive 10 miles to your nearest Verizon store, you've just broken even (at best).

In any case, if the battery life has been "acceptable but not great", it might be worth ponying up for the HTC 2750 extended battery. It's in the $30-35 range. I picked one up a couple of weeks after I got the phone and my OEM battery is in a drawer now.

 

[jdoute13]

Re: Problem with battery charging or incorrect charge amount disp

What's your time worth? HTC OEM replacement batteries are going for $10 at Amazon. It's worth a shot to try for a free one, but only if the Verizon store is on your way home from work or something. If you have to drive 10 miles to your nearest Verizon store, you've just broken even (at best).

In any case, if the battery life has been "acceptable but not great", it might be worth ponying up for the HTC 2750 extended battery. It's in the $30-35 range. I picked one up a couple of weeks after I got the phone and my OEM battery is in a drawer now.

I work across the street from a Verizon store and I will have to go in anyway when I return from international travel for a new SIM card for the TBolt. (I activate my Storm2 for travel and when you reactivate the TBolt - it fries the SIM and you have to get a new one). I was going to ask then, but I imagine they will make me jump through 20 troubleshooting hoops (that I've probably already tried) and then blame it on something else. Thanks for the Amazon suggestion - I'm thinking that's probably worth it. I'm very resistant to getting the larger battery - I'm not a fan of the phone's size in the first place (as a person who carries it in a pocket a lot of time) and I can't imagine adding even a little more bulk to it.

 

[natehoy]

Re: Problem with battery charging or incorrect charge amount disp

I work across the street from a Verizon store and I will have to go in anyway when I return from international travel for a new SIM card for the TBolt. (I activate my Storm2 for travel and when you reactivate the TBolt - it fries the SIM and you have to get a new one). I was going to ask then, but I imagine they will make me jump through 20 troubleshooting hoops (that I've probably already tried) and then blame it on something else. Thanks for the Amazon suggestion - I'm thinking that's probably worth it. I'm very resistant to getting the larger battery - I'm not a fan of the phone's size in the first place (as a person who carries it in a pocket a lot of time) and I can't imagine adding even a little more bulk to it.

Well, if you're going to be in the store anyway it might be worth whinging about a new battery. Maybe you'll get lucky. Set yourself a time limit and if they haven't caved by that point, drop the ten bucks at Amazon.

I got the extended battery and, honestly, I prefer the feel of the phone with it now. Yes, it's heavier, but not THAT much heavier. And now there are corners and edges and whatnot for me to get a better grip on the phone.

To each his/her own, but I hold a non-extended Thunderbolt and it doesn't feel right any more.

Plus, no worries about getting through an average day. That's a BIG bonus.

At least until 4G comes around here, but by then I'll probably be shopping for a new phone anyway. Hell, who am I kidding, by the time 4G comes to Maine I'll be retired and probably dead and buried.

 

[FrankXS]

Re: Problem with battery charging or incorrect charge amount disp

Plus, no worries about getting through an average day. That's a BIG bonus.

Agreed. To further amplify, I never even THINK about my battery anymore, period. I just use the phone however I want and the battery takes care of itself. I mean, it's totally out of my mind. That's what I love most about the extended battery. As an added bonus, I even get to skip by all the "improve battery performance" threads.

-Frank

 

[Rav3nCroft]

Agreed. To further amplify, I never even THINK about my battery anymore, period. I just use the phone however I want and the battery takes care of itself. I mean, it's totally out of my mind. That's what I love most about the extended battery. As an added bonus, I even get to skip by all the "improve battery performance" threads.

-Frank

+ 1

The extended battery is a must in my opinion.

Sent from my Thunderbolt using Tapatalk

 

[vipthomps]

Re: Problem with battery charging or incorrect charge amount disp

i had this EXACT same issue. Its what even caused me to root the phone to see if that was it. Still showed 70%. Got an HTC OEM battery for 10 bucks on Amazon..same deal. Called verizon and they replaced it no issues. (I had to unroot and flash back to stock before i sent it back to Big Red)

But when i put both "70%" batteries in the new phone they both registered 100% so was a hardware reading on the bad phone

 

[jdoute13]

Re: Problem with battery charging or incorrect charge amount disp

i had this EXACT same issue. Its what even caused me to root the phone to see if that was it. Still showed 70%. Got an HTC OEM battery for 10 bucks on Amazon..same deal. Called verizon and they replaced it no issues. (I had to unroot and flash back to stock before i sent it back to Big Red)

But when i put both "70%" batteries in the new phone they both registered 100% so was a hardware reading on the bad phone

So if I understand correctly - you ended up replacing your phone because it most likely was a bad hardware reading? I'm really hoping my issue has nothing to do with the phone because I feel like I have one of the "lucky" TBolts because I've haven't had any of the problems described in these forums. I guess I will start with the battery and cross my fingers.

 

[natehoy]

Re: Problem with battery charging or incorrect charge amount disp

Go in to the Verizon store and ask them to at least test your battery in another phone, or test a fully-charged fresh battery in yours. If your battery works in another phone (or your phone has trouble with a known-good battery), then you know your phone needs a replacement (and I'd think that would be a warranty issue).

They might swap out batteries for you as a test to avoid having to replace the whole phone under warranty.

Or you can drop the $10, and if it doesn't work you'll need to replace the phone. When your new phone comes in you'll have THREE good batteries. (grin)

 

[morskie]

Re: Problem with battery charging or incorrect charge amount disp

I'm currently having this problem with one of the HTC extended batteries. I plug it in overnight and it gets anywhere from a 65%-90% charge. It still gives a full days worth of heavy use, but goes on weird "runs" of battery loss. It will will hold at 72% for two hours, then drop to 55% in 15 minutes, lose only 3%over the next 3 and then plummet to 15% in an hour. I've tried pulling the battery, full discharge, not charging different cables, all with no luck.

 

[FrankXS]

Re: Problem with battery charging or incorrect charge amount disp

I'm currently having this problem with one of the HTC extended batteries. I plug it in overnight and it gets anywhere from a 65%-90% charge. It still gives a full days worth of heavy use, but goes on weird "runs" of battery loss. It will will hold at 72% for two hours, then drop to 55% in 15 minutes, lose only 3%over the next 3 and then plummet to 15% in an hour. I've tried pulling the battery, full discharge, not charging different cables, all with no luck.

Are you running a custom ROM?

-Frank

 

[morskie]

Re: Problem with battery charging or incorrect charge amount disp

No I just rooted today and am still running the stock ROM to see if that will solve this. Going to bed and charging now. Updates to come.

 

[jdoute13]

Re: Problem with battery charging or incorrect charge amount disp

Update on the issue with my phone: Verizon sent out a new battery (at no extra charge) and I had the same problem with the new battery. The phone does not give me a 100% reading, even after the battery has been charging all night. The highest reading I can get is 91%. Once the phone is off the charger, the battery will drain in less than 3 hours. I contacted Verizon today and they are sending the dreaded refurb replacement phone. I'm skeptical because until now, my TBolt has not exhibited ANY of the problems detailed in this forum - I hope this refurb phone isn't a lemon. <sigh>