Replacement battery also dies quick. Is the phone the problem?

[mattl2]

Hello! I have a LG G7 that is going on three years old. The battery was needing to be charged every few hours so I brought the phone to a repair shop and got a new battery. I don't know where the battery is made but the guy has 5/5 stars on Yelp based on over 1000 reviews so I don't think he's a scammer.

The new battery lasts a little longer, but nowhere near the all-day power the phone had when it was new. I texted the repair man and asked if the new battery might be defective. He said if the new battery was bad, it would die extremely quick. The fact that it is lasting a little longer but comparable to the old battery means the phone is the problem.

Do people here agree with that or no? Should I have another new battery installed? Do you think a factory reset might help? (I always consider that a last-case-scenario.)

 

[B. Diddy]

There's always a concern that any replacement battery for an older phone will also be old, and therefore may have been sitting around on a shelf for the past 3 years deteriorating.

It might be helpful to see your battery stats, to see if anything else might be contributing to the battery drain. Charge up to 100%, then let it drain to 20-30% with normal usage, without charging in between. Then show us:

1. The main Settings>Battery screen.
2. The fullscreen battery graph screen (which may show Awake time and Cell Signal Strength).
3. The Screen category (to see total Screen On time).
4. The Cell Standby category, if present (to see Time Without Signal).


You might have to install a 3rd party battery monitor, like GSam Battery Monitor, to get the Cell Signal Strength graph.

 

[mattl2]

Thank you. I won't be charging the phone to 100% tonight but I'll plug it in when I go to bed and provide this information tomorrow afternoon.

 

[mattl2]

Here are the screenshots. I wasn't 100% sure where to find each one so I hope these are correct. I took screenshots with my battery at 70% and again a while later with my battery at 47%.







And here are the ones from two hours later

 

[B. Diddy]

Hmm, nothing quite jumps out as a main culprit. Your signal is middling, but not what I'd consider enough to drain the battery -- still, it might be worth testing on Airplane Mode (you can always turn on wi-fi in Airplane Mode and make calls if you have wi-fi calling on, I think). If battery life is dramatically better in Airplane Mode, then the cell signal may actually be the problem.

FB and Instagram can be battery hogs, so you might also want to try uninstalling Facebook temporarily (the mobile browser interface works pretty well in its place).

 

[mattl2]

I appreciate the advice. What do you think of this though? This is the second time this has happened since the battery exchange. I plugged in my phone in the evening when it had a low charge and brought it up to 56%. Then I used my phone for like an hour, with the screen on almost the whole time (surfing the web), and it is still at 56%. Hasn't dropped one percent. That's impossible, right?

 

[B. Diddy]

That seems more like a glitch in the battery sensor software.

Have you actually tried using the phone until it automatically shuts down due to low battery? Although it's not advisable to let the battery drain that low on a regular basis, it's ok to do so every now and then, and it might give us more information re: the battery sensor. For example, if it drops down to maybe 5%, then stays there for an hour or so while you continue to use the phone regularly, then that would further suggest a problem with the sensor software.

 

[mattl2]

I tried this last night. The battery was low so I browsed the web for 30 minutes and the phone died. The battery percent indicator counted down and died when it ran out...

Since the phone was dead, I decided to try a battery calibration technique I read about online where you boot up the device and let it die trying to boot; you keep doing this until it won't try anymore, and then you charge the phone, off, to 100%.

I encountered some problems trying this. it charged all night but was only at 90% when I turned it on. Then I plugged the phone in and it jumped to 100% in like a minute. Not sure what that means.

 

[B. Diddy]

Hard to say if the problem lies with the battery, the phone's charging circuits, or the firmware.

See if it happens in Safe Mode as well: https://www.t-mobile.com/support/devices/android/lg-g7-thinq/safe-mode-lg-g7-thinq. If it does, then factory reset may be your next step.

 

[mattl2]

I will try that, thank you.

I personally think the battery is the problem. Before I had this new battery installed a week ago, I never had these issues (other than the phone dying after a few hours). But I agree that the problems I'm now having seem like they could be software-related. That's what the repair man told me when I asked him if I should have the new battery replaced again.

Personally I think LG just doesn't want people using their phones for three years. If only phone manufacturers weren't phasing out microSD cards I'd probably just get a new phone.

 

[Jx J]

My LG G7 battery swelled up back in January. As I was abroad at the time, I purchased a replacement online and fitted it myself. As far as I could see, it was a knock off, carrying LG branding, but completely different to the original. Performace was poor.

I then contacted LG. They do not sell LG batteries, but do offer a replacement service for £46 including delivery. So I used this and the LG battery is as good as new.

If LG do not sell batteries to third parties, it is likely you have had a non-LG battery fitted.