This is why your battery drops 10-15% in the first 20 minutes.

[meyerweb#CB]

Yes I have. Last night. The tech said he's noticed the SAME problem with HIS personal Evo. He also agreed that it's a trickle charge/floating charge problem where it's not letting it keep a full charge like it's supposed to. He said it's probably a software issue because there would be other issues as well if it wasn't able to trickle charge because of a hardware defect. That makes sense considering the dramatic increased battery life some people are getting when they root and install custom roms... He actually mentioned that the Froyo update would almost definitely fix the problem but that he knows of there is no HTC update for this problem..

I wouldn't put too much stock into what some anonymous tech said on the phone. I wouldn't be surprised if he isn't getting his info from this forum. His answer makes no sense: if it's a hardware problem, then Froyo isn't likely to be able to fix it.

 

[Jerzyiroc]

He said it's probably NOT a hardware problem because there would be other issues along with the inability to trickle/float charge if it was a hardware issue. He then said that IF it is a software issue then the Froyo update would solve the problem since there is no current update being worked on for this fix. What he said actually makes sense considering the increased battery life people are getting from the custom roms. A friend of mine just put a custom rom in his (ill find out which one) and he said he's not noticing the rabid drop off in battery level like he was before.

 

[RayStinkle]

So are you guys watching the voltage vs percentage to actually see what's going on at 100%? What voltage does an evo at full charge show? Using that battery widget can show this. I know the nexus highest it ever gets is 4.172 volts.

Even better is to install OS monitor, go to the messages tab. Then go into settings, click filter dmesg and type "batt" without the quotes. Now under messages tab you will see all battery info over the last few hours. You can see the mAh getting put into the battery as its charging, the power draw, voltage, percentage, anything that the OS is doing behind the scenes related to battery, you can see. Lots of useful info, particularly related to this thread.

 

[milominderbinde]

I get a 10% drop the moment I take it off the charger, no matter what % it was at. I get a 10% jump up as soon as it goes on the charger.

 

[eagle63]

He said it's probably NOT a hardware problem because there would be other issues along with the inability to trickle/float charge if it was a hardware issue. He then said that IF it is a software issue then the Froyo update would solve the problem since there is no current update being worked on for this fix. What he said actually makes sense considering the increased battery life people are getting from the custom roms. A friend of mine just put a custom rom in his (ill find out which one) and he said he's not noticing the rabid drop off in battery level like he was before.

I hate to be a spoiler, but I can almost guarantee you that he has no idea what he's talking about.
The fact that he thinks Froyo will fix this pretty much confirms it.

 

[Jerzyiroc]

I hate to be a spoiler, but I can almost guarantee you that he has no idea what he's talking about.
The fact that he thinks Froyo will fix this pretty much confirms it.

Really? I guess all those people with custom ROMs that don't have the problem anymore and getting way better battery life are just hallucinating. He said the froyo update would fix it if it's s software issue because Froyo will be a completely different written ROM. Which is why the custom ROMs have apparently fixed the problem. IF it's a software issue then yes Froyo may possibly solve the problem.

 

[xorbe]

It's just that I seriously doubt the charging function is software controlled -- any sort of software freeze could lead to a lithium battery meltdown. For instance, how does the phone charge while the phone is off? Yet, some bricked evos won't charge at all (or, at least they aren't illuminating the charge led). It is a mystery ...

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Really? I guess all those people with custom ROMs that don't have the problem anymore and getting way better battery life are just hallucinating. He said the froyo update would fix it if it's s software issue because Froyo will be a completely different written ROM. Which is why the custom ROMs have apparently fixed the problem. IF it's a software issue then yes Froyo may possibly solve the problem.

The custom ROMS, from what I've seen, don't address the charging issue at all. Some improve battery life by reducing battery usage: underclocking the cpu, removing apps that do background data syncing, etc.

Reducing battery usage is completely different than changing how the phone charges.

 

[eagle63]

Really? I guess all those people with custom ROMs that don't have the problem anymore and getting way better battery life are just hallucinating. He said the froyo update would fix it if it's s software issue because Froyo will be a completely different written ROM. Which is why the custom ROMs have apparently fixed the problem. IF it's a software issue then yes Froyo may possibly solve the problem.

If Froyo fixes it (which it won't) then that assumes that the problem is in Android itself. Which means that every Android phone on 2.1 should be having this problem. But they aren't.

I'd love to see any evidence that people running custom rom's no longer have this problem. (can you post some links?) As meyerweb pointed out, we're not talking about getting better battery life, we're talking about this specific problem which has to do with charging.

 

[jcwxguy]

Re: This is why your battery drops 10-15% in the first 20 minutes

Old topic i know. I just got the EVO a few days ago (upgraded from Optimus S) and noticed after "fully charging, phone off" that my battery dropped 10-15% within 20 to 30 min with minimal usage. I plugged my phone into wall outlet (phone off, until the light turned green, then unplugged it until the light went away, then plugged it back in (light is orange this time), i did this around 10-13 times, now i turned on my phone and battery meter has yet to drop 1% within 20 min (showing 100%) Currently running gingerbread-evo-deck-1.3

 

[MikeyrInFL#AC]

Re: This is why your battery drops 10-15% in the first 20 minutes

When I say the circuitry, I mean the actual hardware that is directly monitoring the battery itself, not the software running on the phone.

I am more inclined to believe its the first one. I would like to know if the same problem with battery drop exists on other HTC phones. Since the batteries are interchangable with other HTC phones I would like to charge my battery in one of those devices or use a battery that was charged in one in my phone and see if I experience the same phenomenon.

Food for thought.

Also I wonder if a dedicated battery charger works any differently for these batteries / phones. Don't know if I would want to remove my battery every day or couple days and have to pop that back cover off, it already looks fragile enough as it is.

I remove my battery cover at least once a week and have for months. There have been no problems at all. Obviously, the cover could be damaged if mishandled or otherwise mistreated. Workaround: don't.

 

[MikeyrInFL#AC]

Re: This is why your battery drops 10-15% in the first 20 minutes

Old topic i know. I just got the EVO a few days ago (upgraded from Optimus S) and noticed after "fully charging, phone off" that my battery dropped 10-15% within 20 to 30 min with minimal usage. I plugged my phone into wall outlet (phone off, until the light turned green, then unplugged it until the light went away, then plugged it back in (light is orange this time), i did this around 10-13 times, now i turned on my phone and battery meter has yet to drop 1% within 20 min (showing 100%) Currently running gingerbread-evo-deck-1.3

Your comments sounded familiar to me, then I remembered reading a post about EVO 4G batteries on another forum. Your procedure is somewhat similar (but different) to what that guy suggested as "battery conditioning." His suggestion did not work for me nor did it work for a couple of my friends with EVO 4Gs. So I decided to try your suggested procedure. O

I tried your workaround of unplugging and then quickly recharging as soon as the led goes out a dozen times or so. While doing this, here are some things I noticed:

• The fact that the led is green and when it goes out turns yellow as soon as you plug in A/C power creates suspicion about the efficiency of both the hardware and the OS.
• Each of these recharging cycles seems to be shorter as you proceed with multiple recharging cycles.
• I will be interested to see whether or not I ever reach a point where the led remains green when reconnected to AC power. After a dozen cycles this did not happen. (yet?)

My final point is simple. If this procedure works to recondition the battery and charging process so that it is more effective and the battery charge no longer drops significantly in the first 20 minutes, then it's a great thing. If it is necessary to do this every time you charge the phone, then it's a great PITA.

I may re-post once I determine which is the case.
---------------------------------------------------
HERE IS THE RE-POST I PROMISED:

I have experimented with "battery conditioning," "topping off" and changing wall chargers. Here is what I have determined through a process of elimination. First, I should say that everyone's EVO 4G is different due to downloaded apps and other configuration elements. Everyone's solution may also vary but I believe my findings will apply to a broad range of users.

Many users have experienced a rapid drop in battery charge within the first 10 - 20 minutes of taking their phones off the wall charger - this seems to occur primarily when the phone is left on the charger overnight. As a result, many users start their day with anywhere from a 10% to a 20% battery handicap.

It is undeniable that the phone and wall charger work in such a way that when the phone reaches 100% charge, the phone goes onto battery use with no trickle charge at all. Your phone is running on battery. The drop of 10% - 20% in the first 10 - 20 minutes is not actually a drop; rather, it appears this is the phone going to the true battery charge that was initially misreported.

"Topping Off" works to a limited extent, especially if the phone is removed from the charger just as soon as the led goes green. I strongly suspect the same is true of the original charging session; that is, if the phone is removed from the charger just as soon as the led goes green. (hard to do if you're asleep)

I also suspect that what is described as "battery conditioning" also works because the phone is removed from the charger just as soon as the led goes green.

The last item I looked into was the wall charger itself. I read a post by someone (I wish I had noted the name so I could give credit) who suggested these problems seem to go away when you stop using the OEM HTC wall charger. Like me, that user also had some Palm Pre wall chargers that he used. In my case, I also have some cheap aftermarket Chinese wall chargers. Using a process of elimination I have confirmed to my own satisfaction that when using the OEM HTC wall charger this initial drop in battery during the first 10 - 20 minutes is the most pronounced. When I used either my Palm Pre or the cheap aftermarket wall chargers, the problem was entirely eliminated. I strongly believe that HTC has a problem it should address with its OEM wall charger. Ironically, you can buy inexpensive aftermarket wall chargers for less than $10 that will cure this problem.

I now reserve that cable for PC connection and no longer use it for charging my phone.