Why is my HTC One Mini shutting itself off for "low battery" at 95% power?

[AC Question]

Hi there, I have an HTC One Mini on Verizon that I've been using for over a year and a half now with very few problems. However, over the last several months I've been having an increasingly severe problem with its battery. It's *not* just that the battery is draining quickly from app use or searching for a signal or anything -- the battery indicator on the phone will claim to be between 80-95% power, where I would expect to be given the level of use, but then it suddenly shuts itself off. Sometimes it does this so quickly it doesn't even manage to flash the 0% battery warning at me. Plugging it into the charger at this time usually displays between 0-10% battery.

This was a pretty minor problem at first; it would shut itself off at ~40%, then a few weeks later it would start doing so at 60%, etc. It's currently at the point where it will usually shut itself off after having the screen on for five minutes while the battery is discharging.

I have an external battery pack that I've been using to keep the phone alive, and it uses "smart charging" where it will automatically stop charging a device when it detects that the battery is full. When this happens, the battery pack flashes and the phone screen comes on. I have seen the battery flash out of the corner of my eye, then immediately checked the phone and see that it claims to be at 25% battery after literally seconds of discharging. Restarting the battery pack at this time immediately changes it to 99%.

I don't have tasker or any other battery life apps installed on the phone, and I'm running KitKat. The builtin diagnostics on the phone claim that the battery is working perfectly, but I am just about at my wit's end. I live in a small town with a hella sketchy Verizon store, so I'm not certain that they could help, and I haven't been able to find any other threads where people have had this problem.

Thanks!!

 

[belodion]

Have you considered a new battery? It could be that, in spite of the built-in health diagnosis.

 

[shrkttck]

I have considered it, but the problem is that the battery isn't meant to be user-accessible. It requires melting the glue in the case and then disassembling like half the phone, and I'm just not comfortable doing that!

 

[belodion]

Welcome as a new member.

Yes, I see your point. I'm no expert on batteries, but I believe that sudden apparent or real battery discharges or power-downs can indicate a dendritic short in the battery, or some other problem. However, I'll pass this on to others in the hope that they will be able to suggest another fix.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Golfdriver97]

I'm inclined to agree that the battery has gone bad. Are there any local repair shops that can do this?

 

[srkmagnus]

I didn't see that you tried a factory reset. If you haven't give that try and see if that works. It does sound like a battery issue. In the case that it isn't, the reset will clear out the software bug if it's not hardware related.

 

[shrkttck]

Thanks for the suggestions, folks. I'm not ready to do a factory reset just yet, but hopefully it will clear up the problem.

 

[Mike blakesseven]

Had this issue battery replacement bud even though battery apps will say healthy mine did same thing random shut downs plug back in after 80% just straight to zero % battery since I had my battery changed getting near 2 days med use.