Dead battery again. Question...

[higge]

Hey all,

My S4 is killing batteries in three month period. I now have ordered third battery and that raises one question. I'm aware that I have bad batteries like samsung announced while ago but could the reason be:

I haven't done any hard resets after updates, and now after second update (kitkat) the battery died again, physically. It gets very hot and it is like a balloon. Could the hard reset, or lack of it, be the reason why batteries don't last? And believe me, my carrier is laughing me out of the shop when I say it is not my fault when battery is not working. "we have never heard of any problems with s4"... Well, I have enough to buy a new battery few times a year.

 

[Rukbat]

Could the hard reset, or lack of it, be the reason why batteries don't last?

No, that's a software issue, and batteries don't care about software. (Unless the reset or lack of it is causing a software issue.) Either something is draining the battery very fast or the battery is defective. Run an app like GSam Battery Monitor to see what's happening.

 

[itsallgood]

You say it blow up like a balloon. What is the phone doing when it gets hot?

 

[lotus49]

I'd say there are two possibilities here. Either you have been very unlucky and have had several bad batteries (there have been reports of batteries doing this but you would have had to have been very unlucky) or some software on your phone is draining the battery very quickly and damaging it.

Neither seems very likely but I'd suggest you buy a battery that you are sure is a genuine Samsung battery, back up all your data and hard reset your phone and see how you get on from there.

 

[Griff_LI]

Lotus may be right but I have to admit I thought Li-Ion battery bloat was caused by charging not discharging. Basically too much current in is bad. If you've had three batteries (and they were genuine parts) bloat then I might be worried the charging circuit has got an issue (and is letting too much current in).

You could try using a old charger from a different phone (since the S4 charger outputs 2A and older chargers only managed 1A) with (another) new battery. If it doesn't show the problem for a few months you could go back to the high-power charger and see if the battery dies again. At that point you'd have enough evidence that the charging circuit being broken (or the charger I guess).

As a caveat I should say the S4 manual says ONLY use the charger supplied so your milage may vary - I've never had a problem with my HTC Desire's charger or the Brodit active mount I have in my car (both of which output 1A). Your phone will also charge slower.

 

[higge]

Thanks for the answers. I may have been unlucky and I can beleive that too. All batteries has been originals, so that should be ok. I ordered two more batteries now, both china versions and will check them out too. But, I have not charged my phone more than is enough, using original charger, one from my htc sensation and one from my work phone, Nokia. Never ever had any problems with them. But as I recall, the problem MAY have started after one night when the phone was over night in the charger. That happened only one time but it may have been the reason.

I've had several HTC phones with no problems over night charging. Then again, it may be the bad battery.