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Help Help! Battery meter problems

R

ryancalif

Member
I purchased an extended battery weeks ago (Qcell 4200mah) and have been pleased with the battery life so far. Big improvement over the stock battery...

Problem is, as soon as I unplug the charger, the battery level drops to around 87% immediately. It then drops at a normal rate until around 5%, and past that it takes forever to kill the phone.

It seems like the phone needs to be calibrated with the battery. I've done the recommended steps of draining it completely, then recharging to 100%, then draining it again and fully charging it. Still no luck. I do notice that if I plug the phone BACK in to charge after it drops to 87%, charge it to 100%, then unplug... it seems to drop at a normal rate from 100% like it should.

Any tips? I prefer not having to root my phone and get special software to do this. Thanks
 
Turn off your phone
Press volume up + home + power to boot into recovery
Wipe battery stats
Reboot phone

Your phone probably needs to learn your battery capacity again and how to measure the level and display it correctly.
 
XplosiV said:
Turn off your phone
Press volume up + home + power to boot into recovery
Wipe battery stats
Reboot phone

Your phone probably needs to learn your battery capacity again and how to measure the level and display it correctly.
Click to expand...

Exactly. But only if the extended batt is all youre gona use n not chop and change. The phone would learn eventualy anyway.
Theres a non root app on the market "battery calibration" (theres a lot of root ones too) but basicly charge your battery to beyond 100%. Like leave it an extra hour. Then do as above user says then let battery totaly discharge.
Only do this if extended batt' is gona be your main one
 
Right. Changing out batteries in these devices can confuse the user and the device. ;) As said above, go through the calibration process with each one.. or, use only one for a long time and eventually you'll see the actual battery life match the displayed percentages. But sometimes even that will make the user wonder about accuracy. ;)
 
funkylogik said:
Exactly. But only if the extended batt is all youre gona use n not chop and change. The phone would learn eventualy anyway.
Theres a non root app on the market "battery calibration" (theres a lot of root ones too) but basicly charge your battery to beyond 100%. Like leave it an extra hour. Then do as above user says then let battery totaly discharge.
Only do this if extended batt' is gona be your main one
Click to expand...

It's should be fairly simple math. (as far as charge time goes at least)

A standard S3 battery = 2100 ma/h
A standard S3 charger = 1.0a

Charge time = capacity divided by supplied amperage giving you 1 hour to charge 1000ma/h meaning just over 2 hours to charge a 2100ma/h battery.

If the charger was 0.7a it would be 2100/.07 = 3 hours.

To charge a 4200ma/h battery on a 1.0a charger "should" take 4 hours and 12? Minutes? Where as with a 0.7a charger it would take 6 hours.

This info may be useful to people with multiple chargers, who might want to have their phone charge longer but slower overnight while they sleep using an older charger. With an output of 0.5a charger next to your bed, you'll wake up to a not long finished charging battery, while you can keep your supplied 1.0a charger somewhere else more time critical like the living room or at work where you know you can go from 15% to full in 2 hours (assuming you start charging when you get the warning)

Just throwing it out there.

Personally having invested in a high capacity battery, I wouldn't bother chopping and changing, I'd just stick to it and be happy. But each to their own.
 
I'm just using one battery.

Also, after doing some research, some people are saying that wiping the batterystats file is pure myth when trying to calibrate the meter. Do you guys agree?

Turn off your phone
Press volume up + home + power to boot into recovery
Wipe battery stats
Reboot phone
Click to expand...

Barring what I said above, how do I get out of recovery mode? Where do I wipe battery stats? Is there an option to do so on the phone?

I haven't tried it yet, so I'm just asking.

Thanks guys, keep the tips coming!
 
XplosiV said:
It's should be fairly simple math. (as far as charge time goes at least)

A standard S3 battery = 2100 ma/h
A standard S3 charger = 1.0a

Charge time = capacity divided by supplied amperage giving you 1 hour to charge 1000ma/h meaning just over 2 hours to charge a 2100ma/h battery.

If the charger was 0.7a it would be 2100/.07 = 3 hours.

To charge a 4200ma/h battery on a 1.0a charger "should" take 4 hours and 12? Minutes? Where as with a 0.7a charger it would take 6 hours.

This info may be useful to people with multiple chargers, who might want to have their phone charge longer but slower overnight while they sleep using an older charger. With an output of 0.5a charger next to your bed, you'll wake up to a not long finished charging battery, while you can keep your supplied 1.0a charger somewhere else more time critical like the living room or at work where you know you can go from 15% to full in 2 hours (assuming you start charging when you get the warning)

Just throwing it out there.

Personally having invested in a high capacity battery, I wouldn't bother chopping and changing, I'd just stick to it and be happy. But each to their own.
Click to expand...

My fiance says thanks..... now she has to clean my brain off the walls and ceiling lol.
Im naturaly a physics man, the mathematics let me down :)
 
... Also, I don't need a mod or anything to boot in recovery mode and wipe battery stats right?

Phone is stock right now... hoping to keep it that way.
 
ryancalif said:
I'm just using one battery.

Also, after doing some research, some people are saying that wiping the batterystats file is pure myth when trying to calibrate the meter. Do you guys agree?



Barring what I said above, how do I get out of recovery mode? Where do I wipe battery stats? Is there an option to do so on the phone?

I haven't tried it yet, so I'm just asking.

Thanks guys, keep the tips coming!
Click to expand...

Recovery mode is just a list of text options.

Navigate by using volume up or down to go up or down the list, press power to select.

So press volume down until "wipe battery stats" is selected, press power, you'll see working text at the bottom of the screen (like "wiping stats"..." battery stats wiped - thank you have a nice day" - not that but you get the idea I hope) the phone will revert to the next menu? (or might stay on the original menu) press volume up until "reboot phone" is selected then press power.
 
I cant remember for sure but in stock recovery there should be a "reboot option"
Theres defo a non root app (search for battery calibrate)

It used to be common practice to calibrate after flashing a rom but experts have told me its not needed.

Before i rooted, i used the non-root battery calibrator n it said i was 8% inacurate. Now when i unplug, the indicator stays at 100% for minutes before it drops to 99. Android will learn though if you let it, over time though so its up to u :)

My own theory is that when a smartphone "thinks" the battery is about to die, itl shut down while it stil has enough power instead of just dying like a dumbphone so if calibration is wrong it could shut down too early but all the clever folk poopoo my theory lol :)
 
funkylogik said:
My fiance says thanks..... now she has to clean my brain off the walls and ceiling lol.
Im naturaly a physics man, the mathematics let me down :)
Click to expand...

Lolz :thumb:

ryancalif said:
... Also, I don't need a mod or anything to boot in recovery mode and wipe battery stats right?

Phone is stock right now... hoping to keep it that way.
Click to expand...

No mod required. You'll still be stock (bar the new battery) it's just an implementation that's now included as android has evolved. It's a stock basic recovery mode that let's you do a few things.

If you have no idea what the other items listed do, DON'T TOUCH THEM!

Ask here first. Most are happy to help and spread the droid love :)
 
As above. DONT touch what you dont understand. It should give you a yes/no confirmation though.
Just charge to over full 1st
 
Right on guys, I'll give it a shot when I get back to my car! (where my phone's at)

One more thing though, does the phone need to be fully charged before wiping the stats?
 
ryancalif said:
Right on guys, I'll give it a shot when I get back to my car! (where my phone's at)

One more thing though, does the phone need to be fully charged before wiping the stats?
Click to expand...

No it makes no difference.

All battery stats are, is like a record of how long the charge lasted and what apps/hardware used how much juice.

Your effectively just wiping that info so the android Ai learns from scratch.
 
Alright, so I went in to recovery mode and didn't see an immediate option for "wipe battery stats"...

the closest thing I saw was "wipe data/factory reset". Is there a sub-menu under this one for battery stats? Since I wasn't sure, I didn't want to click on it and then be unable able to get out without resetting the phone.
 
Does the stock recovery even have that option? I don't recall it having anything similar. I was TWRP and it doesn't have the option as well, also, if I am not mistaken, latest builds of CWM don't have that option either.

Don't press on "Wipe/Factory Reset", it's for factory resetting the phone.
 
^^ Screw it then, I'll just let it recalibrate on it's own.

When I let it drain do I need to let it drain completely or just to the low warning window pops up?

Thanks gents!
 
The sub option should have worked but as the dude above says, i cant remember stock recovery.
Id have thought after you repset battery stats, there would be a back option until you get to reboot but it is a bit scary coz youre raw into the actual system using volume and power button to navigate lol. Its not designed to be user friendly :)
 
Well, I let the battery drop to 0% again, recharged to 100%, pulled the plug and it drops to 88% right away. :(

It's like the battery meter isn't learning the battery at all. Battery life is great though, just the stupid meter.

Any ideas how many cycles it takes for the phone to learn? Or do I just have to live with it like this?
 
try bump charging: when the Battery shows 100% disconnect the charges and then reconnect. Do it several times and see if that teaches Android where it should be.

JM
 
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