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Help HTC Evo 3D Voltage/Heat Issues

Does your 3vo get hot under the following charging conditions? (click choices in wall _and_ USB)

  • YES - when using the wall charger, my phone gets hot

    Votes: 33 24.8%

  • NO - when using the wall charger, my phone stays cool

    Votes: 59 44.4%

  • MAYBE - when using the wall charger, mine is sometime hot, sometime not

    Votes: 35 26.3%

  • YES - when using USB/computer, my phone gets hot

    Votes: 15 11.3%

  • NO - when using USB/computer, my phone stays cool

    Votes: 55 41.4%

  • MAYBE - when using USB/computer, mine is sometime hot, sometime not

    Votes: 20 15.0%
  • Total voters
    133
falconey said:
Ok this morning I woke up and my phone was 128 degrees F. I literally dropped the phone on the bed it was so hot. My house temp was 75 degrees. I sat it on my mini fan and it cooled off after about 5 minutes. My 30 days have passed, but I think I should get a new device. What's you guys opinion.
Click to expand...

Did it start to melt? I don't think I've ever seen any of my devices, outside of my gaming PC's video cards, ever go over 50 C. (128 F = 53.3 C) And the video cards have massive heat sinks and such on them.

One thing I've noticed is that my phone seems to charge cooler if you leave it screen up. The bezel around the screen acts as a heat sink, so does the bezel around the camera. The screen has far more surface area, so having screen face up seems to help heat dissipation far more than face down.
 
I was experimenting with pushing some limits on my phone last night with a bunch of beta apps.

I picked it up on charger and found it was unusually warm for the circumstance.

I popped up SystemPanel (Lite version is free) and found that both cores were running at 100%, all user mode stuff.

I restarted the phone and removed the new apps.

Never underestimate rogue app behavior.
 
EarlyMon said:
I was experimenting with pushing some limits on my phone last night with a bunch of beta apps.

I picked it up on charger and found it was unusually warm for the circumstance.

I popped up SystemPanel (Lite version is free) and found that both cores were running at 100%, all user mode stuff.

I restarted the phone and removed the new apps.

Never underestimate rogue app behavior.
Click to expand...

I had the same problem, but with battery life rather than temperature. Some of the new apps I installed were not idling in the background like they should have. So, they chewed up battery. Bye bye apps.
 
jerofld said:
Did it start to melt? I don't think I've ever seen any of my devices, outside of my gaming PC's video cards, ever go over 50 C. (128 F = 53.3 C) And the video cards have massive heat sinks and such on them.

One thing I've noticed is that my phone seems to charge cooler if you leave it screen up. The bezel around the screen acts as a heat sink, so does the bezel around the camera. The screen has far more surface area, so having screen face up seems to help heat dissipation far more than face down.
Click to expand...
No melting that I'm aware of, maybe internally. The temperature was just short of burning my hand.
 
Mine charges around 90-99F. I assumed a little heat was normal when charging because all my past phones have gotten warmer as they charged. Should I be concerned?

Normal idle temp for my phone is 75-85. (Room Temp)
 
I did get a battery overheat warning after playing Pocket Legends for a couple hours while on the charger. Took it off the charger and the overheat warning went away.
 
I guess the question is; How hot is too hot? What is "normal"?

Mine just popped up to 103.7F (39.8C) after installing Handcent, uninstalling Hancent, and a reboot. Hrmm... It's back down to 88-92F now. That was odd. It was only that hot for a moment, but the original question is still a good question.

So:
  • How hot is too hot?
  • What is "normal" resting temperature?
  • What is "normal" extended use temperature?
  • What is "normal" for a temperature spike under extremely heavy load?
  • Should our temperature change naturally while being charged?
  • If we notice our phones are running hot, how long should we let them run hot before putting them down & letting them cool?
  • Should the base temperatures of the answers to the questions above be adjusted for on-charger scenarios?

Of course, all those questions should take into consideration the ambient room temperature. I know with a gaming computer build in the overclocking world you know what temperatures your CPU or GPU should run under "normal" ambient temperatures. (IE "Room Temp") Also, you know very specifically what the utmost upper limit is in addition to how long they should run at any given abnormal temperature. I'm not sure if those type of rules apply since computer CPU/GPUs have cooling systems, whereas our phones do not.
 
The highest I've seen on mine was 109F (42.7C). I was playing an intensive game while on charger. Is that too hot? It didn't seem that hot to the touch and no warning came up.
 
One of the most stressful tests you can place on your phone is simply to use the Google Navigation app. This requires the radio to work really hard to pick up on the satellites, and it requires a lot of CPU power to process that stream of data and translate it into a location on a dynamically changing Google map. It's not uncommon for the phone to hit 50C or higher, especially if you are navigating for over an hour and/or ambient temp is high and/or you have a highly insulated case (phone wrapped in silicone). If you test this while stationary, the battery usage is not as bad.

In terms of phone circuitry, the heat is not a concern until you are getting close to 80C. Most chips are designed to handle that temp as an upper threshold. However, Li-ion batteries don't like that kind of heat. It favors a chemical reaction that permanently reduces the capacity of the battery. So a phone that is often hot means a battery that loses its longevity quicker. You may need to by a replacement battery or two.

There's also a built-in protection where your phone will prevent charging if the battery temp is above a certain level, around 50C. I've hit this threshold using Navigation, and that means the only way to charge the phone is to temporarily stop Nav, run the phone through the A/C vent to cool it off, and then try again.
 
My phone occasionally goes over 105F+. The hottest I've seen it get is 117* to the point where LED was flashing red/green.

I've noticed some times when I'm talking on the phone, it will get hot to the point where I can't even hold it to my face
 
Will the phone operate on external power without a battery? Might be an option for long trips using navigation or a long gaming session.
 
RedRabbit said:
Will the phone operate on external power without a battery? Might be an option for long trips using navigation or a long gaming session.
Click to expand...

Nope. Just tried USB power and AC power without a battery. Phone won't turn on or go to HBOOT. However, I did notice that the LED was blinking red. It blinks 5 times very faintly (go to a dark room or cup your hand over it). I suspect there's some sort of low power mode that's not intended for the end user... maybe a way to reflash the internal memory if the phone is bricked, for example...
 
novox77 said:
Nope. Just tried USB power and AC power without a battery. Phone won't turn on or go to HBOOT. However, I did notice that the LED was blinking red. It blinks 5 times very faintly (go to a dark room or cup your hand over it). I suspect there's some sort of low power mode that's not intended for the end user... maybe a way to reflash the internal memory if the phone is bricked, for example...
Click to expand...

Interesting idea about a low power mode. I've noticed the faint LED blink before. It blinks once on regular restarts with the battery installed and hooked up to power, then the LED kicks into regular charging.

When plugged into the wall with the battery removed mine faint blinked about 10 times. And then I unplugged it and plugged it in again and it continues faint blinking without stopping for a long while. Then I put the battery back in and it won't show a charge light until I unplug and re-plug in again.

I wonder if it is showing a "ping" of the hardware, searching for a battery? If it comes back battery true it will kick into full charging and potentially allows a full boot? If it come back battery false after a series of pings it won't allow charging. Could it be some kind of safety feature so that power is not being drawn that does not need to be? Or could it be a diagnostic status light for service centers? Showing that the phone has fully functioning hardware, able to receive power and start up normally?

How curious. Some things we will never know.

---edit---
When plugged into the PC via USB the faint blinking seemingly never stopped. Installed the battery and then it showed a regular charging light like normal.
 
I traded in the Photon after only 6 days..... then wrote a thread about how awful it was. An absolute software nightmare.

Nevertheless.... loving the EVO 3d... just as I've loved the EVO for the past 2 years.

Had it 2 weeks now... the first week was great... then I started noticing it was consistently very warm when using it.

Today.... It was BURNING UP (literally HOT, not warm).. and it ate the battery from 100% to 30% in 2 hours, and the screen was never on.

It seems to cool down a little when I plug in the charger... but it is still warmer that Id like it to be.

Thoughts? Bad battery? Bad phone? Bad user?

Suggestions?
 
Is there any background processes running? Do you have a good signal where you are?

These are 2 possible things that will drain your battery fast?
 
madmax2k1 said:
Is there any background processes running? Do you have a good signal where you are?

These are 2 possible things that will drain your battery fast?
Click to expand...

Yes, I definitely have a good signal. Not sure about any background processes. I don't "think" so.... I had a task killer on it. I deleted it, thinking that might be the problem though.

Between the time I posted this, and now.... my new 3600 Mah battery showed up... so I've replaced it, and I'm currently letting it charge again. Nice and cool now after a shutdown/restart/charge.

I hate to bring it back... I LOVE this phone, and everything works perfectly on it (unlike the photon).... I think maybe I just got a dud battery?

Suggestions on how/what to check should this happen again?
 
ninefourteener said:
I traded in the Photon after only 6 days..... then wrote a thread about how awful it was. An absolute software nightmare.

Nevertheless.... loving the EVO 3d... just as I've loved the EVO for the past 2 years.

Had it 2 weeks now... the first week was great... then I started noticing it was consistently very warm when using it.

Today.... It was BURNING UP (literally HOT, not warm).. and it ate the battery from 100% to 30% in 2 hours, and the screen was never on.

It seems to cool down a little when I plug in the charger... but it is still warmer that Id like it to be.

Thoughts? Bad battery? Bad phone? Bad user?

Suggestions?
Click to expand...

This happened to me twice also. But I was in the same general area I always am with a good signal. It hasnt happened in a while but it was strange. I also didnt notice anything running in the background. It was still pretty much stock then with hardly any 3rd party apps on it. Has been ok since the last episode and all seems normal. HMMMMM.... strange.
 
I just got my EVO 3D two days ago. The first day I used it I’ve noticed the phone is hotter than usual (I have the EVO Shift & 4G and I don’t remember it ever being hot unless I used it intensively while is being charged). I normally just use it for music, browsing the web, WIFI, streaming video, gaming. The phone either warm up or gets kind of hot the first 5-10 minutes every time I used it. Is that normal? I don’t have any problems with charging it; it doesn’t get hot or whatsoever although I notice the voltage does seem to get above 4200mV. I’ve use the EVO 4g and EVO shift and I don’t remember it ever being warm or hot the first 5-10 minutes. I just download battery monitor apps and will post up the log later. Just want to make sure my device is not defected.
 
This has happened twice to me. The last time was a couple of days ago on Saturday. The first time was a Saturday also. Strange. I had nothing running in the background both times. I even had mobile data off.
 
I was talking, playing a game, and downloading a Market update today and mine got up to 116F (47C). Pretty crazy! That's the hottest I've ever seen it.

Since I have the insurance plan on mine I don't really worry about these things. I assume it's been designed to run all it's radios at once & perform how it's supposed to. I hope I don't regret that lol
 
Well I finally got tired of my phone heating up and I took it into the Sprint store. They replaced my phone. Lets see if this phone is any better.
 
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