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Help Phone Shutting off randomly?

I didn't mean to imply I ever let them get fully depleted.. we're talking 50-60% here at most. I never leave home, so previous policy was almost always plugged in. It is just a theory, but .. You know, until this phone dies, I'm happy and don't care ;). I've speculated long enough. My intuitive senses tell me it is battery overcharging allowed by either a hardware or software defect, causing battery voltage inconsistencies, particularly when in a partial sleep state, there-by causing this defect. Since I once had it cut off in a call, I know it isn't only in sleep states that it occurs, but also in non-sleep states. However, sleep states make it more likely, from experience.. or it could be simply the length of time that makes the shut off more likely.

Doesn't matter to me for now. I swear if this one shuts off, then I'll have to assume they have no fix for it and that is the reason for the firmware delay, and they probably still don't know the actual cause.
 
And I hadn't done any voltage measurements on the battery, I see you did.. but at what amperage? That may be the more relevant factor. This is outside my realm of expertise and I'm using my psychic intuition here ;o. It just seems like the only thing that would change over time, besides user data ...
 
BUT!! I forgot they sent me a [presumably] new battery and it didn't even work for 2 hours without shutting off. So.... some component of the hardware involving power control gets progressively more damaged due to battery problems? Geez. You know, the whole thing just is weird, it is no wonder they have had trouble fixing it. I'd hate to be the one figuring this one out even with every debugging tool known to man at my fingertips. This would be the worst kind of bug. It happens, sometimes, to some people (I guess some, if it was all surely they would have a larger problem?!?), after a period of time... WTF
 
I exchanged my phone 2 days ago and so far, no shutdowns. My previous Captivate was manufactured Aug. 12. The new one was manufactured after November 6th. - The date on the service bulletin. So I'm hoping whatever changed resolves this problem.

Mark
 
Yea, 3 days and no shutdowns here. Let's hope it stays that way. I was very happy to wake up with my phone still alive (and not plugged in). Very nice.
 
Those of you who've exchanged your phone for the random powering off issue, if your phone seems to be working now, could you identify when your phone was manufactured? Also, was it a new phone exchange or a refurbished unit?

Also, on the newer phones, does the GPS lock up to the satellites faster than the old ones? I seem to have found a workaround for the slow lock up issue. Works on my phone, anyway.
 
SamsungCaptivated said:
Those of you who've exchanged your phone for the random powering off issue, if your phone seems to be working now, could you identify when your phone was manufactured? Also, was it a new phone exchange or a refurbished unit?
Click to expand...

I think I am still your best test subject here ;). I just got the replacement unit. If it has been fixed, we'll know. The manufacture date I maybe can determine. It is just a piece of tape on the box, after all. It is just that they supplied me with a little strange of shipping tape and that's all the shipping tape I have, lol.

I swear man, having a phone that actually works .. is, well, like a dream (again). When I first got this thing I was in heaven, before the trouble. Now, I can actually RELY on it. No more missed phone calls, texts, and emails. For now anyway.

For some reason I have a feeling that if I continue moderate charging habits, as opposed to aggressive ones, then it will be ok. That's my psychic intuition again ;). We'll see how it turns out.

I still aggressively charge my Tab, but that should be good for properly manufactured hardware and software that prevents over-charge conditions and other problems.
 
Oh, and you ever notice that note to 'Unplug your device. The power is fully charged' notice in the Captivate? I always did so, but maybe they added that because of this... I mean, I've never seen such a recommendation to unplug before. OTOH, could be part of a green initiative.
 
jc, I'm inclined to believe the message to unplug the device is more of a green initiative thing. All chargers (for that matter, any electronic device plugged into the outlet) have small parasitic power drain from the outlet even when not charging anything. As for all modern electronic devices which is designed to charge internal batteries, they should have a limiter circuit that goes into trickle charging or completely shuts off the charging cycle when it detects the battery has reached full charge. The Captivate phone should be no different. Otherwise, you'd know real soon that there is no charger limiter because your battery would quickly overheat from the constant flow of current. I don't think Samsung would have been that dumb to forget to include a charger cutoff when the battery reaches full.

Here's interesting battery info, if you care to look into it...

Charging lithium-ion batteries
 
SamsungCaptivated said:
jc, I'm inclined to believe the message to unplug the device is more of a green initiative thing.[/url]
Click to expand...

Yea, I agree, and even had thrown that theory out there.. was just one of those random thoughts/theories. Toss that one out. I will read up on the charging, though already read up on the basics just the other day. Since swapping the battery didn't work to fix my broken phone, I can only surmise that either the battery was already used and damaged or the hardware circuitry in the phone had become damaged. Maybe it is a capacitor going out, for instance.. who knows. I mean, that would also affect voltage delivery to the phone.
 
BTW, from I had previously read the amount these chargers typically drain is so small (when not in use) that we probably waste more electricity talking about unplugging them, lol. They really need to take care of this on the manufacturing side, as nobody is going to constantly unplug/plug their AC->DC adaptors to save $0.01 on their electric bill every month. Dunno if that was true or not, should research before repeating but I'm 'busy' (yea, as I post here ;p)
 
Ive been following this thread for a while, I decided to join to let you guys know how it went for me. I bought a Captivate about 2 months ago, and started experiencing problems over 3 weeks ago. I would charge before bed and in the morning it would be off (twice I was late for work). After trying many of the solutions here, I just decided to exchange it. Went to ATT Device center, and in 5min the lady told me I needed replacement. Very easy to do this. She told me it wasnt new device and might have parts that had been replaced. So far the new one is working ok, I think GPS might be better, for some reason it vibrates a little harder now. My only complaint would be battery life. Now I get less battery life. I feel its secretly running CKA. So far (3 days) no shutdowns.
 
I'm on my third day with no shutdowns with my newly exchanged Captivate that has a production date later than what's in the service bulletin. The way to find the exact date of manufacture, go to Samsung support and click on register. Enter your IMEI and it will give you the date. My first one was manufactured Aug. 12, 2010. My new one was manufactured after the service bulletin date. I think it was Nov. 16, 2010. The bulletin says phones manufactured before Nov. 6th are the ones most affected. Hope this helps.

Mark
 
Day 4 no shutdowns.

You know, about the "Your device is charged, unplug now" warning. If it is a green initiative, why didn't they put it on the Tab too? Who knows. Who cares so long as my phone keeps working

To the previous poster: I have noticed no difference in battery life, so it may be the battery. In fact, I get great battery life. My Tab, OTH, doesn't get nearly as great battery life.
 
WOW, funny after just saying that.. I was using the Alarm clock this morning (afternoon, I work nights).. and just went find my phone hot as HELL and draining battery very fast. This was after I woke and hit the alarm. Strange. It was in a 100% CPU utilization look I suspect @ 100% CPU frequency scaling, causing that (I guess.. though even that shouldn't cause that kind of heat and rapid dissipation). I mean, it was discharging so fast I literaly watched the bars go down in the top icon, it was draining that fast. Kind of scared me. At that temp next was explosion/fire...
 
jcollake said:
WOW, funny after just saying that.. I was using the Alarm clock this morning (afternoon, I work nights).. and just went find my phone hot as HELL and draining battery very fast. This was after I woke and hit the alarm. Strange. It was in a 100% CPU utilization look I suspect @ 100% CPU frequency scaling, causing that (I guess.. though even that shouldn't cause that kind of heat and rapid dissipation). I mean, it was discharging so fast I literaly watched the bars go down in the top icon, it was draining that fast. Kind of scared me. At that temp next was explosion/fire...
Click to expand...


Sooo.... what happened? Did your phone recover or did it end up melting?
 
I suspect AT&T and Samsung may be working on a software work-around that is viable..perhaps one that operates something like CKA but with more battery preservation.. OR they are still searching for the cause BECAUSE the 2.2 update is delayed AGAIN

They say due to the "unqiue complexities of the device". It being one of the models with fewer complexities (no Flash on Camera, no slide out keyboard, no in-facing camera if any have that)... I'd say they are working on this bug.

BTW, still good here ;)
 
SamsungCaptivated said:
Sooo.... what happened? Did your phone recover or did it end up melting?
Click to expand...

I turned phone off, swapped batteries ;). Kind of uninteresting there, no fire or explosion. It was on the couch and I swear it didn't take long to get to super-boiling. Maybe I (or the dog) was sleeping on it, causing the display to be active, I don't know. Something did cause it. When I found it though, it was alone, by itself, just hot as hell. It was scary. That just shows, again, how fast these batteries discharge. Anyone working with them needs to be careful I think, you might get a hell of a jolt or explosion if you shorted one.
 
I am familiar with lithium batteries and how quickly they can go from sitting there working like it should, to melting the plastic case it was installed in and emitting rather nasty amount of smoke and heat (i.e. flame). I had one short out on me in a battery case which I didn't know didn't have a safety circuitry in it. If you read up on lithium batteries you'll see that "responsible" manufacturers put safety circuits in the battery pack to disconnect the battery in the event of a problem that develops internally. The safety circuit also prevents the battery from being charged too fast or being discharged too low.
 
Cheap manufacturers, what a surprise ;o. You wouldn't think someone would omit a component as critical as this, but ...
 
You have to understand, Samsung is not obligated to provide update for the current model of phones because as manufactured and provided by Samsung, it is in substantial compliance with their stated function and capability. If they had said "We WILL provide future OS upgrade" then you could argue that they would be out of compliance. All they said was that it is upgradable. I don't see any legal standing that would hold them accountable for not providing OS upgrade because there was no inferred promise that a newer version of Android OS WOULD BE PROVIDED in the future.

Example: When you bought your computer, you know you can upgrade the OS by purchasing the newer OS release and installing it in your computer. As the OS company releases newer software for the computer, you would not have any legal ground to force them (such as Microsoft) to provide you with a newer OS for free. The only time you would have ground to force them to provide an update is if there is substantial defect which prevents the OS from working as advertised. At this point, we all know there is GPS and powering off problem with the Captivate but there is no "proof" of substantial defect which would force Samsung to remedy it (they would also have to admit liability). Someone would have to document in a legal proceeding and demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt with repeatable results the defects in the phone to force Samsung to provide relief in a form of new OS upgrade and/or phone firmware upgrade to substantially fix the defect. Did that make any sense?
 
I understand and agree it would be legal for them not to supply an update. Whether or not a counter-argument could be made on the count of the defects on some models is debatable, but they aren't legally entitled to do shit.

However, they are morally obligated. Consumers vote with their wallets every day. And if they want to survive, they better get with the program. That's how I do business, and how I *expect* (but don't always get) everyone else to do business.
 
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