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Help S3 drawing LOTS of current.

Palmetto Fellow

Palmetto Fellow

Android Expert
So for the first week or so I've been following my battery performance with battery monitor widget. I noticed that when sleeping it would draw only like 15-40 MA for the most part. Using the phone with the screen on would draw 300-400mA. If I used navigation and left the screen on, I could draw up to 1000mA.

Today I switched to the Gorilla Gadgets 4500 mAh battery. I was drawing 400mA while sleeping at times, and eventually it dropped to like 38mA when I got home and got on Wi-Fi. Maybe my signal was low and that's why it drew so much current.

Just a few minutes ago, I started using my phone and in less than 5 minutes, it went from 38mA to 1388mA draw. This is unprecedented.

I can't figure out how a different battery would cause the phone to draw so much more current. Do you think battery monitor widget could be wrong? Had anyone else noticed a major increase in current draw after moving to an extended battery?

I also rooted but haven't installed a custom ROM since putting in the battery.
 
Did you change the settings in bmw to let it know what the new battery specs are?
The battery capacity in Mah?
It may take a few charge/discharge cycles to register properly too:)
 
I changed capacity to 4500. Is there anything else I need to do?
I'll go through the full break-in period recommended by Gorilla Gadgets and see what happens. I just figured something like measuring current draw would be independent of the calibration.
 
Tbh im not sure, maybe it is independant but maybe it all goes through stock sensors which have to go through the stock kernel which isnt calibrated for that battery.
Hope it sorts itself out though


EDIT bit off topic but is that app/widget recommended? Does it use much resources?
 
When do you think I'll start to see the capacity of this battery? I'm starting to think that something's wrong. I'm on my 4th cycle, and I can't tell any difference between this battery and the stock one. I feel like putting the stock battery back in the phone as a test.

I am down to 61% after 2 hours, 47 minutes. I have 77% drain related to the screen, and 1 hour 30 minutes of screen on at full brightness.

Do these numbers seem right to you guys? It also takes less than 3 hours to charge the battery from 0% to 100%...which isn't physically possible with a 1 amp charger. Does the S3 charge faster than 1 amp? I'll give it 2 more charge cycles, and then I'm probably going to exchange it for another.

My EVO V has a 3400 mAh battery and that damn thing takes a good 5+ hours to charge to full. It also didn't require 4 strict charge cycles to get to that point either.
 
DragonSlayer95 said:
It shouldn't take that long, from 2%, it normally takes around 3-4 hours to fully charge my 7000mh battery.
Click to expand...


These numbers aren't adding up. I would have guessed that it would have taken you 6 hours or more to charge your battery to full. Aren't the chargers limited to 1 amp?

I did just think about how our chargers output 5V, not 3.7V (the nominal voltage of a lithium cell). So if my math is correct, I suppose that 1 amp at 5V is like 1.35 amps at 3.7V. If the electricity math works like that...then it should take only 3.3 hours to charge my battery, and 5.2 hours to charge yours. This would also mean that the stock battery takes only 1.5 hours to charge. I don't recall it being that fast...can anyone chime in?

So again, it's not adding up. I do know that my stock battery seems to last just as long though...but I have no concrete numbers...as like an idiot, I deleted my battery monitor widget's history when I changed batteries. It would be so easy to refer back to the history, but sadly...I am an idiot, so I can't :(
 
I cant remember my high school physics lol but youre right that a stock s3 will only draw 1A max of charging current :thumbup:
 
DragonSlayer95 said:
Or you could have just recieved a dud?

Food for thought.
Click to expand...

This is what I suspect as well. I'll be ordering a replacement this afternoon.

I did pull out the battery and test some things with the multimeter. I couldn't draw more than 1.06 amps. Battery Monitor Widget (BMW) frequently shows 1.7-2 amps of current drawn. I am starting to think every number I get for current from BMW is doubled. It's also shown it charging at up to 2 amps.

I don't recall seeing numbers like this on my EVO V with extended battery. Not sure what's going on here, but I am at the tail end of my 4th discharge cycle, and the battery does not show any signs of lasting longer than stock.

Here's where I am at right now. The 75% screen equates to 2h 31m at 100% brightness. I don't think there's a rogue app causing my problems as the other entries aren't accounting for that much drain.

Does anyone else run 100% brightness with either the stock battery or an extended battery? If so, what kind of times do you get?

 
ebahe4ad.jpg

Not sure why it's not showing all of my usage, but that's with wifi tether too and around 2 1/2 on screen.
 
DragonSlayer95 said:
Most of the time yes, sitting on 100 right now
Click to expand...

Interesting. That helps a lot actually.

Doing some calculations:

Your Phone:


18% battery used X 90% screen = 16% total battery used by screen
7000 mAh X 16% = 1120 mAh capacity used by your screen in 2.5 hours at 100% brightness.

My Phone:

64% battery used X 75% screen = 48% total battery used by screen
4500 mAh X 48% = 2160 mAh capacity used by my screen in 2.5 hours at 100% brightness.

How can your phone consume 1120mAh of capacity in 2.5 hours at 100% brightness while my phone consumes 2160 mAh of capacity in the same time at the same brightness?

It can't...so I believe my battery is only operating at half capacity...which would be pretty close to stock. :mad:

I've already ordered a replacement which should arrive tomorrow. I hope to have all this settled by the start of the weekend.
 
I haven't run BMW since I was on the LTEVo but I know that slept at -0 to -3 MA.

I imagine the s3 shouldn't be too different.

I've installed it, and will keep an eye on it throughout the day
 
Rxpert83 said:
I haven't run BMW since I was on the LTEVo but I know that slept at -0 to -3 MA.

I imagine the s3 shouldn't be too different.

I've installed it, and will keep an eye on it throughout the day
Click to expand...

What were your results BTW?

I got my replacement battery and let it charge in the phone all night with the phone off. This morning at like 7am I unplugged it. I am at 51% at 11 pm with a couple of hours at 100% brightness.

I screwed up by plugging my phone into a USB port for less than a minute to see if I could format my SD card. This reset the phone's battery stats, so it threw off my test...though I can tell the battery is lasting as long as it should. Too bad I had to waste 4 days on the original one which slipped past quality control.

At some point tomorrow, the battery will run out and I can begin charging it. I expect it to take at least 4 hours to charge...maybe a little more.
 
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