Related
This is not a guarantee of battery life extension or performance. These are merely steps (in most cases) to possibly help prolong and restore battery longevity.
First lets understand something about battery charging. The most common mistake is to overcharge a battery. While one is inclined to charge when they see the low battery message, overcharging is detrimental to the battery. This is not good for the life expectancy of your cell phone battery, especially if you are expecting longer life from your battery. Over charging heats the battery, and drains its life expectancy.
Second, it would appear that after flashing (ROM’s, Kernel’s etc.) multiple times, your battery might not hold a charge all that well. Trying these steps may help improve battery life.
> Turn the phone on. Plug in the charger (not the USB to computer) and charge completely> Disconnect the charger and turn off the phone> Once completely shut down, plug the charger back into the phone. Let the phone completely charge, while phone is off. In some cases the phone may give a tone when charged. You can check its status by touching the volume up or down> Once again unplug the phone from the charger> These next steps are curcial. 1.Turn the phone on (give it time to boot completely) 2. Power it off again. 3. Connect to the charger once again. 4. Let charge to full one more time. Unplug the phone!
In most cases, this procedure need only be done once. Remember turn off bluetooth, intranet and other applications when not in use. These accessories pu a tremendous drain on a cell phones battery life. This is why they should be turned off, when not in use.
The old battery recalibration trick?
tomween1 said:
This is not a guarantee of battery life extension or performance. These are merely steps (in most cases) to possibly help prolong and restore battery longevity.
First lets understand something about battery charging. The most common mistake is to overcharge a battery. While one is inclined to charge when they see the low battery message, overcharging is detrimental to the battery. This is not good for the life expectancy of your cell phone battery, especially if you are expecting longer life from your battery. Over charging heats the battery, and drains its life expectancy.
Second, it would appear that after flashing (ROM’s, Kernel’s etc.) multiple times, your battery might not hold a charge all that well. Trying these steps may help improve battery life.
> Turn the phone on. Plug in the charger (not the USB to computer) and charge completely> Disconnect the charger and turn off the phone> Once completely shut down, plug the charger back into the phone. Let the phone completely charge, while phone is off. In some cases the phone may give a tone when charged. You can check its status by touching the volume up or down> Once again unplug the phone from the charger> These next steps are curcial. 1.Turn the phone on (give it time to boot completely) 2. Power it off again. 3. Connect to the charger once again. 4. Let charge to full one more time. Unplug the phone!
In most cases, this procedure need only be done once. Remember turn off bluetooth, intranet and other applications when not in use. These accessories pu a tremendous drain on a cell phones battery life. This is why they should be turned off, when not in use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i feel like i do this every time i recharge my battery because every time i charge to 100% then turn it off and plug it in, it takes another 5 min to charge to 100 while its off. Literally, every time i bump charge it.
cumanzor said:
The old battery recalibration trick?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mhmm, an explanation of the bump charge. Been written here before, but eh. Maybe someone lost theirs. I lost my txt file with the instructions a while back lol.
The way I see it these instructions only help to provide a more accurate battery count. Whether the battery is displaying correctly or not, juice in the battery is juice in the battery. Nothing more nothing less. This whole battery issue is ridiculous.
I think it'd be a good idea to remove the battery icon from the notification bar all together.
ninjuh said:
Whether the battery is displaying correctly or not, juice in the battery is juice in the battery. Nothing more nothing less. This whole battery issue is ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. Your phone has software in it to detect how much battery life is left for a variety of reasons; it turns more battery-intense functionality off at 5%, the camera for instance, and keeps enough battery power so that it can run its shutdown procedure, instead of just dying and losing whatever's in memory at the time.
You also don't want your phone thinking that 19% battery is 1% and turning off or telling you to charge it, as charging a battery that isn't fully discharged is a great way to lose long-term battery life. Additionally, how much would it suck if your phone software thought that 75% was 100% and stopped charging? You could then be leaving for the day with 3/4 of your battery, thinking it was full.
There are plenty of reasons to want this to be as accurate as possible. Unless you just don't give a crap if your phone is usable or not
delugeofspam said:
No. Your phone has software in it to detect how much battery life is left for a variety of reasons; it turns more battery-intense functionality off at 5%, the camera for instance, and keeps enough battery power so that it can run its shutdown procedure, instead of just dying and losing whatever's in memory at the time.
You also don't want your phone thinking that 19% battery is 1% and turning off or telling you to charge it, as charging a battery that isn't fully discharged is a great way to lose long-term battery life. Additionally, how much would it suck if your phone software thought that 75% was 100% and stopped charging? You could then be leaving for the day with 3/4 of your battery, thinking it was full.
There are plenty of reasons to want this to be as accurate as possible. Unless you just don't give a crap if your phone is usable or not
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The "software" won't ever be off by more than 10%.
delugeofspam said:
...as charging a battery that isn't fully discharged is a great way to lose long-term battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not true with lithium ion batteries. They don't have charge memory.
ninjuh said:
The "software" won't ever be off by more than 10%.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
[citation needed]
I was having all kinds of issues with my battery draining too fast. I unplugged at 7:30AM and by 10:30AM it would be at 60%. I tried the bump charge and all that, but then I realized "It's the apps, stupid!" I started running a task killer after I unplugged it, and now I'm making it to noontime and I'm only down to 80%.
TLR: Keep your apps in check, they are what eat your battery.
ninjuh said:
The "software" won't ever be off by more than 10%.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A few days ago my phone shut off after draining the battery - before it shut off the battery was less than 1%. i let it sit for ten minutes or so then turned it on. - it showed 16%.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
i do this ALL the time!
If you are running a custom rom it is also good to delete the battery charge stats when booting back up after step 4. If you have CWM just boot into recovery, go to advanced, then clear battery stats.
There is a way to clear it if you don't have CWM, but I don't remember what it is and I think most people have CWM anyways.
I check my apps frequently. One day my weather widget was going nuts and was using GPS non stop. I pulled my phone out at lunch and the battery was in the yellow. Granted I haven't seen that happen again it has made me reconsider even using apps/ widgets with GPS
widgets kill battery. I had several pages of widgets and I had to wipe by phone, remarkable how much "better" the battery was after that. Weather widgets look great but it costs to run them.
majortool said:
widgets kill battery. I had several pages of widgets and I had to wipe by phone, remarkable how much "better" the battery was after that. Weather widgets look great but it costs to run them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've a feeling it has less to do with the actual widget and more to do with their constant updating when there is a poor or nonexistant connection.
Sent from my custom ROM'd Captivate
BigJayDogg3 said:
I've a feeling it has less to do with the actual widget and more to do with their constant updating when there is a poor or nonexistant connection.
Sent from my custom ROM'd Captivate
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't download the anaimation sub-app. update on the hour (or 2) instead of 15 -30 min.
I would love some advice as a noob here. I've only had my Cappy for a little over 2 weeks. I've done the battery calibrate trick, but still don't see very good battery life. I unplugged from the charger at 100% at 10pm last night and left the phone on all night. Wifi and GPS were turned off. Beautiful Widgets is set to update weather every hour. The phone received 7 sms messages during the night. When the alarm went off at 6:30am I was at 70%. It's 10am now, so it's been off the charger for 12 hours. Here is what I show:
Voice Calls 34%
Cell Standby 23%
Phone Idle 16%
Display 15%
Android System 4%
Beautiful Widgets 3%
Android OS 3%
Android Core Apps 2%
antivirus 2%
Battery currently shows 51% left
I'm running stock Eclair JH7, build 1101
Would anyone suggest Advanced Task Killer or Juice Defender?
There are some good tips for prolonging and caring for your Battery here: (Can't post links, google search: site:arstechnica.com battery life ask ars)
However, cell phone batteries rarely run over $30 (I have seen capivate batteries as low as $13), if you just always fully charge it you will still see a good 8-12 months out of it, and then just buy a new one. $30 a year is worth it to me to just let the thing fully charge so that I can use it for longer.
kb0npw said:
Would anyone suggest Advanced Task Killer or Juice Defender?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PLEASE DO NOT INSTALL ANY OF THESE BEFORE READING
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/the-view-on-task-managers-for-android/
If you fully charge and run the battery, done several times, the battery will eventually run better. Surprisingly, there is a "break in" period for the battery.
I appreciate the advice on the task killers and such. I don't use one, and after reading that stuff, I won't. I pulled my phone off the charger yesterday at about 1pm. By the time I played some games, did some web browsing, made some calls and did some texting, it was still at 70% when I went to bed at around 10pm. This morning at 7am, I was shocked to find that it was still at 67%! I don't have a clue what was different. It typically hogs up 25-30% overnight, but this time it only did 3%. I wish I knew what was different. This is so weird!
my last g2x battery lasted like 4 hrs on a full charge what is the best way to charge the new one? do i let the battery run out then charge it?
When you first get a phone, you should let the battery die before charing it. Then charge it completely after it dies, this will maximize your battery life. If you charge it right out the box, you're actually reducing the amount of juice the battery can hold.
rashad1 said:
When you first get a phone, you should let the battery die before charing it. Then charge it completely after it dies, this will maximize your battery life. If you charge it right out the box, you're actually reducing the amount of juice the battery can hold.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not really accurate. Lithium Ion batteries have no memory effect like older batteries so charging them from halfway full does not reduce the maximum capacity.
What happens is the phone needs to learn to measure the amount of mAh from the phone and recognize what battery % that means. By taking the phone through the full discharging and charging cycle, the battery drivers pick up on this and will better report the battery level. With a poorly calibrated battery, you do not get less battery, but instead you just will not see accurate information about the charge level. For example, my first discharge went quickly to about 10%, and even quickly below 5%, but stayed on for hours between 5% to eventually shutting off.
The battery still will not die faster, but my phone thought it was much lower than it was, giving it the appearance of dying faster. Point is, you can do the charge/discharge cycle whenever, not just the first time, and it won't effect your long term battery health.
1) do factory reset
2) drain completely
3) charge completely
thanks!
thanks everyone for your advice!
I think it really depends on who you ask. lol Some people will say let it drain first then charge it fully. I have read info on battery maker sites that suggest when you get their battery that you let it charge fully for at least 8 hours, then let it discharge fully. They say to do this the first 5 charges to increase battery life.
When I get a new phone or battery that's what I do. as soon as I get it I charge it up overnight, then let it discharge completely for the first 5 charges. I can only speak by my experience and my experience tells me it makes a difference. Here is my reasoning: me and my ex gf went one day to get new phones. We got the same phone. She started using hers as soon as we left the store. I waited. I charged it up overnight fully and did the conditioning procedure. Our phones were pretty much mirrors of each other app and software wise. Her battery would die out a couple of hours before mine. Battery usage also didnt report any HUGE differences in consumption .
Also every once and a while I go into Clockwork recovery and wipe battery stats(after it's been fully discharged) and re do the conditioning process. It might just be a mental thing, but for me this seems to work
supposedly from htc.....
1) Turn your device ON and Charge the device for 8 hours or more 2) Unplug the device and Turn the phone OFF and charge for 1 hour 3) Unplug the device Turn ON wait 2 minutes and Turn OFF and charge for another hour Your battery life should almost double, we have tested this on our devices and other agents have seen a major difference as well
I heard/read somewhere that you should never let a lithium ion battery fully discharge. It supposedly shortens its lifespan every time you fully discharge it. Instead, you are suppose to just top it off and not let it remain on the charger, for extended periods of time, once its reached a full charge. YMMV
*Omnipresent* said:
I heard/read somewhere that you should never let a lithium ion battery fully discharge. It supposedly shortens its lifespan every time you fully discharge it. Instead, you are suppose to just top it off and not let it remain on the charger, for extended periods of time, once its reached a full charge. YMMV
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is "more" true for everyday normal usage. Yes, you shouldn't constantly fully charge and fully discharge every time you use your phone. But for battery calibration it is necessary/beneficial.
I also hard that during the first charge after turning the phone off you have to strange on your head for ten minutes, then only use your left hand for the rest of the day and you will double your battery life
rashad1 said:
When you first get a phone, you should let the battery die before charing it. Then charge it completely after it dies, this will maximize your battery life. If you charge it right out the box, you're actually reducing the amount of juice the battery can hold.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I did it this way too. I get good batt
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App
Hello Guys, i bought a new mugen akku and dunno what´s the best way to calibrate it.
There are a few things that are confusing me:
1.Mugen Instructions: "Never drain battery to 0%"
(but that´s required for calibration, isn´t it?)
2.the battery got its full power after a few charges/discharges
(so would it be better to wait to calibrate the akku when it got its full power?)
So finally, should i wait with calibration or do it at the beginning? I think one time is necessary to let it go down to 0%.
So what are your advice?
thx in advance, l-viz
The way I calibrate mine is to discharge it completely so it turns off by itself (normally happens around 1 or 2%) then plug it into the charger and let it charge completely to 100%. Note that the LED will turn green at 90% .. so its not done yet!
Just my 2 coppers...
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using xda premium
You are just calibrating the battery meter on the phone, not the battery. People constantly abuse the terminology.
You don't need to drain the battery to zero, because the battery meter is not even remotely that accurate in the best of circumstances. Draining to 10 or even 20% is no different than draining to zero.
What CAN happen if you drain to zero, is you you may trip the safety circuit on the battery, and render the battery unable to take a charge, thereby rendering it useless. Its not very likely, and safeguards on the phone are designed to prevent this, but plenty of people on here have had it happen. Full power cycles (draining to zero) also shortens the long term life of the battery. Especially considering there is NO value added to draining the battery to zero, there is no point it doing so intentionally, and taking an unnecessary risk.
Just charge your battery to 100%, let it sit on the charger for a while after full, to make sure its really topped off. Then use the phone until 10-20%. Repeat this a couple times. You can also go into recovery and clear battery stats before you charge/discharge. But I haven't noticed this to make much of a difference.
redpoint73 said:
What CAN happen if you drain to zero, is you you may trip the safety circuit on the battery, and render the battery unable to take a charge, thereby rendering it useless. Its not very likely, and safeguards on the phone are designed to prevent this, but plenty of people on here have had it happen. Full power cycles (draining to zero) also shortens the long term life of the battery. Especially considering there is NO value added to draining the battery to zero, there is no point it doing so intentionally, and taking an unnecessary risk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow. I didn't know that. Thanks!
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using xda premium
Draining the battery to a literal 0% is almost impossible. Lithium ion batteries do not allow devices to utilize all the juice in a the battery. Once a device shuts off and tell you the battery is "dead", there's actually a bit more juice that is only used by the battery to prevent the battery's level from becoming too low.
Think of it like space partitions in hard drives. While you can use 100% of a single partition in a hard drive. There will still be space left over in the other partition.
Now what mugen means is to not allow the battery to reach the 0% of the ENTIRE battery. In order to make that happen you would have to discharge the battery until your device doesn't turn on and then NOT charge the battery for a very long period of time. I'm talking weeks and months of no charge whatsoever. Other than that, feel free to allow your phone to die and charge it back up. This in conjuction with deleting your battery stats file will speed up the calibration process.
Hope I helped out.
Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk
UnSungHERO420 said:
Draining the battery to a literal 0% is almost impossible. Lithium ion batteries do not allow devices to utilize all the juice in a the battery. Once a device shuts off and tell you the battery is "dead", there's actually a bit more juice that is only used by the battery to prevent the battery's level from becoming too low.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is supposed to happen with the failsafes on the device and what ACTUALLY happens unfortunately are not one and the same. There have been plenty of people here that have let their batteries drain to zero, and then the battery will no longer take a charge.
True, the battery is not actually zero voltage. But its low enough that the safety circuit on the battery will prevent it from accepting a charge. The phone is SUPPOSED to prevent the voltage from dipping that low, but it doesn't always work. So the only way to bring the battery back to life, is with a special battery meter with a "boost" function. Since the vast majority of us do not have access to such a thing, the battery is effectively dead, as buying one is likely cheaper and easier than getting access to such a battery meter.
As I've already mentioned, this is unlikely to happen. But its happened to at least a few people with our phone, and I've seen it happen to other XDA users with other devices. No point in playing probabilities, if it happens to you, it sucks and it doesn't matter how "almost impossible" its supposed to be. As I already discussed, the battery meters on phones are not even close to accurate enough to read single, or even 5% battery increments. So draining to zero is not any more beneficial than draining to 10%. No benefit in draining to zero, so why risk it?
I have learned the hard way that discharging lithium ion batteries below 20% is the fastest way to kill them early! (greatly shorten their life)
thanks 4 replies, a lot of useful knowledge
I have seen a few threads about calibrating the battery, and I downloaded an app on the market, but I don't want to run it yet until i get some questions answered.
Is there a way that is better than others? Does calibrating the battery help with battery life, or what is the purpose?
stevew84 said:
I have seen a few threads about calibrating the battery, and I downloaded an app on the market, but I don't want to run it yet until i get some questions answered.
Is there a way that is better than others? Does calibrating the battery help with battery life, or what is the purpose?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery calibration does nothing. A google employee even confirmed that battery stats are only used for keeping track of what is using your battery (which it does not do very well IMO). So deleting them and discharging the battery then rebooting and all that other crap only wastes time.
As for fully draining and recharging the battery to calibrate it... in short it does much more harm than good. Older Ni-Cad batteries used to have a 'memory' of sorts. if you did not fully discharge them from time to time they would act dead when they wernt.
The batteries in our phones (and most newer electronics) are Lithium-Ion (and in some newer phones Lithium-Polymer). these batteries have no 'memory'. in fact discharging them all the way is very bad for them, and can actually cause the battery to rupture if its done too extreme (you would have to short the terminals for this to happen)
The reality of this is that the less you let your battery discharge, the longer it will last. Every time you let it drain all the way (or almost all the way) you are harming it and reducing its lifetime.
The best way to take care of your phone's battery is to try to keep it between 50% and 80% full. Even keeping the battery fully charged for very long periods of time can be just as bad as discharging it fully.
TL;DR: get rid of that app, and dont ever think about doing any battery calibration ever again.
Further Reading Here and Here
Klathmon said:
Battery calibration does nothing. A google employee even confirmed that battery stats are only used for keeping track of what is using your battery (which it does not do very well IMO). So deleting them and discharging the battery then rebooting and all that other crap only wastes time.
As for fully draining and recharging the battery to calibrate it... in short it does much more harm than good. Older Ni-Cad batteries used to have a 'memory' of sorts. if you did not fully discharge them from time to time they would act dead when they wernt.
The batteries in our phones (and most newer electronics) are Lithium-Ion (and in some newer phones Lithium-Polymer). these batteries have no 'memory'. in fact discharging them all the way is very bad for them, and can actually cause the battery to rupture if its done too extreme (you would have to short the terminals for this to happen)
The reality of this is that the less you let your battery discharge, the longer it will last. Every time you let it drain all the way (or almost all the way) you are harming it and reducing its lifetime.
The best way to take care of your phone's battery is to try to keep it between 50% and 80% full. Even keeping the battery fully charged for very long periods of time can be just as bad as discharging it fully.
TL;DR: get rid of that app, and dont ever think about doing any battery calibration ever again.
Further Reading Here and Here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool man, thanks...I'll skip on the calibration.
Not sure what's happening with my phone, but after removing the plug on my fully charged phone, I will let my phone sit idle for about 10 mins, when I go wake the screen, I see that I've already lost 3% of battery capacity.
The weird part is after this initial 3% is gone, my battery will drain normally. Does this mean I need to calibrate my battery? Is there anyway to do this without damaging it?
It means you need to get a new hobby... seriously, why do you care if it changes nothing what so ever. In order to fix this, you should try not checking your battery percentage every 2 minutes. On the upside, this will probably give you another half hour of battery life as well.(damn a change of attitude would fix like 90% of problems on this site)
On a more serious note, it's likely just because your phone doesn't keep charging when it hits full charge, it stops charging in order to not kill your battery, and lets it drain to like 90% at which point it will charge back up to 100%, so it may be at any point in between when you disconnect it. Even if it is truly at 100% when you disconnect the charger, the measurements may not be completely accurate when approaching 100%, so it is likely, that could make it drop faster at first. You need to do nothing in order to fix this, seriously don't mess with it.
CoronaDelux said:
Not sure what's happening with my phone, but after removing the plug on my fully charged phone, I will let my phone sit idle for about 10 mins, when I go wake the screen, I see that I've already lost 3% of battery capacity.
The weird part is after this initial 3% is gone, my battery will drain normally. Does this mean I need to calibrate my battery? Is there anyway to do this without damaging it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you running stock or custom kernel and any custom ROM? Ive noticed this sometimes too but that's because the phone, when unplugged is running services to start phone on battery power versus the cord/wall charger. Check logcats to see what happens when phone unplugged to see what may be happening when phone starts on battery.
I think you are worrying about it a little too much. It could be searching for service (which drains a lot of battery), starting services as someone previously said, heat is horrible for a battery, anything. If the drain is normal after that who knows it could be the ROM you are on, battery percentage not being reported correctly.
Not worth an RMA by any means. Reset battery stats in recovery and see how that works out for you.
Bear in mind, these batteries are cell batteries, a user who plugs their phone in every time the battery hits 50%, is going to notice over a period of time the time it takes to go from 100% to 50% is shorter and shorter, and suddenly, 49%-0 holds a better charge. If you're constantly charging your phone, you'll wear those cells of your battery down. This is where the "hoax" of always letting your battery drain to 0% when you get it to "maximize" battery potential came from.