Battery drained instead of charging

ncgal

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So...I plugged my Droid in to charge (Motorola). It was at 80% charge. Checked it 1 hour later and it was drained down to 5%. Phone was warning me that the battery was very low. Had to leave so I plugged my phone into my car charger. Less than a minute later it was fully charged.

I have had the phone only 2 months. Anyone else had this happen? Hoping it is not a sign of more bad things to come.
 

Taegost

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Interesting... Were you using the charger that came with the Droid? Did you have it plugged into the wall or a computer?
Was it actually charged to full, or was it really dead and displayed it wrong?
If it was actually charged, then it may be an issue with the OS "memory" of the battery levels. From what I understand, there's a file on the phone that stores the information the OS uses to display the various battery levels, it's possible that file may have become corrupt, or it may just be a temporary hiccup.
I'd keep an eye on it and see if it happens again, if it does then we may need to look into clearing out that file (Which I suspect might require root access). If it doesn't, we can probably write it off as a freak of nature :)
 

aaf709

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I've had this happen twice.

The signal strength isn't that good at my house and when I had it plugged into my computer it drained instead of charging. I realize that the USB isn't going to charge as well as the A/C, but at work it would be charged (using USB) in a couple of hours.

The other time was when it was plugged into the multimedia dock. That time the cable had disconnected so it wasn't charging at all.

The second time makes me ask a couple of questions...Is this the only time it has happened? Was the cable plugged in fully?
 

Taegost

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Oh, yeah, another thing I forgot: When I have my phone plugged into the car charger and running GPS, it still drains my battery, even though it reduces the clock speed to 700MHz when it's on the charger... That just started after I overclocked it though :)
 
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ncgal

ncgal

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Interesting... Were you using the charger that came with the Droid? Did you have it plugged into the wall or a computer?
Was it actually charged to full, or was it really dead and displayed it wrong?
If it was actually charged, then it may be an issue with the OS "memory" of the battery levels. From what I understand, there's a file on the phone that stores the information the OS uses to display the various battery levels, it's possible that file may have become corrupt, or it may just be a temporary hiccup.
I'd keep an eye on it and see if it happens again, if it does then we may need to look into clearing out that file (Which I suspect might require root access). If it doesn't, we can probably write it off as a freak of nature :)

Thanks for the responses. It was plugged into an electrical outlet...yes, it was the charger that came with the phone.

It could not have been drained...it actually had to be charging since it showed as fully charged after literally no more than 1 minute on the car charger. The memory thing makes sense. I'll hope for a hiccup. :)
 

jsh1120

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Many people experience this sort of thing occasionally. The problem lies in the battery monitoring software, not the battery. If your description of the situation is accurate, it's clear that your phone did not drain from 80% to 5% in an hour, especially since it charged to 100% "in a minute" when you plugged it into your car charger.

Unless it happens repeatedly, don't worry about it.
 

Taegost

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Many people experience this sort of thing occasionally. The problem lies in the battery monitoring software, not the battery. If your description of the situation is accurate, it's clear that your phone did not drain from 80% to 5% in an hour, especially since it charged to 100% "in a minute" when you plugged it into your car charger.

Unless it happens repeatedly, don't worry about it.

That's what it sounds like to me as well.
 
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