Droid Razr MAXX--Major battery issue

davidmoore0

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Hey DroidForums! I have lurked here for a long time over the years and I have learned a lot. I finally decided to make an account today because I am having some pretty decent troubles. Before anyone asks, I have used FoxKat's calibration method and followed several different ideas that I found in various threads. However, I have not seen anybody have this exact problem and no solution has helped yet.

A little background: in April of this year, my mother told me she wanted a new phone but had a budget of $100, so I turned to Craigslist. I already had a Droid Razr MAXX with a broken screen, and I bought a used Droid RAZR on Craigslist and I used the screen from it for the MAXX. I sent the phone to my mother through FedEx and went off to Europe for a while.

Fast forward a few months and here we are now. My mom had yet to do anything with the phone as she did not know where to get a SIM card, so I went out and got her phone hooked up for her and all was well and good. The only thing I have done since getting the SIM card is add her contacts and let an OTA update come through to bring it to 4.1.2.

Mom told me two days ago that any time she gets a call, her phone drops from 60 percent to zero before she can answer and I have held onto it since then, attempting to calibrate it. I have used various battery fix apps and monitor tools.

Below are two screenshots of the very erratic discharging. To test the battery, what I have done a couple of times is keep the "flashlight" app on while running a loop of red-green-blue screens to drain the battery (it only took about 1.1 hours to do so). As you will see in the first two cycles (the photo on the left) while doing that test, the battery drains from 100 to about 88%, then drops to 50ish%, then declines a bit, then falls drastically to near-zero before dying. The third cycle (second image) shows my mom's experience today when she tried to answer a call.

It seems as though the phone is lying or is being lied to about the battery. It thinks there is 100% but as soon as a call is answered or a text is sent it tanks. I would understand it to be a problem with wifi or call signal if it lasted a bit longer, but when it is just flat out decaying in a few minutes time, it does not seem to be from these. Is this call for a new battery? Is this a software error?

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FoxKat

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Have you done the standard three step meter calibration? Please follow the steps explicitly.

1. Power off the phone completely (power button held down until menu appears, choose power off), then once powered off, plug into the stock Motorola charger using the supplied Motorola USB charging/data cable and allow it to charge to 100% (at least 3.5 hours).

2. Power the phone up and use it normally (or as you did, run a cycle to discharge), but only until the phone tells you to connect to charger. Do not allow the phone to discharge below 5% but instead attempt to power off one the phone indicates its time to charge again.

3. Repeat step one.

Once the phone is completely charged to 100% the second time, the meter should properly recognize the battery and accurately indicate relative remaining charge consistently from there on. If it doesn't, then there is another hardware failure, possibly a bad battery or possibly a failed charging/metering circuitry, or some other form of hardware failure.
 

94lt1

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I'd venture to say that there's a hardware issue at play here.. Perhaps one of the ribbon connections is not making full contact?? Something is jacked up..
 

94lt1

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Before doing the battery training.. I'd clear the cache first.. Then do the battery training.. It might not make any difference.. But that's the way I'd go..
 
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davidmoore0

davidmoore0

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Thank you both for your replies. I will attempt to clear the cache, then I will repeat the three step meter calibration. As an interesting point, I added a battery-aiding app (DU Battery Saver) and it said that the battery's maximum capacity is 1780 mAh, which is exactly the same as the Droid RAZR. Would you venture to guess that the app is incorrect or do you suppose that something else is at play?
 

FoxKat

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I believe the meter/charging system "thinks" that the original battery is still in the phone and so if lt is using that battery profile to determine charging times, voltages, current and battery levels at depletion from previous discharge cycles. A meter training should resolve this for you.
 
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davidmoore0

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Thank you all for your help. I ended up buying a new battery and it works great now. The phone lasts about two days on a full charge.
 

FoxKat

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Thank you all for your help. I ended up buying a new battery and it works great now. The phone lasts about two days on a full charge.
Definitely glad it all worked out for you. I still wonder what's up with the older MAXX battery though. Very strange indeed that it read exactly what the standard battery capacity is. o_O
 
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