Horrible battery/charging issues

[MrHaViK]

So, it's pretty well established that the droid 4 doesn't have the greatest battery, typically i can deal with that. My droid 3 wasn't great either on the battery but as long as i plugged in while in my car or at my office desk, i'd be alright for the whole day.

The problem i'm having now with the 4, is that it charges at roughly one third the speed that it discharges. I've used 10 different chargers and they all have the same effect. In fact, when i have it plugged in and charging in my car dock for example, and i'm using gps and music, it will still discharge at about 1% every 5-10 minutes. If i shut everything off including the screen, it will charge at about 1% every 5-10 minutes. When it is off the charger and i am browsing the web it will discharge about 1% every 2 minutes. It takes almost all night on the charger to get it to 100% from below 10%.

Another thing. I purchased a portable battery charger (mycharge powerbank 3000) for 80$ to help with keeping a charge while i'm away from outlets. To my surprise, the powerbank fault lights come on when i try to charge the phone. I then tried it on three other androids and an iphone, it will steadily charge two phones at a time(not kidding an iphone and an htc evo charged at the same time) yet it wont charge my phone by itself, it will flash for one second then the screen says disconnected from charger.

For the record, i keep my running apps at a minimum and i consistently close any apps i am using when i am done with them, the phone is not rooted.

Is anyone else having these problems with this phone? Or is something wrong with my battery?

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[amishdude01]

Thats not normal =(. Id call verizon and demand a replacement. That is unacceptable...

 

[MrHaViK]

Update, went to verizon store and told them same as what i posted above. Nice guy at the desk, told me that he hadn't heard of any issues like i'm having, gave me some advice on how to extend battery life(nothing that hadn't been said a thousand times in every forum about smart phones) and then pretty much told me to be on my way and good luck. I guess i dont have a warranty because i bought the phone from a private seller(it was sealed in the original box when i received it) so i guess i just have to wait until third party battery replacements start popping up on ebay.

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[greekchampion04]

go direct to motorola then... or keep trying verizon until somebody just gives you one.

or sell it on craigslist haha

btw, why did you buy from a third party, how cheap did you get it?

 

[MrHaViK]

Hmmm.... sometimes i forget that there are actual developers behind the almighty phone companies. I hadn't even thought to ask motorola, i'll try that tomorrow.

also, i bought from ebay because i had just upgraded to the droid 3 a little while ago so i was still in contract. I know it sounds stupid but i absolutely need a keyboard and at the time i didnt know the 4 was right around the corner, then i got mad and decided $400 was worth getting a 4g phone. Seemed like a good deal, $150 off of no-contract retail and it did come sealed like it was straight from the factory. Who knows though, maybe it was a scam and they knew the battery was bad.

 

[djk_dnb]

MrHaViK,

I have a similar problem with my Droid 4. What I'm noticing now that I've had this phone for a few weeks is that at random, I can go from a full charge to completely and totally dead within less than two hours with ABSOLUTELY NO USE whatsoever. Driving to work, my phone is plugged in. When I arrive, I see 100% charge on screen. Two hours later at break time... DEAD. WTF? Then, to add insult to injury, when I plug it in using a motorola charger, it takes roughly 20 minutes to charge it up to about 15%, at which point I can finally do a full boot. I don't know if anyone else's does this, but my phone will not show anything on screen but an image of a battery until it reaches that 15%. Until then, it's as useful as a screen door on a submarine. Again, this is totally random. I've checked all the apps, the processes, data usage, etc., and have yet to discover something obvious or out of the ordinary that could be causing such annoyances.

In stark contrast, there are other times when I forget to plug the phone in at night. I'll play music for the 8 hours, have Wi-Fi on and more, and when I wake up, I'm seeing 80% charge remaining. This is beginning to make me wonder if there is an issue with the software that monitors the battery, a bad sensor of some kind, or if maybe my USB port is damaged, preventing the phone from receiving a consistant charge. I just don't know. What I do know is that there is a way to reset the min./max. charge of the battery, basically forcing the phone to recognize a new value for full and empty. How exactly to do that escapes me at the moment and so my research ensues.

Good luck with yours, MrHaViK.

 

[MrHaViK]

Wow, sounds like your problems are deeper than mine. My wife has a similar problem to that on her blackberry(I know I'm trying to get her to switch to android ) sometimes she will plug it in for hours and it will look fully charged but it will die a couple hours later. Also her battery gets very hot while charging. We brought it to two different cell phone shops, and they both told ust that there is a short in the usb connection which apparently causes the phone to think its charging but really its not. Doesn't always happen though.

On another note, I've pretty much fixed my problem with a combination of rooting/freezing apps and turning of 4g all day unless I'm watching videos via youtube or plex. My battery now lasts me all day at work and when I get home it's around 40-50% which is as much as I can expect for a smartphone.

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[RueTheDayTrebek]

Bloatware and 4g are the fastest ways to burn through your battery.

Every single phone should come stock rooted (wouldn't that be nice!) to deal with the bloatware.

Try not to use 4gLTE unless you absolutely need the horsepower. When you switch over to 3g you might have to restart your phone.

Coming from a Droid 1, 3g was practical, but it is a snail's pace compared to 4gLTE, but it's still fast enough to check the news, email... etc....

Try downloading a program called spareparts, it allows you to reset your battery stats.

As for spareparts, I am unsure if you need to root it.

Nobody should delay in getting their phone rooted.

There are too many good things that rooting offers.

 

[marlonvps]

Get a wall charger!

 

[Grimsin]

Droid 4 charge problems

I am also having problems with my brand new Droid 4. It will charge and fairly quick when plugged into the wall but when I plug into anything else it loses juice faster then it gets it. Major problem considering I use my phone for internet via a wired tether. I just went to the Droid 4 from the HTC Thunderbolt, I loved my Droid original and if Droid 3 had 4G I never would have gone to HTC but this is a disappointing return to Motorola so far, If I can not come up with a fix soon I will be going back for the HTC Rezound.

 

[MrHaViK]

Refer to my post above, i pretty much solved my problem. Also, i've known for a while that not all chargers are created equal, but i didnt realize how much different. Most of my problems with slow charging occurred on no-name brand chargers, i finally got a new verizon car charger and it charges really fast no matter what i have running. So if you're using some charger you got at a gas station for $5, it might be time to upgrade.

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[Grimsin]

Im not using a generic cable. I'm using the cable that was packaged with the phone. My problem has more to do with the phone being plugged to the computer.

 

[MrHaViK]

That would be a problem, a usb port doesn't put out the same amount as a wall outlet by a long shot.

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[Grimsin]

Although a wall socket does put out more power the difference as far as what ends up going up the cable to the phone is not that big from wall socket to USB port. The USB is less true, it should not be the difference though. The Droid 4 uses more power then it gets when it is tethered to the computer, which is a joke. I can plug my HTC Thunderbolt into the computer with everything running and run the internet tether and still be getting a bit more power then its using.

 

[MrHaViK]

All i know is this, i had the same exact problem as you when i first posted about it. I havent done any extensive tests to find out what the exact cause was but altogether it worked. With 4g, gps and navigation running, and all bloatware active, my usb cable or cheap car charger would not charge but actually discharge slowly. The verizon charger would charge it, but very slowly(about 1% every 5-10 min) I used titanium to freeze all uneccessary apps(as per the safe to freeze list for droid 4) and switched off 4g. Now any charger i use will charge, but the verizon charger does it fast(1% per minute roughly)

So we can go back and fourth about what's what, but this worked for me and i am now totally happy with my battery life. Hope it helps for you.

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