Is my phone battery on it's last leg...?

[Agusts]

I have a Samsung S6 standard (no edge) that I like, it's light and small and does all I need, in fact I like it so much it's my second one, old model but I no wish to upgrade...

They have weak battery though, 2550mA only, but the fast charger of 2A fills it up in no time, like 35min, and on the power saving mode it lasts enough for me...

 

However, just a few weeks now have developed a problem, when I use the phone, mainly Chrome browsing only, and the charger is connected, the battery still loses charge, slowly but surely, it is drained to the end...!? In the past it would charge to 100% ...

 

I'm good at finding info on Google, but not much about this. I downloaded some battery monitoring apps, and closed most background apps but to no avail..., basically says screen and Chrome using most/all of the power...

 

Now if I just not use the phone, and put it down it charges normally fairly quickly, so I am baffled. I suspected the charger and cable but can't fault them, used another standard 1A charger I had , same thing, even worse of course...

The battery for these are not easy to change, need to open up the whole phone completely, something I try to avoid....

 

Any ideas or experiences...!?

 

[scubascuba3]

I have a Samsung tab 4 and have experienced the same thing where plugged in and continues down to zero, this only happened a couple of times so I concluded it's some form of reset going on, 2 years later it's still working 

[RichCor]

Internally frayed charger cable, as you surmise, probably the culprit.

 

The typical diagnostic steps:

• Replace the USB charging cable
• Replace the USB wall charger
• Replace the phone battery
• Reset the phone and set up as new
• Replace the phone
• Replace the end user

[Agusts]

Yes, I have to try a different cable, this is a 2 meters special braided cable I bought so I can use the phone anywhere while cable attached. So maybe it has developed a fault...

 

I just noticed as I type now, that charger attaching animation at the bottom of the phone is occured once or twice, while I hardly moved the cable, so that means it connects and disconnects, need to check that...!

 

I wiggled the cable and connection, but nothing happened, so maybe it's just something else in the cable or socket effected by fine vibration or movement while I use it....!? 

 

[vogie]

The batteries are not difficult to change, a bit tricky perhaps due to the size of the screws, I have just changed my battery on my Huawei and my wifes Iphone 6+, my battery was 250 baht and my wifes battery was 500 baht, both bought from Lazada and they come with the tools to accomplish the operation. All the battery replacement instructions to do the job can be found on YouTube.

[Agusts]

Yes, I've seen a few of those videos, but I'm still trying to diagnose the problem, it maybe not the battery after all...!

 

[dddave]

A friend had a similar problem with a Samsung...not sure which model but it also turned out to be the charger.  In this case it was one of the newer "type-C" chargers.

[Agusts]

Okay, so I got the repair guys to check everything as I wanted..., finally after they wanted to sell me a new battery and even a phone...! , it turned out the cable was faulty, strange but it did not transfer the full high amp of fast charging...! But still worked and did like half of current... I even found another old cable that was the same, but I reckon that was rated for 1A and not 2A of fast charging...

 

Now it's okay, I bought a new cable, it charges well while I use it, but AccuBattery health screen says my battery is in reality only a 1363mAh as oppose to a new battery with 2550 - so it's worn out quite a bit..

 

By the way, I read a lot about people saying charge batteries  when it's at like 30% to just 80%, this way it increases battery life and charging cycle...!

 

But I don't get it, let's see, as an example if I charge to 100% in the morning it lasts all day (not mine but let's assume), so I charge again at night. If say it has 1000 charge cycle, it lives 1000 days. Now if charge to 80% , then at mid day it reaches 30% , so I need to recharge again, and then again at night. So twice daily. So even if it helps my battery to double it's charge cycle to 2000, it still dies after 1000 days, same same but more hassle...!?

 

[scubascuba3]

7 minutes ago, Agusts said:

Okay, so I got the repair guys to check everything as I wanted..., finally after they wanted to sell me a new battery and even a phone...! , it turned out the cable was faulty, strange but it did not transfer the full high amp of fast charging...! But still worked and did like half of current... I even found another old cable that was the same, but I reckon that was rated for 1A and not 2A of fast charging...

 

Now it's okay, I bought a new cable, it charges well while I use it, but AccuBattery health screen says my battery is in reality only a 1363mAh as oppose to a new battery with 2550 - so it's worn out quite a bit..

 

By the way, I read a lot about people saying charge batteries  when it's at like 30% to just 80%, this way it increases battery life and charging cycle...!

 

But I don't get it, let's see, as an example if I charge to 100% in the morning it lasts all day (not mine but let's assume), so I charge again at night. If say it has 1000 charge cycle, it lives 1000 days. Now if charge to 80% , then at mid day it reaches 30% , so I need to recharge again, and then again at night. So twice daily. So even if it helps my battery to double it's charge cycle to 2000, it still dies after 1000 days, same same but more hassle...!?

 

I've heard experts say the same thing, about not charging to 100%, so as the battery gets older charge overnight to 100% as usual, then if battery runs low during the day just top up to say 80% max, right now I'll top up to 60% before I go out as that's all I need

[RichCor]

1 hour ago, Agusts said:

By the way, I read a lot about people saying charge batteries  when it's at like 30% to just 80%, this way it increases battery life and charging cycle...!

 

But I don't get it [...]

I think they're trying to avoid heat/stress damage to the anode, cathode, membrane barrier, and electrolyte to allow the battery more than 1000 charge cycles. I used to follow the guidance when a mobile phone Li-ion battery cost $100 US to replace. Now that the cost is much lower I don't bother. 

[Agusts]

The repair guy showed me an original Samsung battery for my S6 that cost 1200 baht (it was just in a plastic bag, who knows...), but there are copies cheaper, some guy on YouTube has even fit a slightly larger S7 battery into it...!

 

But I just don't feel comfortable opening the phone, I wonder if it all seals up back to it's original condition again, and work perfectly..., so will use it as is for now..., I was very interested in Samsung M31 someone mentioned on this forum, specs are good for the price - a bit big and heavy compare to my S6 though...

[VocalNeal]

Just curious. 

 

Has the OP let his battery run down to absolute zero and then recharge back up to maximum.

 

Sometimes they come back to life.

 

[Agusts]

14 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

Just curious. 

 

Has the OP let his battery run down to absolute zero and then recharge back up to maximum.

 

Sometimes they come back to life.

 

 

I read about this too, it happens that my battery runs out to 5% sometime and I plug it in an go to 100%... , but they say the modern lion batteries don't suffer from "memory loss" , as  they call it , any more. So that does not help and basically they say always keep and charge between about 20% and 80%....

[RichCor]

1 hour ago, Agusts said:

I read about this too, it happens that my battery runs out to 5% sometime and I plug it in an go to 100%... , but they say the modern lion batteries don't suffer from "memory loss" , as  they call it , any more. So that does not help and basically they say always keep and charge between about 20% and 80%....

With Li-ion it's sometimes the Battery Management System chip reporting wrong values to the OS causing it to cut off charging prematurely. Power cycling the battery (draining till it shuts off,  then charging back to 100%) can help the BMS recalibrate.

 

Otherwise it's just normal capacity loss or capacity fading at play. 

[AlfHuy]

Now available on Lazada:

Let your phone die in style.

[scammed]

in this age, there is zero reason to have a phone with less than 5000 mAh, let it go and give yourself a peace of mind

[KhaoYai]

Some people here are recommending opening up a recent model Samsung phone - I would avoid this at all costs. They have a sort of self adhesive gasket inside that 'glues' the two halves together.  9 times out of 10 they come apart without a problem (if you use the correct tools) but even my local repair shop won't guarantee it and will only carry out a battery replacement at your risk.  Apparently they are sometimes stuck so hard that getting the phone apart causes so much damage, the phone is wrecked.    The days of 'popping' the back off your phone and replacing the battery are gone, sadly.

 

There is a sizeable variation in the prices repair shops charge for this service - in the UK I found the Samsung shop was actually the cheapest - it may be the same in Thailand. I don't give a damn about having the latest model - its just a phone. I have a 3 year old Samsung A3 dual SIM which does everything I need - the Samsung shop replaced the battery and screen for £84 whereas the local shop wanted £110. Hopefully I'll get another 3 years out of my phone now.

 

Also, using the Samsung shop you get a genuine parts (at least in the UK you do) - not the rubbish and sometimes dangerous parts from China that are everywhere.

Edited October 24, 2020 by KhaoYai

[pacovl46]

23 hours ago, Agusts said:

Okay, so I got the repair guys to check everything as I wanted..., finally after they wanted to sell me a new battery and even a phone...! , it turned out the cable was faulty, strange but it did not transfer the full high amp of fast charging...! But still worked and did like half of current... I even found another old cable that was the same, but I reckon that was rated for 1A and not 2A of fast charging...

 

Now it's okay, I bought a new cable, it charges well while I use it, but AccuBattery health screen says my battery is in reality only a 1363mAh as oppose to a new battery with 2550 - so it's worn out quite a bit..

 

By the way, I read a lot about people saying charge batteries  when it's at like 30% to just 80%, this way it increases battery life and charging cycle...!

 

But I don't get it, let's see, as an example if I charge to 100% in the morning it lasts all day (not mine but let's assume), so I charge again at night. If say it has 1000 charge cycle, it lives 1000 days. Now if charge to 80% , then at mid day it reaches 30% , so I need to recharge again, and then again at night. So twice daily. So even if it helps my battery to double it's charge cycle to 2000, it still dies after 1000 days, same same but more hassle...!?

 

All batteries lose some of their capacity over time due to plating which is happening the most at full charge and below 20%. Therefore this best to keep your battery between 40 and 60% when you store it without using it for a long time. Since you charge your phone twice a day that’s not an issue. But sooner or later your battery will die. So you either buy a new battery or you buy a new phone. That’s inevitable. 

[RocketDog]

19 hours ago, RichCor said:

With Li-ion it's sometimes the Battery Management System chip reporting wrong values to the OS causing it to cut off charging prematurely. Power cycling the battery (draining till it shuts off,  then charging back to 100%) can help the BMS recalibrate.

 

Otherwise it's just normal capacity loss or capacity fading at play. 

You are correct about recalibration the battery management circuit. Of course I don't know for sure what they use in every phone but many of the systems do 'coulomb counting' to calculate battery life by actually measuring the energy taken from the battery as it discharges as opposed to the older method of estimating charge level from terminal voltage under load. So draining to zero coulombs resets the measurement cycle giving more accurate results. 

 

The bag the OP mentioned is the most common type of Li-Ion cell used for portable devices. The electrolyte is liquid and allows the cell to take a variety of shapes and sizes. Be very careful not to pierce the skin of the cell as it is caustic and exposure to air/moisture can cause a fire. 

 

On most cases the cell just reaches end of life after enough charge cycles. Never store a Li battery at full charge for long periods. They store better discharged to around 30-40%.

 

I have also read about the 30-80% charging regimen to prolong battery life and believe it's true but am not willing to spend much time monitoring the charge cycle to do it. The charge cycle ends at 100% and I refuse to bother watching it. 

 

One sure sign of an end of life cell is that it charges very quickly and discharges very quickly. That's what mine is doing. 

 

I just got a quote from the local Samsung store for a battery replacement for my 4 yo S7 phone. They charge an extra 1000฿ because it was not bought in Thailand as if the battery would be different from other S7 phones, which I strongly doubt. Total parts and labor was 3600฿. So I'll order one on Lazada and try to do it myself. 

 

I don't take my car to the dealer to get wiper blades replaced either even if they use 'original equipment ' parts. Just a rip-off. 

[DJ54]

Is it limping... sorry had to it you said it was on last leg. Replace the battery I think it’s easy on Samsung .. and batteries aren’t expensive... 

[elgenon]

I've had a similar experience with my iPhone. If I use it heavily while charging it discharges. So common?