S3 Discharging/No Voltage - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi Guys,
I am a technician at a local Sprint store. I've had a sudden influx of customer who are experiencing problems with their S3 discharging quickly. Yesterday I had a S3, I removed the battery to test the voltage with a CEN-TECH Digital Multimeter. The setting of the voltage meter is set to DCV 20. I plugged the phone into a charger and tested the voltage output only to recieve a 0.00 reading.(yes i tried multiple chargers) When I put the battery back into the phone, the battery had lost 20%. This is a problem that I would like to find a fix for so that I no longer have to order replacement phones for customers.
My background...
I started as a sales rep, became a assistant store manager, starting college in the fall so I dropped down to a technician.
I am going into the informatics field so i thought it would be best to become a technician. I am farely new to the technician spot but still know alot about computers and technology.
Please help me out =)

This is not a Sprint forum see sticky top of the page .
jje

Related

Battery Drain - hardware or software?

First of all, hello to everyone. I have been reading through a lot of threads here in the last few weeks after getting my HD2, especially the ones about battery life.
I have never owned a smartphone, so I have no comparison but I'm barely getting through 1 day of use when fully charged! And I'm not even using it that much yet, Wifi is off, no data transfers, just some texting and calls. I have installed Bandswitch and Battlog, didn't really help though.
Got the phone brand new (T-Mobile US) and haven't done any major tweaking yet, it's still pretty much stock with a few programs that I installed so far.
Do you guys have a similar experience or is it completely different? I love the phone, but if I dont even get through one day of use (and I want to use the phone in the future, not just for surfing but for music streaming or web browsing), I would have to bring it back.
Any help appreciated!
It's just something you have to live with, buy a spare battery, or the extended battery, flash a lighter ROM, adjust screen brightness turn off push e-mails etc etc.
I can get 2 days battery from very light use. i.e. a few texts and calls a day, no Wi-Fi, bluetooth or internet browsing. That's just how smartphones are.
So how do you do it on a daily basis?
My battery is fully charged in the morning and lets assume I'm using the phone for what I bought it for - some music streaming, gps here and there if I need it, some web browsing, calls and texts etc.
I haven't even started using most of the features of the phone and my battery has died twice on my already while I was out at night.
How can that be normal or acceptable? I can't charge my battery every 6h...
brutzel1 said:
So how do you do it on a daily basis?
My battery is fully charged in the morning and lets assume I'm using the phone for what I bought it for - some music streaming, gps here and there if I need it, some web browsing, calls and texts etc.
I haven't even started using most of the features of the phone and my battery has died twice on my already while I was out at night.
How can that be normal or acceptable? I can't charge my battery every 6h...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you shouldn't have a smart phone? Battery technology is ****, it's a shame, but it's true. The only thing I can suggest is a spare battery, I carry one everywhere.
I generally watch an hour and a half of video a day on my phone, text, call, use the internet and I can still make a 9 hour day with 40%+ battery left, and just incase I am out and about in the evening before I have a chance to get the phone on charge I have the spare.
But with that said half hours charge from the mains will give you a good 30% topup I very seldom have to swap the batterys and I use a pretty juicy ROM.
Kalavere said:
It's just something you have to live with
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
or maybe not
Given his kind of use, 2 days should be normal. Right now I'm squeezing 3 days out of this battery, and that's only because I swap it out when it's at 10%, otherwise it could be a little longer... and a few calls here and there is not the only thing I did with it... it's still my work pda after all
Since it's pretty much stock, unless it gets better with time (the first recharging cycles are the worst) and even after a hard reset it won't get better, it probably is something wrong not software related.
Install battclock and check the standby battery drain, shouldn't be much higher than 4mA, up to 7mA could be normal, any higher than that, especially if significant, and you've got something wrong, and found the cause to the short battery life.
First off, buy a couple of cheap oem batteries from here...
Now, these eBay batteries have performed slightly better than the original battery...
Some of us smartphone users are so used to poor battery life we have power charging cradles at home work and car just to keep the charge up... And have spare batteries every in case of emergency...
I take my phone off the charger at 6am to go to work... My avg day is 6-10 calls, 20 reminders, an hour of UNO, an hour as a wifi router and I return home at 5pm with 50-60% battery life...
they are trying to make batteries smaller and thinner so they can make the phones thinner and smaller so battery life is compromised. But you do need to give it some time to settle in.
Back up batteries and cradles to charge them are cheap and an easy solution. So are extra chargers to keep at work, in the car, etc. Most people can charge their phone at least an hour during the day and that should give you all you need.
The only smartphone that I didn't carry an extra battery for was the moto q9c, because it came with an extended life battery. But on these phones, that probably isn't the best option.
So what did you guys do to improve the battery life of your HD2? Are there any specific programs (I heared about G-Profile) you are not supposed to use or did you guys just deinstall all the T-Mobile Apps?
If I can just get 1 day of actual use out of it I am OK with that. I just dont want to have die every second or third day if I use more often than normal...
Any suggestions or may tests I could do? I feel like I could stream music on Slacker for about 90 Minutes and the battery would be dead...
EDIT: Just did Battlog for about 15 Minutes, my phone uses between 15ma and 31ma when in standby. So where do I start, how do I find the culprit?
I love huge screen HTC devices and Im a power user, so my solutions for power issues are:
Callpod Fueltank Duo
http://palmtops.about.com/od/accessoriesperipherials/fr/Callpod-Fueltank-Duo-Review.htm
Mugen Extended-size High-capacity 2600mAh Battery for HTC HD2
http://www.mugenpowerbatteries.com/
There is a 15% discount right now, better hurry.
Extra chargers and thats it! Now I browse, calls, emails, music, videos, TV stream (Slingplayer) and maximize all of the other features of my HD2 t9193.
Software and the end-user are the cause behind battery drain. I've got 2.5days out of moderate use so I don't think it's the hardware at all.
Methods for testing battery consumption and proof it is typically software related
Hi,
At the risk of looking like I'm trying to hijack this thread, I started a discussion on this particular subject a while ago as feedback on my finding after reading almost all the threads I could find regarding battery use on the HD2. Lude219 is 100% correct, the issue is always software related (yea, I know there might be exceptions to the rule) and my phone was a prime example of that.
See the thread below that explains how to measure your battery consumption, has logs and screen shots from users you have high consumption and also people who have systems where battery life is more than 48 hours so that you can compare your results.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=718173
Regards
I'm also sure it's software related. My phone would use app. 2% overnight with all connections closed. This i tested over months. Then suddenly without me changing anything drastic software wise, it pulled 5% per 3-4 hours. So after going thru all the cleaning routines nothing helped exept a good "ram cleaning" . Somehow or other the phone starts processes over time wich consume alot of power. One would have to look into it with a process manager to find out what exactly it is. WinMo seems to be quite sofisticated looking at all the running processes. So my view is , keeping the system tidy might be the only way to save the extra power.This is where the huge diffrence to other platforms seems to be, it can take quite a while until you have configured your phone the way you need it. I am useing the stock rom 1.66 German
thanks you guys for participating and sharing your thoughts.
But now, here is a thinker:
Last night, I let my battery drain all the way to zero and then recharged it at night. The only other thing I did was installing BSBTweaks and Touch X Taskmanager. I also changed my Bandswitch Settings to turn off data when not used and put it at 60 sec (instead of 500 sec before).
And I couldnt believe what I was seeing, I took my phone off the charger this morning around 8.30am and now at 7pm I am still at 84%!!! I did not use the phone heavily but sent and received a few texts, made 1 call and played around with it for a little bit. Similiarly to what I did in the beginning after I got the phone, but then the battery had almost died at 7pm!
I am super happy and hope it stays like that but cannot explain why all the sudden it is that different...
Hi everyone,
This is a very usefull thread, for me it is, thanks to everybody that answered.
regrding the last post, a noobish quesition is
”Bandswitch Settings to turn off data when not used and put it at 60 sec (instead of 500 sec before): how do i do this?”
I remember stumbling upon this setting the day i got the phone and started viciously going through it.
Somehow it didnt store in my memory the path i went that day so i can try doing what the man sugested.
So if anyone can lay a hand, much obliged.
Regards
i lost 12 pct over night in 9 hours with my radio turned off last night and only gmail and texts were open...
with battlog how do i do the test so it stays in standby? it keeps turning the screen on and off when i run benchmark
You may want to flash a new radio. Try a new one each day and measure battery life. I use radio 2.12.50 and have had a good experience.
yeah but with my radio turned off the radio shouldnt affect it shoudl it?
i use blackberry to stream pandora radio thru aux for about 8 hours a day and it still has 2 bars left after that.
HD2 just sits there and kills the battery lol
what kind of phone is that when you have to disable all its functions every time you dont use it?
seriously this is called unfinished product or poor design, that is beeing sold to customers as a next best thing.
you guys can argue with me all you want. i heard many excuses from users advocating the companies. such as. if you dont like this than pay more for a better product. well HD2 is a better product, its a 500 dollar phone damn it.
but you dont realize that even the "better" products suffer from same underdevelopment syndrome.
companies spend millions on consumer research and consumers spend millions on **** they dont need every year. cows eat grass, consumers eat garbage made by big companies.
where are the better products? they dont exist because it became "normal" to have a faulty OS or for your phone buttons to fall off, or battery to explode.
companies worked long and hard to make consumers get used to the idea that garbage is just a part of life, and worked long and hard to minimize costs of production, and cut corners.
which corners?
the final QA testing that is not beeing done by a company, so they can release the phone 3 months earlier, the consumers pay for the phone and test it.
we work for the company and we pay for it instead of getting paid.
the phone breaks oh how sad ,
company takes note(dont use this cheap glue or the buttons fall off, get a lil more expensive glue next year)
so they use better glue and cut another corner and we buy another "new and improved phone" and this time screen goes dim oh dang not again...and it continues.
do you disconnect your car battery every night so it doesnt die? or when you buy a lexus do you drive with your AC off because it cant pull the car around when ac is on same time as the stereo?

Battery issue while on the charger....help.

Hopefully someone can help with this issue. Well, recently I noticed when my phone is on the charger and I am using it; it continues to drain the battery. I have not had this issue till now. Up till a week ago, I could either use my GPS, Talk/Text, and/or play music while my phone was being charged and it would continue to charge the battery. However, now if anything is running on my phone while it is on the charger it continues to drain as if it was not being charged.
It doesnt appear to be any specific apps or the ROM (Olympus Trinity XE Prime)I am running (at least I dont think its the problem).
I am wondering if anyone else has had this issue, if so is it a sign of having a bad battery?
Thanks.
It could be the charger. It may not be putting enough amps out.
A lot of apps will drain the battery faster than the charger is capable of keeping up with, but I've never had a problem with with charging in my car while using navigation, either google or sprint.
It could also be a bad connection. One of my chargers have a loose connection on my phone. It looks like it's charging, but it's not unless I it around.
Thanks for the response bro. It appears to continue to drain no matter which charger I use. I have mulitiple chargers some factory and others 3rd party, I think it might be my battery, but before I purchase a new battery I will re-try your advice and purchase a new charger to see if that does the trick. If not, then I will purchase a new battery.
Thanks again for your response.
Oh' and THANK YOU for your Military service to all of us citizens and our country!!!!!
wuestsider said:
Thanks for the response bro. It appears to continue to drain no matter which charger I use. I have mulitiple chargers some factory and others 3rd party, I think it might be my battery, but before I purchase a new battery I will re-try your advice and purchase a new charger to see if that does the trick. If not, then I will purchase a new battery.
Thanks again for your response.
Oh' and THANK YOU for your Military service to all of us citizens and our country!!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take it to a Sprint repair store. They can test the battery in about 10 minutes.

Battery Issues, Overheating and Broken Charging Port

Affected Device
Manufacturer: Samsung
Make: Galaxy S5
Model: SM-G900T
State When Bought: Certified Refurbished + Carrier Unlocked
Store Bought From: Amazon.com
Hi.
So far, my Galaxy S5 I bought back in August has been running into issues lately. Here are the situations I've been through lately:
-The charging port on my S5 is broken. I went to my local repair shop and the guy there said that it's $129 USD to repair the charging port (that's over 1/2 the cost of the phone itself) because the people repairing my phone have to remove the glass to get access to the port itself. The guy told me to go buy an external battery charger and new batteries instead, recommending me an external battery charger and 2 batteries on eBAY. The batteries and charger were new and only $15.
-Now here's where the problems with the batteries start. After using my phone with the new battery for 15 minutes and draining from 60% to 39%, it shut off. I tried turning my phone on again, but it just wouldn't. So I charged it to 100% and put it into my phone, but when I turned my phone on, the battery starts at 81%. No big deal for me, so I start using my phone as normal.
-Now: drainage issues. My S5, no matter what ROM I flash on it, whether it be CM-based or TouchWiz-based, will drain from 81% to 0% in just ONE HOUR AND THIRTY MINUTES, and this was my defective battery before it was replaced with the ones I got from eBay. I STILL have the same problem to this day and I don't know what's going on.
-And finally, the overheating issues. When I start up and use my phone on any TouchWiz-based ROM, it will heat to somewhere about 100 Degrees Fahrenheit to 150 Degrees Fahrenheit based on what I feel on my hand. So far I've found NO WAY to fix this at all, so please help
I appreciate all the helpful comments and I hope to get my phone back in shape soon.
Since you've gone 3 days with no help, I'll try to give you what very limited help I can.
First, the overheating and short battery life go hand-in-hand. Assuming this isn't a straight up hardware issue, it would seem that the processor is running hard servicing some app. Have you added anything recently that might be running in the background? If you aren't sure what the possible cause may be, maybe using a power monitoring app like Better Battery Stats would be worth a try.
As for the early shutoff, there is such a thing as battery calibration. Don't know much about it myself, but there's information out there.
Also, I suppose you could just have a bad battery. New doesn't necessarily mean good. Ebay stuff is not always trustworthy.

Charging 100 good or bad for mobile's health

So this is a long debate I guess,
Should I charge my device overnight and sleep? Does it affect my phone's health. My uncle who happens to be a telecom engineer and also thinks of him as a pro in Electronics says there is an auto circuit that cuts off as soon as the battery reaches to 100.
As far as I have read hardware, the auto-cut feature is present only in selected high end phones.
I don't want to end up with wrong infos.
I need accurate information by experts.

Charging 100 good or bad for mobile's health

So this is a long debate I guess,
Should I charge my device overnight and sleep? Does it affect my phone's health. My uncle who happens to be a telecom engineer and also thinks of him as a pro in Electronics says there is an auto circuit that cuts off as soon as the battery reaches to 100.
As far as I have read hardware, the auto-cut feature is present only in selected high end phones.
I don't want to end up with wrong infos.
And please people posting to this thread, please do not provide haphazard info. I need to get this doubt off my head.

Categories

Resources