iPhone 3GS battery issues

By tomwarren
in Hardware Hangout

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Grand Master

tomwarren Veteran

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I can only assume this is a battery issue. Sometimes the battery percentage reads 60% which is correct but then shoots up to 80% later?! I haven't charged it. On Saturday I placed into my dock in the car to play music and charge and it turned itself off, I couldn't turn it back on or hard reset it or anything whilst I was out and then randomly it came back on and said 78%.

I got into my car this morning, it had 70% or something according to the meter and shortly after I docked it, it started turning off. Nothing would make it boot up again. I got home and plugged it into a wall charger and it had the little red bar indicating it was out of battery. I didn't have time to charge it for longer than a few mins so left for work. I got to work and tried to turn it on and it finally came out with 78% battery?! A moment ago it shot up to 95% battery and i haven't charged it. On the usage screen it says I last full charged it 30 mins ago?!

There must be something majorly wrong with the battery or do you think having it docked in the car messed it up and short circuited it somehow?

I am going to return it to o2 today as long as they have stock!

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Grand Master

HawkMan

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I can only assume this is a battery issue. Sometimes the battery percentage reads 60% which is correct but then shoots up to 80% later?! I haven't charged it. On Saturday I placed into my dock in the car to play music and charge and it turned itself off, I couldn't turn it back on or hard reset it or anything whilst I was out and then randomly it came back on and said 78%.

I got into my car this morning, it had 70% or something according to the meter and shortly after I docked it, it started turning off. Nothing would make it boot up again. I got home and plugged it into a wall charger and it had the little red bar indicating it was out of battery. I didn't have time to charge it for longer than a few mins so left for work. I got to work and tried to turn it on and it finally came out with 78% battery?! A moment ago it shot up to 95% battery and i haven't charged it. On the usage screen it says I last full charged it 30 mins ago?!

There must be something majorly wrong with the battery or do you think having it docked in the car messed it up and short circuited it somehow?

I am going to return it to o2 today as long as they have stock!

Well at least you can easily replace the battery yourself with the mandated maximum 3 screws .... :p

yeah, sounds like a battery issue, at first I thoguht it could be a heat/cold issue, but the changes seems to radical, and the whole lost the whole charge when inside part don't mesh with that. but it could also be the battery balance/control circuits in the phone. As I assume the iPhone uses LiPo.

Proficient

d4v1d05

Posted
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Well at least you can easily replace the battery yourself with the mandated maximum 3 screws .... :p

I'm sure even if it was a phone that had an "easily" replaceable battery, he'd still take it back since it's less than a few days old. I know that if I bought a new phone, and the battery was broken, I'd be sure to first go and buy a new battery... Oh wait no, I'd take it back!

@OP: Take it back already, and complain a lot, they might give you some free stuff? :p

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HacKage

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I upgraded my 3G to use the 3.0 OS, and yesterday my battery was totally dead, plugged it into usb and it only showed about 5% charge for ages, probably around 2 hours still the same, battery meter didn't move.unplugged it, plugged it back in and the same.I just thought the usb wasn't pushing out enough to charge it, but then when I did it again the batter level jumped upto around 80% charge.

Maybe the problem you are havibng is with the 3.0 OS and not your battery?

Grand Master

tomwarren Veteran

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I upgraded my 3G to use the 3.0 OS, and yesterday my battery was totally dead, plugged it into usb and it only showed about 5% charge for ages, probably around 2 hours still the same, battery meter didn't move.unplugged it, plugged it back in and the same.I just thought the usb wasn't pushing out enough to charge it, but then when I did it again the batter level jumped upto around 80% charge.

Maybe the problem you are havibng is with the 3.0 OS and not your battery?

Hmm maybe this is a 3.0 issue then. I am going to return the device though just to make sure!

Grand Master

crazzyyfool

Posted
Posted

I'm having battery issues with my 3G since updating to OS 3.0, though I'm not sure if that is to do with 3.0 or that fact that I've JB mine. My battery seems to deplete 1% every 3-4 minutes - and thats just with the phone unlocked - not actually using it. I have enabled the battery percentage thingy and I think it does more harm than good to be honest. I hardly ever checked my battery level before, now I seem to be checking it like every few minutes. Its crazy. I might just turn off the percentage option and forget about it.

Grand Master

Brian M. Veteran

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I'm having battery issues with my 3G since updating to OS 3.0, though I'm not sure if that is to do with 3.0 or that fact that I've JB mine. My battery seems to deplete 1% every 3-4 minutes - and thats just with the phone unlocked - not actually using it. I have enabled the battery percentage thingy and I think it does more harm than good to be honest. I hardly ever checked my battery level before, now I seem to be checking it like every few minutes. Its crazy. I might just turn off the percentage option and forget about it.

What is quite scary is the amount of free memory the device has (you can turn on the display in SBSettings). When using Safari, my 3G has about 10MB of free memory.

I might do some digging around to see if I can find the cause.

Contributor

HacKage

Posted
Posted

Also, just noticed today, maybe it's just me, but with 3.0 my battery life isn't that great.I've had my phone on the home screen for around 4.5-5hrs and it has just flashed up less than 20% remaining.It was fully charged this morning when I left the house.

Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
Posted

Software issues where the software hasn't yet calibrated towards the battery should not cause the device to shut off because the software thinks it's dead. also software should usually know the % of the battery even if it doesn't know the time remaining to go with that %.

all indications are that the battery or control circuits for the battery are FUBAR. That or the software is horribly written.

Grand Master

tomwarren Veteran

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Software issues where the software hasn't yet calibrated towards the battery should not cause the device to shut off because the software thinks it's dead. also software should usually know the % of the battery even if it doesn't know the time remaining to go with that %.

all indications are that the battery or control circuits for the battery are FUBAR. That or the software is horribly written.

well it's down to 20% now so I think it knows how much it has now. I am gonna drain it all the way down and then see what happens tomorrow.

Grand Master

Brian M. Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
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Software issues where the software hasn't yet calibrated towards the battery should not cause the device to shut off because the software thinks it's dead. also software should usually know the % of the battery even if it doesn't know the time remaining to go with that %.

all indications are that the battery or control circuits for the battery are FUBAR. That or the software is horribly written.

If it's shutting off, that's usually the battery reporting an incorrect percentage/capacity - most software (Desktop OSs included) will shut off at a certain percentage to avoid any incomplete data writes to disk which might cause alot of damage.

If it still does it after 2 or so discharge cycles, then I'd say the battery is buggered.

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SkyDX

Posted
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First I should mention that the whole battery percentage indicator never worked properly, not officially from Apple and not the homebrew one.

Second it could be very well the 3.0 FW as my iPod Touch 2G battery also does what it wants ever since I have 3.0 :(

Rising Star

veritas310

Posted
Posted

My fiance just got the 3G S and barely used it yesterday and it was close to dead by 4pm. Not sure what's going on, she's going to take it in and get it replaced or looked at, I believe it's with the 3G S's as well, I have a 3G and have had no problems or changes since the 3.0 update. I'll post a reply if Apple has anything to say on the matter. Good luck!

*Note: The back of the phone was also very warm, even when in stand-by mode. I'm thinking it's definitely the battery.

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