Help Galaxy S4 battery wont charge now...at all

[elnbryant]

This weekend, the battery in Galaxy 4 began having issues. First, I noticed that phone felt hot in my purse one evening. I didnt think too much about it, and put it on the charger when I went to bed. The following morning, it had only charged to 53%. I changed outlets and began to recharge. The most it got to was 84% after several hours. The whole day, the phone kept losing battery and would not charge at all. I called Tmobile as this phone is less than two months old. They wanted to do a Master Reset, but since the phone is so new and just set up the way I like it, I insisted they replace the battery instead, which they finally agreed to do. I havent gotten the new battery yet, but should have it tomorrow. The phone is completely dead now. Thinking back, I hope the heat I felt from the phone was just contained in the battery and not harmful to the handset itself. I am worried and had to pay full retail cost for this phone. I will keep you posted. Anyone else have battery issues??

 

[Szadzik]

Are you using both the original charger AND cable?

 

[Frisco]

This weekend, the battery in Galaxy 4 began having issues. First, I noticed that phone felt hot in my purse one evening. I didnt think too much about it, and put it on the charger when I went to bed. The following morning, it had only charged to 53%. I changed outlets and began to recharge. The most it got to was 84% after several hours. The whole day, the phone kept losing battery and would not charge at all. I called Tmobile as this phone is less than two months old. They wanted to do a Master Reset, but since the phone is so new and just set up the way I like it, I insisted they replace the battery instead, which they finally agreed to do. I havent gotten the new battery yet, but should have it tomorrow. The phone is completely dead now. Thinking back, I hope the heat I felt from the phone was just contained in the battery and not harmful to the handset itself. I am worried and had to pay full retail cost for this phone. I will keep you posted. Anyone else have battery issues??

Hello elnbryant. I don't blame you for those concerns on a nice shiny new S4!

But the factory data reset is a great way to clear out all sorts of issues. However before doing that, there's a good chance you can discover what might be hogging your resources and causing battery drain/heat.

The new battery might not be necessary. Think about the apps/widgets/launchers you've installed from Play Store (or other sources). Also think about the configuration of any apps or widgets that have the ability to autosync, such as Gmail or any email app you have set up, Facebook and any social networking apps you use, weather/news, etc.

All that stuff working at the same time can really tax a battery, not to mention cause slow downs over time as the services behind those apps and widgets compete for resources.

A factory data reset is good to "start over," but again, if you're willing to do some investigating and some poking around in Application Manager (in the main menu) where you can select "running," you might get an eye opener or two.. or three.

I should also mention that, as brought up in the post by Szadik, the charging hardware can be to blame if a 3rd party cable or charging block is being used.

Other possibilities include debris around the charging port, cleanable with rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab.

 

[elnbryant]

THanks for your replies. Yes, I am using the factory included original charger and cable. I learned early on to turn off all the updates, notifications etc that eat battery, so I don't think that is a problem. Right now, the phone wont turn on at all. The battery is dead, dead, dead and when I try to start it up and see if it has any charge on it, I see a yellow warning box, but it is just a flash and I cant read it. Worries me...The only thing I did that might have affected this (and you tell me if you think it did), was used a 3rd party car charger before this happened. This 3rd party charger belonged to my previous phone and since it fit, I used it the night this happened for a little while. I am really concerned that the battery has done damage, but my kids say probably not. Not even sure how long the warranty on these phones is good for.

 

[shmn]

When I first got my GS4 my battery life was terrible and charging took forever. I took it back to the Sprint store where I bought it and they have a battery load tester to test batteries. They tested my battery, found it was bad and opened a brand new GS4 box and gave me the battery out of that box. No problems since and I have actually been impressed with the battery life compared to previous smart phones.

Take it back to where you bought it from and see if they can help you out. This is why I always buy my phones at a local store...I've bought all my phones over the past 15 years from two local stores and I they always take care of me.

 

[Szadzik]

Now that you have drained the battery completely, and keep draining it by trying to turn it on even more, it will not charge unless you leave it on charging for several hours. Plus you are damaging the battery by draining it too much.

 

[elnbryant]

Thanks SHMN, Wish I had bought it in a store. I ordered directly from TMobile and got it two weeks earlier than the stores even had it due to my older phone not working properly. I was just so excited to finally get a decent phone. First phone I hadn't ordered off Ebay in a while. I am hoping all will be well when the new battery arrives Tuesday tomorrow. It was shipped from customer service. If it doesn't charge then, I will do the master reset and go from there. I was just taken aback to have trouble like this with a brand new phone!

Does anyone know if using the third party car charger from my older phone that worked well in the past would have caused this trouble with the S4?

 

[Szadzik]

Does anyone know if using the third party car charger from my older phone that worked well in the past would have caused this trouble with the S4?

Improbable, but not impossible.

 

[steve1401]

I'd agree with Szadzik that it is improbable, but nothing should be dismissed as impossible. On my S2 and S4 I have used a myriad of micro USB chargers from differing sources (but all OEM like HTC/Blackberry etc). None have ever caused a problem.

One time I did have an issue with my S2 overheating and this was due to (after much trial and error) a simple note application. The phone got red hot (ok I could touch it but it was very hot). After I removed the bad app, the phone didn't over heat and was not damaged, so hopefully this eases your fears here.

Also, a friend at work had an almost identical problem with his S3. It turned out to be dust that had collected on the contacts. He's not had the phone long, but had removed the batter on various occasions for whatever reason and a tiny piece of what looked like a hair of wool turned out to be the problem.

You seem to have both the overheating and no charging happen at the same time, but still worth checking assuming you can get the battery to charge at all.

Good luck getting this sorted, but if you don't, you can call Samsung support and they will replace the phone if T-Mobile don't (at least they do in the UK - I see you're USA).

 

[zebug]

Something is wrong, hopefully its just your battery and not the phone. I don't care if you stream HD video all night....with it plugged in it should still charge. So regardless of some rogue app running and syncing all the time, while plugged in, you should be golden and you weren't. Good luck and let us know if the new battery fixes it.

 

[elnbryant]

Ok, after lots of trial and error, I think we have the problem solved, though still unsure of why it happened. TMobile graciously sent me out a new battery (although they told me they weren't supposed to as the battery is not covered under the warranty). Took about 10 days...by that time, I had decided to go ahead and use the car charger, which worked great! So when I got the new battery, I installed it and tried used the original charger again. Same thing...drained the battery. So I called TMobile back and they said they would send me a new adapter to see if it would help charge the phone. Took another week and the same thing happened...drained the battery instead of charging it....I went into a TMobile store and they were able to charge the phone using their charger, so we figured out it must be the USB cord that was the problem, not the adapter or battery. It took tons of time and effort, but I appreciated Tmobile sticking with me since I was told it wasn't covered under the warranty. After all, I had just purchased a $600+ phone from them in the last 40 days. Wonder if anyone else had this problem or just my phone?

 

[erikab60]

Yes, we are having the same problem with the S4. I have done some research on the internet and it appears that it may be an Andorid software problem. No surpirse there!! We are on our third phone in 87 days and if this 3rd one does the same thing I am going back to the Corporate ATT store and demaning them to replace this piece of shit with an iPhone. NO MORE ANDROID PHONES!!!

 

[jj14x]

Yes, we are having the same problem with the S4. I have done some research on the internet and it appears that it may be an Andorid software problem. No surpirse there!! We are on our third phone in 87 days and if this 3rd one does the same thing I am going back to the Corporate ATT store and demaning them to replace this piece of shit with an iPhone. NO MORE ANDROID PHONES!!!

RIGHT! I'm sure your research must have shown that ALL the Samsung Galaxy S4 phones must have the same problem, because they are all after all running the same Android software... wait... it must be ALL the Android phones that are running Jellybean (not just the S4).

Powerful research!


You should rush back to the corporate ATT store NOW! Similar research has shown that the Android software problems can cause batteries to burst into flames

/s

First post - yep. Off to a wonderful start.

 

[LaTuFu]

Yes, we are having the same problem with the S4. I have done some research on the internet and it appears that it may be an Andorid software problem. No surpirse there!! We are on our third phone in 87 days and if this 3rd one does the same thing I am going back to the Corporate ATT store and demaning them to replace this piece of shit with an iPhone. NO MORE ANDROID PHONES!!!

Please provide source links to all of your research that shows this. After 10+ Android devices over the last 3-4 years, I have yet to read any such article or experience any such issue as you vaguely describe.

 

[jj14x]

Please provide source links to all of your research that shows this. After 10+ Android devices over the last 3-4 years, I have yet to read any such article or experience any such issue as you vaguely describe.

ye of little faith.... the poster said that he/she did research on the internet.... ON THE INTERNET!!! What else do you want? Proof?? ya expect him/her to keep track of all the research he/she did ON THE INTERNET??

/s

 

[lotus49]

Yes, we are having the same problem with the S4. I have done some research on the internet and it appears that it may be an Andorid software problem. No surpirse there!! We are on our third phone in 87 days and if this 3rd one does the same thing I am going back to the Corporate ATT store and demaning them to replace this piece of shit with an iPhone. NO MORE ANDROID PHONES!!!

Since the OP has identified the USB cable as the problem (presumably because of some internal short in it) it is absolutely nothing to do with Android so what you say makes no sense whatever.

 

[itsallgood]

I had a problem with my Atrix 4G OME wall charger that went bad after several years of use. (Wouldn't charge the phone.) My mom has a S3 and she had to replace the USB cord because some of the prongs were bad. So, It can happen.