Battery Keeps Frying!! HELP!

[cmb123]

I just bought my HTC Eris about two months ago. While I've had my Droid, I've been charging it in the wall and in my computer with the USB cord, and have had absolutely no problems whatsoever.

Just this past Monday night however I was charging my computer and I had my phone plugged into my computer. All of a sudden my phone shut off and wouldn't turn back on. I tried taking the battery out several times, but it was just dead. The "charging" light wasn't even turning on.

On Tuesday, I went to Verizon and they gave me a new phone and a new battery because they said by battery was just fried. When I went home, I got all of my settings back to where they were before, and it was time for me to plug my phone in and charge it. I plugged it into my computer, and no more than a half an hour later, BAM it stopped working AGAIN!

I went back to Verizon, with the new phone, new battery and I brought my charger with me. The guy there gave me a new battery with the same phone I got earlier that morning and a new charger. Same thing, I come home, try to plug it in to my computer again, and BAM it stops working. (You can imagine my frustration.)

I go back to Verizon, they give me a new battery again and a new charger. They tell me they are going to plug the phone into my new charger there and watch it for an hour or so. Once I came back again and my phone was working fine, they adviced me to not plug the phone into my computer anymore, because maybe that was the problem (which does not make sense to me at all, because I had been charging it with my computer for months now.)

Anyways, I got home and when it came time to charge the phone, I plugged it into an outlet in my room. About an hour later, it shut off again. I went back to the store (my fifth trip in one day) and they came to the conclusion that maybe the outlets in my apartment all of a sudden started frying the batteries. They said the voltage coming out of the outlets might be too high. But I've been charging my phone in this apartment for quite some time now, so this does not make sense to me at all.

They ordered a new battery for me and I got it today.. my phone has been working but I haven't charged it yet. It's about to die, and I have no idea what to do or how to charge it because I'm afraid the battery will fry again. I am at a total loss of what to do...has anyone ever heard of something like this before?!

 

[gpa111]

Charge it at a friends house. See if that works. Not the same building though... or charge at work... school... something.

 

[Frisco]

That's quite an experience, CMB.

I'd be inclined to do what gpa suggested before taking the bigger step of requesting yet another phone.

Repeated occurrences are usually resolved by taking away one or more of the elements of that repetition to test the other elements. In this case the "other elements" are the device, charger and battery. The main element is the location (electrical location) of the charging apparatus.

Take it to the other side of town (I'm inclined to ask you if you're living in a country other than the U.S., or in a disaster area such as Tennessee or New Orleans) and put it on charge there.

If it's ok, then you've isolated the problem to likely voltage spikes in the original charging environment.

If the problem remains you've been issued two devices with the same glitch. That would be unusual, but not impossible these days.

 

[smacky]

They're giving you an OEM HTC charger, right? Don't let them give you a generic one from VZW.

And you are using the Eris charger, not the Droid charger, right? I dunno if the Droid is miniUSB as well, but you shouldn't change chargers up without looking at the voltage numbers first..

 

[alprazolam]

When you plug your phone into the computer, is the computer plugged into the wall? If the phone fries with your computer unplugged from a power source, then there is a serious issue either going on in your apartment or with the phone. Definitely go try it somewhere else.

You may want to have maintenance come out and check your voltage. If it fries your phones, other things could be next.

 

[alprazolam]

They're giving you an OEM HTC charger, right? Don't let them give you a generic one from VZW.

And you are using the Eris charger, not the Droid charger, right? I dunno if the Droid is miniUSB as well, but you shouldn't change chargers up without looking at the voltage numbers first..

The Moto uses micro-usb while Eris uses mini-usb. Won't fit. Would be very convenient if so because my girlfriend and I wouldn't have to have 5 chargers all over creation.

 

[icomeanon]

if you have a multimeter, check your outlets. depending on how the fuses are set up, check it see if any of them are fried. have you tried to charge it through a surge protector?

 

[mcapozzi]

Yeah, grab a multimeter. If the numbers are between 114 and 126V your're good to go. If it goes above/below that, I'd call the landlord and tell him, since it is out of code and a safety hazard.

Unfortunately fuses and circuit breakers are only designed to break at a high amperage, not a high voltage. As long as the load on the circuit is low, a power spike can go unnoticed by the circuit breaker.

I would definitely invest in a couple decent surge suppressors.

-Mike

 

[smacky]

Multimeter? When I was growing up, we used forks to test the current.

 

[mcapozzi]

Multimeter? When I was growing up, we used forks to test the current.

He needs to know how much current, not just whether or not there is current.



-Mike

 

[alprazolam]

He needs to know how much current, not just whether or not there is current.



-Mike

Yeah...but there is a scale for the fork test.

If he's stuck to the wall shaking but hair not on fire. Current is good. If on the floor with heart stopped and hair burning, too much.

 

[mcapozzi]

Yeah...but there is a scale for the fork test.

If he's stuck to the wall shaking but hair not on fire. Current is good. If on the floor with heart stopped and hair burning, too much.

He'll need a camcorder (like the one on his phone) to record the test cause I doubt he's going to remember too much after plugging in the fork.

-Mike

Also, it wouldn't be a bad way for him to make $400 bucks on Break.com (he has to survive though).

 

[Frisco]

Using a surge protector/voltage conditioner device when charging is a good idea, too..

..good thought, icomeanon.

 

[BeastMD]

A surge protector probably won't help if his voltage is a bit too high as they are meant to clamp on surges of electricity not a slightly high voltage consideration. Plus if the voltage is high it would probably fry the charger and/or the phone long before it fried the battery as the battery is sort of insulated by the phone and the charge from the high load.

 

[OfTheDamned]

That is something you definitely want to have checked out as you may be looking at something far worse than a burned up phone battery in the future.

I would also look into renters insurance, just in case.

Multimeter? When I was growing up, we used forks to test the current.

That explains so much, smacky.

 

[icomeanon]

Using a surge protector/voltage conditioner device when charging is a good idea, too..

..good thought, icomeanon.

love surge protectors so much i should marry them!

A surge protector probably won't help if his voltage is a bit too high as they are meant to clamp on surges of electricity not a slightly high voltage consideration. Plus if the voltage is high it would probably fry the charger and/or the phone long before it fried the battery as the battery is sort of insulated by the phone and the charge from the high load.

that made no sense, i think...you're saying that a surge protector won't help because its for surges not high loads, but if the voltage is high then the phone would be fried, not the battery, but what the OP said is batteries fried not phones, therefore it'd have to be a surge, no? i just confused myself...

 

[Blrfl]

Yeah, grab a multimeter. If the numbers are between 114 and 126V your're good to go. If it goes above/below that, I'd call the landlord and tell him, since it is out of code and a safety hazard.

Always a good idea, but if the charger isn't malfunctioning, it will run on anything from 100-240 VAC and produce the same 5 VDC on the USB connector.

Beyond getting 234 across the two phases that come into most houses, the voltage in your house is governed outboard of the electric meter.

--Mark