Help A little help, please!

[dolphin041599]

I picked up my Droid Bionic over the weekend. I also bought the extended battery as it was on sale. The extended battery took 14 hours to charge and then died after 4 hours (minimal use - just some e-mails and other things - less than an hour of use time). I knew that couldn't be right, so I took the battery back and exchanged it for a new one. So far, it looks like it might be about 14 hours to charge the second extended battery too. Its been 12 hours and its up to 80%. I am using the wall charger (the one that came with the phone), not the USB/computer cord.

Is this a normal charge time for first time use? The sales guy said it takes about 8 hours to charge the extended battery, but this is way more than 8. And its dying so quickly. I haven't actually gotten a chance to use the phone much.

Is there another issue at play here? I've checked what's running in the background and that seems normal as well - nothing extensive from what I can see. Am I missing something?

Also, once this battery issue gets resolved, how long can I expect the extended battery to last before having to charge it again?

 

[Stingrayracing]

That seems too long to me. My extended battery was about half charged when I got it and took a couple of hours to reach full charge. I used the phone until the battery drained completely and shut the phone off. It charged completely overnight (not more than 6 hrs). After this charging I got almost 48 hrs out of it with moderate use. You may have some other issues going on.

 

[Thom]

Welcome.

Just about everything you will ever want to know on the subject is in ... http://androidforums.com/motorola-d...ic-battery-life-video-series.html#post3462318.

There are a few real battery hogs on the Bionic that can reduce battery life ...

Mobile Hotspot
Social Location
Any app using GPS

... Thom

 

[trophynuts]

Yeah i was going to say that you may have a rogue app somewhere causing this. Does your stock battery take longer than what seems normal to charge also? Also have you tried charging it with the phone off to see if that speeds it up. If so then i would definitely start looking at some apps.

 

[dolphin041599]

Thanks! I'll check out those battery videos and report back.

I haven't really charged the stock battery. Maybe I'll try that and see what happens, so that I have something to compare it to.

 

[dolphin041599]

I think there is something else going on. I went through all those videos and followed most of his recommendations, but in the hour it took me to do that, I went from 100% to 60%.

Are there issues with this phone?

Also, it seems abnormally warm to me. I checked the boards and it seems like it does get warmer with lots of use and with charging, but that seems to affect the screen. My screen is warm, as well as the back.

 

[amageus]

Possible you might have a lemon. I've never had a warm screen unless I have left it on for hours which i've done once while sleeping >.>. Other than that my screen really never gets that warm. Usually it requires me to run a lot of apps to get it warm. What does your battery stats show?

 

[Yeltnerb]

Warm screen indicates that something is hung and is forcing a lot of CPU which will drain battery power.

For me I find that the browser has multiple open windows including one that is updating a lot, or another application is not properly closing.

I would look and see what was running.

 

[dolphin041599]

Took the phone back to Verizon and they agreed something was not right, so they gave me a new one.

Charged the phone and it was at 100% this morning - the charging was moving right along last night (from 15% to 40% in about an hour).

Its down to 70% (in about 4 hours), but I've been using it alot, setting up accounts and downloading apps, so I'm not too concerned. Hoping it lasts the rest of the day. I'll make some adjustments based on those videos, and that should help as well.

Thanks to everyone for their help!

 

[amageus]

Glad to see that you were able to get a replacement. Make sure to calibrate your phone. Let it die to 0% and then recharge it all the way to 100%.

 

[dolphin041599]

Glad to see that you were able to get a replacement. Make sure to calibrate your phone. Let it die to 0% and then recharge it all the way to 100%.

Thanks for the tip! I will. I didn't know this was necessary.

 

[doogald]

Actually, be careful about draining it too far. Draining to the point where it warns you to charge is good enough. Draining a Li-ion battery too far can be harmful to the charging circuitry on the battery pack.

See this for some good information about batteries (the whole site is good, actually): Explaining the Do's and Don'ts of Battery Charging - Battery University

(In case you weren't aware, the batteries are Li-ion, so look at the third column.)

 

[rdsok]

Actually, be careful about draining it too far. Draining to the point where it warns you to charge is good enough. Draining a Li-ion battery too far can be harmful to the charging circuitry on the battery pack.

Generally speaking about LiPo's ( lithium polymer ) like used in our phones, that statement is true but it doesn't apply to the way the Bionic ( and I assume many other phones ) shows the battery charge. When our phones show 0% charge left... they are actually still have @ 3.2v left which is still in the safe zone for a LiPo battery.

So to sum it up ... A LiPo battery rated at 3.7v shouldn't be drained below 3.2v ( our Bionic's show this as 0% ) and shouldn't be charged over 4.2v ( our Bionic's show this as 100% ) ... Draining a LiPo down below the 3.2v or charging them over the 4.2v will shorten the batteries useable life.

Thankfully, Motorola thought it through and made it simple for the average user so they don't have to think about it...

The numbers I gave are for a standard LiPo... I did notice that the standard Motorola battery I've got lists the nominal voltage at 3.8v and not 3.7v... although the extended Motorola battery is labeled as a 3.7v... So I suspect the standard battery has a slightly different chemistry which would explain the minor difference in the listings.