Help Samsung Galaxy S3 battery problem.

[Keith K]

I have had my Galaxy S3 for about two and a half years now and am on my second (standard) battery for it, this second battery has lasted somewhat better than the first however it now loses power whilst in-use and charging and will charge unbelievably slowly whilst not in use (around 2-3% per hour). This means I have to regularly turn my phone off to charge and have drastically reduced my use of it, I always have power saving mode turned on and have disabled as many off the unused applications that I dare to disable without risk of crippling some key running program.

I do use my phone for games (mainly Clash of Clans, wow is that game addictive...anyway) and I know that that is a drain on power however its never been this bad.

I have now recently noticed that when I turn my phone off to charge, while at say... 5% charge, when the phone is turned off and the battery display shows, the battery shows as almost half full, when turning the phone back on there will be around 45% power left.

Ive recently ordered an "extra capacity battery" to replace my current one (which is late in arriving in the post) and am now wondering whether this problem is just the battery alone, Im no expert on the inner workings of mobile phones but I do believe that some batteries contain in-built processors to determine charge level for the phone to display.

Would I be correct in assuming that my battery has run its course and needs replacing? Or is this a problem with the device itself?

My phone is rather central to my life (my only means of internet access/email access and my only means of contact with my girlfriend who lives several hours away) so any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[funkylogik]

Have you tried a new charger/cable?

 

[Keith K]

My charger cable works fine, it charges my girlfrinds S5 when were together and her cable charges my S3 exactly the same as my charger does.

Ive also only just experienced a flickering screen and signal loss immediately after creating this thread, ive seen in other posts here that that is a typical sign of a battery on its last legs or am i mistaken?

 

[funkylogik]

Not sure man sorry. I know my s3 screen flickers right before the battery dies though

 

[Keith K]

The screen flickering has made me much more confident about it being a battery problem rather than anything else.

Ive seen information in various places about newer versions of the Android operating systems being much more draining on the batteries of older device models, I think that coupled with the age of my battery and the amount of use it gets kind of shows why this is probably a battery problem and not my device. I just figured id ask people here to make sure.

 

[funkylogik]

Cool. Let us know how the new battery goes then mate

 

[Keith K]

Its just arrived in the post now, it certainly looks up to the job, I'll run my old battery dry and try the new one then definately let you know how it goes, thanks for your help

 

[hiredgun]

Wish you good luck Keith, and just wanted to tell you that you are NOT alone with those S3 battery problems!! If I got a buck for every time I've seen someone complain about the S3 battery I'd have some nice pocket change!!!

 

[chanchan05]

Well, considering that on heavy users the battery does need to be replaced around once a year. The batteries are usually good for 600 charge cycles. So if you drain your phone enough that you need to charge around 2x a day, yeah, that's every year then the battery starts going bonk.