Help Why does my Huawei P10 not charge with more power than it consumes?

[chris096]

Device: Huawei P10 (VTR-l09)

Symptoms:

When plugged in, the phone recognizes the charger but the battery state of charge does not increase but rather decreases. The charger and cable are fine (about 1A of charging current measured with other device) and the phones power consumption is not unusually high (no streaming, no games, the phone does not really get hot). When turned off the phone does not even recognize the charger.

The problem occured after i replaced the display with the help of an iFixit tutotial (no offence). After i had checked the corrected installation multiple times and it still did not work I reinstalled the old original display and replaced the old battery with a new one. Didn´t help. I also replaced the charging board. Sadly the problem did not disappear. A factory reset also did not help.
What could be the cause of the Problem?

I appreciate any of your thoughts on this, thanks a lot in advance!

 

[svim]

That's pretty much how all smartphone batteries get charged -- they require more current in the beginning (battery is at a lower percentage) and that gradually tapers off so they need less current towards the end (higher percentage). When you have a 1 amp charger it's not going to be a matter of always pushing out 1 amp of power, it's always going to vary widely. (... the battery itself is the main factor but all those tiny little wall-wort adapters are just too small to contain adequate power filtering components anyway. They simply cannot put out a really clean, unwavering amount of power even if that was the case.)
https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

 

[chris096]

That's pretty much how all smartphone batteries get charged -- they require more current in the beginning (battery is at a lower percentage) and that gradually tapers off so they need less current towards the end (higher percentage). When you have a 1 amp charger it's not going to be a matter of always pushing out 1 amp of power, it's always going to vary widely. (... the battery itself is the main factor but all those tiny little wall-wort adapters are just too small to contain adequate power filtering components anyway. They simply cannot put out a really clean, unwavering amount of power even if that was the case.)
https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

Hey svim,
I probably have not put it clear enough: My phones state of charge does not increase at all! Youre totally right, a 1A charger does not always have an output oft exactly 1A and it is completely normal that when the battery is say above 80% the current starts to decrease (standard CCCV), but as I said thats not the issue! (Its also not because of a wrong battery meter calibration)
Any other thoughts?

 

[svim]

OK, now I get what you're asking about.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Huawei+P10+Charging+Board+Replacement/103702
Given you've checked. re-checked things I have to wonder if there's a hardware issue with the motherboard itself then -- i.e. a component failed.

 

[puppykickr]

I realize that you said you have checked the charger and cable in another device, and it seemed to work fine then.

But, in my experience, USB cords are fickle at best.
I have spent good money on cords that were junk.
I have spent little money on cords that were great.

I even have cords that do exactly as you have descrbed in your issue, but they work just fine with other devices.

So as far as I am concerned, the cord is the weak link in the charging chain.

The best way to figure out what is going on is to check the battery settings while the phone is charging.

Unfortunatetly, with so many different types of Android devices, the information you need is not always in the same place from one device to another.

What you need to know is the amperage that the cable is providing to the phone.

For simplicity, an app can be used to show this information.

I know of a few good ones, but some are easier to use than others.

My favorite, but takes some proper setting up:

https://apkpure.com/p/com.waterdaaan.cpufloat

And then there is the easiest, but it does have ads:

https://m.apkpure.com/ampere/com.gombosdev.ampere

 

[chris096]

Hi puppykickr,
thank you for your reply!

Thats how i measured the charging current of the charger and cable combination with an other device in the first place - with an app. (used ampere)
When i measure the charging current with the problematic device using ampere interesting things happen: First as I plug it in the charging current is at about 1A but the current immediately starts to decrease until it settles down to 0A.
So it will probably not be because of the charger or cable (have already tried different working chargers and cables anyway with no succes)

Any other thoughts or should i just sell it as broken and buy a new one?

 

[puppykickr]

Hi puppykickr,
thank you for your reply!

Thats how i measured the charging current of the charger and cable combination with an other device in the first place - with an app. (used ampere)
When i measure the charging current with the problematic device using ampere interesting things happen: First as I plug it in the charging current is at about 1A but the current immediately starts to decrease until it settles down to 0A.
So it will probably not be because of the charger or cable (have already tried different working chargers and cables anyway with no succes)

Any other thoughts or should i just sell it as broken and buy a new one?

First, Ampere says in the description that it is not an accurate measurement- it is only for comparison.
And by that, they mean comparing different cords on the same device, using the same charger.

So you must compare two or more cords using the problem device with the same charger.

Only then will you know which cord is better.

Of course, both cords may be bad, or just not a good match for the device.

I would recommend checking it with every single cord you have.

 

[puppykickr]

I see that you replaced the battery.
The problem is, this could still be your problem.
Batteries are only produced about the same amount of time that the devices are, so even when a 'new' battery is purchased, it is very probable that the new battery has been sitting in a warehouse since that phone was new.
So it is possible to buy a new battery that is as bad as the one you replace, because they are about the same age.