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Still Having Problem with Battery Overheating with Car Dock/Charger when using Maps/Navigation

I'm having a problem with the battery overheating when using Google Navigation in the OEM Samsung car dock and car charger. On a trip last weekend, I started off with a fully charged battery (because posts on other sites have complained that the Charge cannot keep up with the power draw of the Google nav app while using the car charger). About an hour into my trip, I got a message that the battery was overheating and to unplug the charger which I did. I then had to contend with the screen going out because it was running on the battery. I let the phone discharge to about 70% then tried the car charger again. Within a few minutes, I got the same overheating message. It was not an overly hot day and the car A/C was set at 68 degrees.

This morning (with the battery at about 85%) I tried to use the Navigation without the car dock while charging and got the same results...the phone battery overheated and I had to unplug the charger. The battery temperature reached 116 degrees. (also, the battery level was also dropping while using the Maps or Nav application even though it was hooked up to the car charger).

I'm very disappointed with this situation since I was hoping I could replace my old Garmin GPS with the Charge. But between the phone dimming the screen while running on battery, and having a depleted battery in the phone at the end of the trip, its just not a viable option. I really like this phone, but I'm running against the "return" clock.

Any ideas?

Could this be a software problem that will be corrected by an update in the future?

fyi: other Charge problems in the last 5 days:

- dropping audio on calls to other Verizon phones.

- use of camera flash causing the phone to reboot.

(I do have the 'class 4' 32gb card in my Charge)

Thanks in advance,

Rich

Comments

WCMack

Dear Richs10,

There are some other threads on this forum about battery overheating and other actual or suspected battery-related problems with the Charge. JerryF seems to be the expert on this issue, so you may want to search his posts.

I hope things work out for you.

JerryF

Richs10,

Next time it's in the car dock go to Settings> About Phone>Status and confirm that the battery is charging while it's in the car dock. . If not maybe your battery is BAD, or if the car dock does NOT charge that's it, you cannot use the Charge for NAV when driving.

Also, because of the battery overheating I suggest a NEW battery because overheating can be a sign of a BAD battery.

JerryF

richs1000@gmail.com

Thanks Jerry. I'm going to try it out on the way home tonight. I'll let you know.

On the battery issue, I have two that were right out of the box last week. Is it possible the are bad from the factory?

Rich

richs1000@gmail.com

Jerry:

Yes, the phone is charging while in the car dock. I confirmed it both under the "about phone-status-battery status" menu and by my battery widget. By watching the battery widget, I also noticed that the voltage steadily increased over the ride home. It started at about 3.90 volts and ended at 4.02 volts. I don't know if that is significant. This time the battery did not overheat. The Max temp was 110 degrees, but no notice to disconnect came up. This might be because the sun was behind me on the drive home rather than beating down on the dash like it was this weeked.

I've ordered a cheap universal dock from Amazon for about $15.00 which clips onto the a/c vent. I want to see if this keeps the temperature down. If this works, I can still return the fancy-schmantzy Samsung OEM car dock. (The car-dock interface wasn't that impressive anyway).

Please let me know if the volt change means anything.

And thanks again for your help!

Rich

JerryF

The 4.02 volts is only 10% over the nominal 3.7 so that is probably okay. Yes it's possible to a bad battery from the factory.

Does the back of the phone feel as hot as when you get an overheat warning. Have both batteries overheated.

You know, it could be that your battery widget is giving you a false warning. Maybe the battery is not really overheating. This is almost impossible to prove or disprove.

JerryF

HoustonHeart

BAd bateries seem to be a growign issues with many phones, my friends HTC's had 3 of them, he is gettig nsick of swappign phones and batteries. THere have been changes in Battery manufacturing and it seems manufatures are pushing old type to save a buck. Hell I know replacement thrid party batteries at stadard mah that last twice as long, and upto 3200 mah that last days.

Also, Black phones in high heat areas are bad. Get a stick on skin for the back cover that is reflective or white if you are going to use it in the car on the frotn windshield. BE glad the droid powers down the display and stuff when it detects over heating, I have friends that fried there battereis here in Texas because their phones didn't.

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