Droid X and Battery Charging

[shamskona]

 Hi,

Do I need to fully drain the battery before charging?   I did this last night as it was my 1st day with the phone but the battery is almost depleted and wondering if I needed to wait until fully drained or not. 

Love the phone but the battery charge is not even 24 hours old yet and almost gone with minimal usage as I was working all day and couldnt play with it

Please advise.....

Thanks!

[DeKree]

im no expert bout the droid , but I do happen to know quite a bit about **bleep** batteries.  without a huge do and dont list and why. heres a quick version.

new battery should have 1-2 complete cycles on them(full charge/drain) its not really necissary but this will allow you to know how long your cycle will be

**bleep** batterys like all rechargables have a "recharge life" to them...meaning they can only be drained and recharged a certain number of times before they wear out. HOWEVER...  to completely drain them is considered a "full" cycle in terms of how many times(or cycles) a battery lives. so,  its ALWAYS best to charge your phone asap as this will prolong battery life.  in a better sense, if you charge the battery when its half dead then you would in sense have twice the life as to let it drain completely and charge it then. or charge it when its 1/4 drained then 4 times compared to a full drain...etc etc    make sense? (not sure about my math here)

now as for the droid x here...hmm well seems like this baby just eats juice BIGTIME!   theres lots of stuff on battery life in the droid forums...  like here http://community.vzw.com/t5/Apps/How-to-Increase-Battery-Life/td-p/193233  

good luck

[crb79]

Well you can set your battery profile to "battery saver mode" this should help a little. 

As for completely draining your battery... I wouldn't really recommend this, some ppl say it could give your device a better idea of the power range on the battery, but this isn't entirely true.  Your device should be able to accurately tell the battery charge level based on voltage ranges, as the voltage dips, the battery meter drops.

I've been using smartphones for several years now, and I find it's best to charge the battery in regular intervals.  Just to give you an idea here's my usual routine:  Charge battery over night, take it off the charger and get ready for work.  On the drive to work I plug it into my car charger.  This way I ensure as much lasting power as I can get.  As I use the phone throughout the day I will place it back onto a charger once it nears 50-60%.  After work back on the car charger.  Get home and don't plug it back in until bed time. rinse, repeat. (not literally rinse)  

I guess I said all that to say this:  Batteries tend to fail when they've been over-charged or voltage allowed to drop to low.  With these new devices every single one of them has an auto-shutoff for your charger.  It cannot continue to charge the battery once the device reads the battery as fully charged.  But with that same concept, it will not allow a battery to be charged once it reads the battery below a specified voltage, this is where most batteries run into problems.  They've been allowed to die and must be inspected and reconditioned by someone knowledgeable on Lion battery repair.   

Summary:  Letting battery drain down to nothing = BAD!   Charging often = GOOD! 

[Chris1987]

I picked up my Droid X on launch day. I brought it home, charged it up, turned it on, and then 4 hours later it died with only 2 text messages!. I have tried everything, I removed the motoblur widgets, battery saver mode, turned off sync, all of that. I recharged it overnight with the same result the next day, I have conditioned the battery 3 times now with no improvement. I finally went back to the store and they swapped out the battery, same issue. GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, all of that is turned off with email only coming in every 4 hours. Also, when the battery is dead, not 5 minutes after putting it on the charger, it says it is fully charged. The store offered to replace the phone, when they get more in, but of course they don't know when that will be.

I've tried a factory restore on it, as I said, removed the Moto Blur widgets from my screen, removed my Facebook account, turned off sync, gps, bluetooth, and wifi, my signal is -80dbm. Any suggestions on a fix? Or should just swap it out when they get more in stock?

[crb79]

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Chris1987 wrote:

I picked up my Droid X on launch day. I brought it home, charged it up, turned it on, and then 4 hours later it died with only 2 text messages!. I have tried everything, I removed the motoblur widgets, battery saver mode, turned off sync, all of that. I recharged it overnight with the same result the next day, I have conditioned the battery 3 times now with no improvement. I finally went back to the store and they swapped out the battery, same issue. GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, all of that is turned off with email only coming in every 4 hours. Also, when the battery is dead, not 5 minutes after putting it on the charger, it says it is fully charged. The store offered to replace the phone, when they get more in, but of course they don't know when that will be.

I've tried a factory restore on it, as I said, removed the Moto Blur widgets from my screen, removed my Facebook account, turned off sync, gps, bluetooth, and wifi, my signal is -80dbm. Any suggestions on a fix? Or should just swap it out when they get more in stock?

---

Sounds like you do have a bad device.  A simple trick you can try is plugging in the phone, then go back and forth between pulling the battery while it's plugged in and unplugging and replugging power cord.  Try to do all this while it's powered off.  And wait to see the charging or fully charged icon between each step.

Also, try downloading one of the free Battery apps off of marketplace and posting what your battery voltage shows.

[Chris1987]

Thank you for your reply. I've actually tried that and it doesn't change the percentage that it shows for the the charge level (well unplugging and plugging back in, but i'll give your tip a shot). I agree that it is probably defective. It was on 90% for about an hour then out of no where dropped to about 40%. I'm just hoping the store can replace it sooner rather than later, having to be connected to the charger so often isn't much fun.

[Chris1987]

Voltage is 3870 mv according to Battery Monitor

[crb79]

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Chris1987 wrote:

Voltage is 3870 mv according to Battery Monitor

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Well, if the 3870 mv is showing 100% your phone is definitely not charging it to capacity.  Just to give you an idea mine shows 4196mv is 90%.

[Chris1987]

Ok, thank you for your help, the store called and said they will have more on Tuesday and they are holding one for me to exchange it. At least they are helpful and willing to exchange the device. I was also wondering if the notification light on the front of the phone should light up while it is on the charger? Mine flashes green once when as soon as it is plugged in and then doesn't do anything.

[TheGreatOne]

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shamskona wrote:

 Hi,

Do I need to fully drain the battery before charging?   I did this last night as it was my 1st day with the phone but the battery is almost depleted and wondering if I needed to wait until fully drained or not. 

Love the phone but the battery charge is not even 24 hours old yet and almost gone with minimal usage as I was working all day and couldnt play with it

Please advise.....

Thanks!

---

When I got my cell phones in the past I used them before charging them up. I didn't let the battery die completely. Once I was done playing around with the device I then charged it up.  I haven't had any problems with battery life. I know some Verizon reps recommend charging it before you use it.

[My_Droid]

As an owner of the WONDERFUL Droid X for a whole 2, going on 3, days now, I have discovered that part of the battery drain for me is because of "multitasking".  Since I switched from an iPhone, I forget you can REALLY multitask on the Droid X and I tend to have too many processes running at once.  I wish I could determine which of them are really necessary so I could kill the rest but I am too new to this to make that determination.

I have turned off most notifications and have applied other battery saving measaures.  I am sure there are more that I can do but even having played with it almost continously for 2 days, I have soooo much to learn about this phone!

I am thinking of ordering an extra battery to carry with me (I use my phone to go online, text and email a lot during the day) and/or one of those emergency battery chargers (they cost between $25 and $75).  I already have a car charger but that doesn't help me at work.

I am anxious to play some more tonight after work and tomorrow after church!  What a marvelous device the Droid X is!!!

Louise in Houston

PSon't EVER use the rooster tone for your alarm clock......eeeeeeeeeeeeee

[magicswebpage]

Charge your battery

Modern **bleep** ion batteries work best when you recharge them before they discharge completely. Recharge after 75 percent of the battery is discharged. This not only improves the battery’s performance but also improves its lifespan. Don’t store your cell phone on the charger. Storing it at full capacity can actually decrease the lifespan of this type of battery.

[Chris1987]

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magicswebpage wrote:

Charge your battery

Modern **bleep** ion batteries work best when you recharge them before they discharge completely. Recharge after 75 percent of the battery is discharged. This not only improves the battery’s performance but also improves its lifespan. Don’t store your cell phone on the charger. Storing it at full capacity can actually decrease the lifespan of this type of battery.

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Recharging that often is not an option for me unfortunately. My job does not allow me to be sitting in one place for very long. I have access to a charger when I am at home and going to and from work. My Nexus One that I had before the DX would be at around 40% when I went to bed at night. If I can make it from 6am-10pm with minimal useage on the DX, I'll be happy.

[magicswebpage]

yeah i know what u mean  with my droid 1 i got 14hrs and had a backup battery.. so this 4hrs is killing me... i been looking for a backup charger to charge a spare battery..  i am also planning to get the extended battery.. to replace this.. i do know there a update coming this week. so i hope it fixes the battery cuz 4hrs is weak!  

[Chris1987]

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magicswebpage wrote:

yeah i know what u mean  with my droid 1 i got 14hrs and had a backup battery.. so this 4hrs is killing me... i been looking for a backup charger to charge a spare battery..  i am also planning to get the extended battery.. to replace this.. i do know there a update coming this week. so i hope it fixes the battery cuz 4hrs is weak!  

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We can hope . Hopefully between having my phone swapped out and the update I might see this good battery life that Verizon and Moto say its capable of.

[jaydroid]

Thanks for posting your Droid X issues.  I got the X at Best Buy the first day and I think we have the same problems; at least I know I'm not alone.  I'll give my tale of woe here in case it helps anyone else out.

I got my phone home from Best Buy (ten minutes away) and the screen locked up, completely.  None of the button presses worked but I finally figured that I should remove and replace the battery, so I did, and the X came back up, but then the screen faded out after a minute and I couldn't get it back on.  I plugged it into the charger, saw it charging, and left it charging overnight.  The next morning I changed the settings to keep the screen on forever, then started using the X, and after a few minutes it again faded to half bright, then finally a dark screen.  I could NOT get it back on without removing and replacing the battery.

I took it to a Verizon store and the guy just said "battery's dead" and handed it back to me.   I took it home and tried charging and it said 70%.   I left it charge to 100%, turned it on, turned it off, and let it sit overnight.  This morning, the phone again froze up with the screen still on, so I removed/replaced the battery and turned it on again, and shortly thereafter the screen faded out and went dead.  I turned it on several more times and each time it turned itself off after a few seconds.   So I took it to Best Buy, where they could not do anything with the phone, including reset, until they too removed/replaced the battery.  Next they did a "reset", some combination of buttons, rebooted it and gave it back to me.  I drove home (10 minutes), and when I got home the screen was frozen.  Pluggin in the power cable didn't do anything at all, no indicator light or M icon,  so I again removed/replaced the battery and again plugged it into the charger.  The battery icon came up and showed 70% battery, charging.

I'm pretty sure I won't be able to use the phone for more than a couple minutes, and I'm really tired of opening the back and removing the battery all the time.  I'm hoping that this is some software glitch and that there's a fix  they can send over the air soon, but otherwise I guess I'll have to exchange the phone too.  Which is too bad, because for the few minutes I've been able to use it, its really a dramatic device. 

[Chris1987]

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jaydroid wrote:

Thanks for posting your Droid X issues.  I got the X at Best Buy the first day and I think we have the same problems; at least I know I'm not alone.  I'll give my tale of woe here in case it helps anyone else out.

I got my phone home from Best Buy (ten minutes away) and the screen locked up, completely.  None of the button presses worked but I finally figured that I should remove and replace the battery, so I did, and the X came back up, but then the screen faded out after a minute and I couldn't get it back on.  I plugged it into the charger, saw it charging, and left it charging overnight.  The next morning I changed the settings to keep the screen on forever, then started using the X, and after a few minutes it again faded to half bright, then finally a dark screen.  I could NOT get it back on without removing and replacing the battery.

I took it to a Verizon store and the guy just said "battery's dead" and handed it back to me.   I took it home and tried charging and it said 70%.   I left it charge to 100%, turned it on, turned it off, and let it sit overnight.  This morning, the phone again froze up with the screen still on, so I removed/replaced the battery and turned it on again, and shortly thereafter the screen faded out and went dead.  I turned it on several more times and each time it turned itself off after a few seconds.   So I took it to Best Buy, where they could not do anything with the phone, including reset, until they too removed/replaced the battery.  Next they did a "reset", some combination of buttons, rebooted it and gave it back to me.  I drove home (10 minutes), and when I got home the screen was frozen.  Pluggin in the power cable didn't do anything at all, no indicator light or M icon,  so I again removed/replaced the battery and again plugged it into the charger.  The battery icon came up and showed 70% battery, charging.

I'm pretty sure I won't be able to use the phone for more than a couple minutes, and I'm really tired of opening the back and removing the battery all the time.  I'm hoping that this is some software glitch and that there's a fix  they can send over the air soon, but otherwise I guess I'll have to exchange the phone too.  Which is too bad, because for the few minutes I've been able to use it, its really a dramatic device. 

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I feel your pain. Mine started freezing up as well. I got the update this morning, and it hasn't frozen since (YET), but I am hopeful. As far as the battery life, mine is still draining as quickly as ever. If it is at 5% and I plug it in, it will be at 100% in 10 minutes or less, there is no way it is charging properly. I was promised an exchange today, but of course, they didn't get anymore in yet.

As far as the charging indicator light, I don't think it is supposed to light up while charging, well at least mine doesn't. That is aggravating because it is nice to be able to look at a phone and know its charged or not judging by the light (red, orange, green). So no, you are not alone my friend. I would get your name on the list for an exchange if possible. I have tried everything with mine, from buying a new battery to "calibrating" to task killers, the list goes on and on. The weird thing is, with my device if it freezes and I have to pull the battery, the charge level doubles, but then it goes back to draining quickly again.

The store where I purchased mine put me on the top of their waiting list, so as long as they get one in, they will swap it out. I would take yours to the store again and discuss your options for an exchange. I wish I could be more help, but I am hopeful we will have working devices soon. This really is an amazing device, and working properly, it will be that much better.

[magicswebpage]

2 options

1) apply the update moto. just sent out  out by  going to

setttings |about phone| system updates

2) factory reset

settings | privacy | factory data reset

i had alot of problems with lags and locking up  so i did a reset and things been great

i love this phone...

[Bosmannn]

make sure you charge your phones by the wall receptacle/outlet and not the usb port on your computer. When you charge from your outlet it charges at the correct frequencies. When you charge from your computer it tries to charge too fast and it ruins your battery.

[Chris1987]

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Bosmannn wrote:

make sure you charge your phones by the wall receptacle/outlet and not the usb port on your computer. When you charge from your outlet it charges at the correct frequencies. When you charge from your computer it tries to charge too fast and it ruins your battery.

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My phone was never attached to my computer, I used my card reader to load my pics onto my sd card. Anyways, the store replaced my Droid X on Thursday, and WOW, what a difference! I brought it home, charged it over night, downloaded the update the next morning, up time: 25:35:02 with light usage (email syncing every hour, facebook on, a few phone calls, a few text messages, 5 min of web browsing) and it is at 70% battery . My last one would be dead in 4 hours with light usage, even WITH the update. I am very pleased with these results. I normally use my phone more than I have in the past 25 hours, but I'm confident I will be able to make it through a whole day without having to plug it in even with moderate usage .

[belize1214]

Thanks fo rthe tips.  I have a real basic question.  Does it matter which direction the usb cable is plugged into my new droid x?  Does the usb symbol on the cord have to be facing up as related to the face of the phone?