XDA crashes at less than 25% power after ROM upgrade

[mburgin]

I have an XDA Exec and I have just upgraded my ROM to the newest QTEK version. Since then, I have noticed that it crashes and reboots when the power level showing on the power meter reaches about 25%. I don't believe this problem was occurring before the ROM upgrade.

Although it stops working when 25% power is showing, I do not think that the battery life is actually reduced at all. It seems to me that it is more like the guage is inaccurate now and the power is really near zero when it crashes.

I wondered if the power guage needs recalibrating in some manner after the ROM upgrade because the settings have been lost. I know that some laptop computers need their batteries to be calibrated on first use. Does anyone have any ideas or information on this?

Thanks
Mark

[PDAholic]

Mark,

did you ever solve this issue? I have the same problem. Thanks for anyone's help.

[scotjen1]

Have only just noticed but im having the same problem to so annoying

[mburgin]

Bad news, I am afraid. It is a harware fault and needs a repair.

In the end I returned my Exec to O2 under warranty. I got it back last week but they had forgotten to return the battery. After a phone call they sent me a free brand new battery by next day delivery.

Unfortunatelyt this means that I can't say for sure whether it was a battery problem or the phone itself. The covering letter with the phone said they had found a fault and repaired the phone, but since it seemed to be a stock letter, I can't be sure.

Anyway, my Exec certainly works fine now. I can get down to less than 10% with no crashes. I definitely did not have anything to do with the ROM upgrade.


Mark

[mburgin]

Bad news, I am afraid. It is a harware fault and needs a repair.

In the end I returned my Exec to O2 under warranty. I got it back last week but they had forgotten to return the battery. After a phone call they sent me a free brand new battery by next day delivery.

Unfortunatelyt this means that I can't say for sure whether it was a battery problem or the phone itself. The covering letter with the phone said they had found a fault and repaired the phone, but since it seemed to be a stock letter, I can't be sure.

Anyway, my Exec certainly works fine now. I can get down to less than 10% with no crashes. I definitely did not have anything to do with the ROM upgrade.


Mark

[PDAholic]

Mark,

Thanks for the reply. That was not what I wanted to hear! I am going to continue playing around with it; I can't believe we're the only ones to have this problem. Let me know if you get any more news. I'm getting tired of sending the HTC in for repairs. :(

[josedias]

My i-mate continues to crashes with the battery is less then 43%, apparently the problem occurred when I make the upgrade to ROM Qtek WWE_13077_130176_10900, was looked like that this version has something that change the battery configuration, since Qtek 9000 comes with 1750 battery mAh? I reinstalled the i-mate ROM 1.30.82 and the problem persists?
I made a test leaving the i-mate on, without using the radio until the battery settings showed 23%, then I made a phone call, the i-mate crashes in seconds. Somebody could inform what is the true voltage of the battery in the i-mate when it is 100% and when it is 10%, at the Main Battery settings?

[hdubli]

Battery problem...u ccan verify this by using a differrent one may b from yr friend...

[daven]

I have the same problem, its only started happening after the ROM upgrade from o2, before it would run down to 0% no problem but now it gets to 25% crashes and i have to reboot it and turn the backlight of otherwise it crashes again. Are you sure its a battery problem because ive had the same battery for 6 months and the problem only started after the upgrade.

[PDAholic]

Thanks to all of you guys for adding comments. Good to see others with the same problem. Misery loves company.

Anyhow, I can't exactly say my problems started with a ROM upgrade. I have two used universals. Here's my story:
PDA#1. Upgraded with previous Orange ROM as soon as I bought it and started having the 25% crashing problem
PDA#2. Never had crashing problem, upgraded latest Orange ROM, down to nearly dead battery today and no crash.

Hmm, to test the bad battery theory, I will swap the battery in PDA#1 with the battery in PDA #2, and if I get a crash, I can blame it on the battery. Otherwise, it's the OS. Both PDAs have EXACTLY the same programs installed from fresh ROM upgrades.

[josedias]

Hi PDAholic.

Which was the result of the test with the battery.

[mburgin]

Hi

See my previous post in this topic. I can confirm that my problem seemed to start when I upgraded to the newest QTek ROM (from original O2 ROM). However after it has been returned to O2 for a repair, I have once again upgraded to the same ROM and now it works fine.

So, it must ether be a hardware fault on the Exec or a battery fault. My evidence is not consistent with it being something to do with the ROM version.

Anyone have definitive information on this problem?

Mark

[PDAholic]

Mark: I thank you for your post--but you have to admit, there is nothing wrong with a little experimentation!

Josedias: My experiment is still underway. I will say that taking out the nearly dead battery from non-crashing pda and putting it into the crashing pda did not result in the latter pda crashing. However, I am now waiting for the battery from crashing pda (which is now in non-crashing pda) to die. If it does, the problem is the battery. I actually have another theory if none of this pans out, which I will present with my next post.

[scotjen1]

Pdahollic

Will be good to hear what your fndings are.

I spoke to o2 today and told them about the problem with the battery they tried telling me that it was software related then i told him that i was using the latest software from there website and he was like hmmm ok let me put you through to returns. Got put through and the kind person that i spoke to there said just to pop it in the post with the returns number and will send you out a new one the same day.

So i should hopefully have a new 1 by the end of the week will let you know if i have any problems

[PDAholic]

Okay, interesting results here...

I was actually unable to reproduce the shutdown on either PDA, with either battery!

I have a theory why, and perhaps those of you with the problem could try and see if it fixes your devices.

When I started the experiment, I wanted both PDAs to be as equal (controlled variables!) as possible. So, I charged both overnight until the green light came on, then did a soft reset to both PDAs. I have a feeling this might have somehow reset the battery meters in both devices.

Pretty much all PDA manufacturers recommend when you first get a device to charge it to 100% then begin using it. I do know that when I did the ROM upgrade on the device that kept crashing, my battery was very low. So, I presume that when I started using the device, the battery calibration was way off. Say that the device thought the battery was at 100%, but it was actually only at 75%. When the battery discharged to 0%, the device thought it was at 25%, and thus did not issue any warning messages. Then, without warning, the device died and would not come on without charging (which is what mine did).

I don't know for sure if this is what has been happening, but it makes sense to me.

My next experiment would be to stick a near dead battery in a device with a fully charged battery and see what happens. Although, at this point I probably "ought to leave well enough alone."

Again, I suggest to all of you to charge the device overnight to 100% WITH THE GREEN LIGHT ON, then do a soft reset and see if your problem is solved.

I will keep you guys posted on any further problems. Good luck.

[swav_one]

Hi everyone!

A bit out of topic but I could not find any other discusion that could relate to my problem which is also related to battery.

I've got this guy who bought a brand spankin new XDA EXEC straight from Taiwan and the lame ass used it for about 4 hours without preformating the battery until it seized on him. It happend at the time of Active Sync instalation.

It did not die out sooner because he had it connected all the time to PC via USB cable thinking that this will charge the battery.

Now all he can see is the O2 welcoming screen and the ROM initialization figures.

Any ideas guys? I feel sorry for him and am trying to help him somehow.

[PDAholic]

I presume he has tried to do a hard reset (both softkeys, reset button and power). If that doesn't work, he could put it in bootloader mode, disable USB, and try reloading the ROM. Make sure he realizes that it takes a LONG time to soft reset the Universals. A common nube mistake is to keep hitting the reset button thinking it has locked up on the splash screen. Not that I would ever have done that... :oops:

[lanesra]

I received a T-Mobile MDA Pro on tuesday and it has the same problem - but, my battery seems to die at 50% and will only power back on when the charger is plugged (mains or usb) in?

[daven]

Hi guys ive just been on the phone with o2 and i have been told that it is indeed a hardware fault and that i will be getting a new one back from them in the next few days.

[josedias]

Could somebody inform what is the true voltage of the battery in the i-mate at 100% and when it is 10%, in the miter?
I have charged the unit till 100% led = Green, then soft reset, the problem persist?
Now I am 100% certainty that the problem occurred when I made upgrade to Qteck, we needs to investigate what the the Qtek ROM this doing with the JasJar?

[zarn]

I have a similar problem.. what do you think...??

Ive 3 batteries
The standard 1620mah dynapack which works fine 100% to flat no worries

A 3200mah extended which will charge to full but dies at 43%
(the guy replaced it with another which did the same thing)

and
A 3000mah which will go flat Ok but wont charge beyond 47% and the orange light stays on forever, although luckily it doesnt fry.

has anyone had any of these extended batterys work ok?

Just to add a bit of info, all modern li-ion have a built in fuel guage chip which tells the device its in how much power is left in the cell so calibration at reset etc shouldnt be an issue..
r 1.03.00
g 42.36.p8
d 1.30.90.wwe

[nathanlock]

I too have been having the same kind of problems since I applied the latest 02 update. I charge my exec fully every night ( I always have done). and now it seems too play up frequently, the unit will not come back on without doing a soft reset several times a day, reports of the battery being drained after only a little usage. I do not have the wifi or bluetooth on either.

i too suspect the battery guage is not to be believed.

I never had any problems with my exec until I applied the update.

in fact it has just this second happened again, the green led is no longer flashing and the only way I can turn it back on is to soft reset it. then while it is powering up the backlight keeps turning off (even though I have the interval set to 3 mins) and I have to keep tapping the screen to keep it alive, now it has finished starting up I have tapped the battery indicator and it says I have 52% battery life! something really does not add up here!

[josedias]

More information:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?p=300016#300016