Recalibrate WM6 For Mugen 3000 mA Battery

[DJChameleon]

I have recently purchased a Mugen 3000 mA battery. I am thrilled with the extended battery life after fully charging and discharging it three times as recommended by the manufacturer. What I find annoying is that WM6 no longer gives accurate information regarding remaining battery strength. If I run the battery down to 2%, remove the battery and restart WM6 says 37%. At 2% I can repeat and WM6 still says 37%. After running down to 2% a third time and repeating WM6 says around 10%. After that it varies a bit but you get the picture.

What I would like to know is if one of you geniuses out there has discovered a registry edit, hack or 3rd party software that will provide accurate battery info so I don't have to be distracted by having my battery say 2% for hours on end or repeatedly remove and restart.

BTW, BatteryStatus Ver. 1.04.200 beta2 build 0173 reports the same incorrect info and so does SPB Mobile Shell 1.5 Home Tab.

Thanks in advance for your informed guidance. OK, that is laying it on a bit thick but I always highly recommend this site to anyone I know interested in really learning how to take full advantage of that little computer in their pocket.

[Heijdemann]

Take a search on XDA for Ariel monitor maybe it solves your problem.

[DJChameleon]

Thanks for the suggestion. It is a nice little program but it suffers from the same problem. I suspect I need to find a way to change the mA capacity WM6 bases it's battery calculations. I don't know if that can be done with a registry edit or if there is a third party battery monitor that has an option to change the battery capacity for calculation of percentage remaining or better yet auto detects the actual battery capacity. Ideally it would be able to both accurately read remaining percentage and make reasonably accurate time remaining estimates based on current and historical battery drain data.

It is like driving a car with a broken gas gage. Sure, you can use the odometer to estimate how much gas you have left but you are always worried your estimate is off and you will be left stranded without a phone ... oops crossed metaphors.

How do the rest of the users with extended batteries handle this irritating situation?

[DJChameleon]

Bump. I can't believe i'm the only one with this problem.

[scilor]

I know this problem also i will wait with buying a high capacy battery until i find such a hack

[Jozer99]

The Kaiser uses a smartbattery. The battery capacity is based on the information that a small processor inside the battery tells the phone's main processor. There are several things that could be the problem:

1. The small processor in the 3rd party battery is programmed with the old specs for the standard battery. The is nothing you could do about this.

2. The small processor needs to be calibrated. You would do this as follows; set your phone to never turn off no matter how low the battery got. Now, run the phone down until the thing dies from lack of power. Then charge it all the way up. This should fix that issue. I don't recomend doing it many times, because it is not good for Lion batteries to be fully discharged too often.

[PhoenixAG]

This is a very valid issue which I have faced many times when using a 3rd party extended battery with other phones.

Not sure how to solve it though, although I have the 3000mah on order myself.

I think the battery reading is given by the battery itself, and most of these 3rd party manufacturers don't really care to put a smart processor in the battery (to reduce costs/make it smaller/etc).

[utbiglall]

I have the exact same issue and although it is a nuisance, I have found a workaround to keep using the phone. Simply physically removing the battery and replacing it will increase your remaining battery power substantially. I normally wait till the first low battery reminder to do this. Also, how do I set the phone to never turn off no matter how low the battery gets? This would also be fine with me.

[las vegas slim]

I have the exact same issue and although it is a nuisance, I have found a workaround to keep using the phone. Simply physically removing the battery and replacing it will increase your remaining battery power substantially. I normally wait till the first low battery reminder to do this. Also, how do I set the phone to never turn off no matter how low the battery gets? This would also be fine with me.

I didn't run into this issue until I reflashed my ROM to one with W6.1. Then, rather than get 12-13 hrs with my 3amp battery, I'd get 6. I used my original battery, but when I put the 3amp back in, I still had 47% left.

It's the ROM, and until there's a fix, it would be a pain to pull and replace the battery just to work around. I've done this several times recently when I'm on battery power, but I'd rather not.

Anybody heard of any other fixes, outside monitor, or do we wait until we get a Windows Mobile 6.1 fix?

[kcrumbley]

Hello,

Has anyone been able to find a solution for this. I am ordering the extended battery today. I will try to fully discharge it and then recharge it as was suggested and report back.

[las vegas slim]

I emailed Mugen. We went back and forth with them trying to troubleshoot whether it's the battery or OS. They were clueless, but did offer an RMA to replace the battery. I pay the postage. Not sure if I'll send it back if it's the OS. I pull and replace the battery right now. It's a real pain, and I hate opening the case so much, but it's the only way I can get an accurate read.

[Jay2TheRescue]

This is a very valid issue which I have faced many times when using a 3rd party extended battery with other phones.

Not sure how to solve it though, although I have the 3000mah on order myself.

I think the battery reading is given by the battery itself, and most of these 3rd party manufacturers don't really care to put a smart processor in the battery (to reduce costs/make it smaller/etc).
The processor is required for these types of lithium ion batteries because it regulates the charging of the battery. If it didn't the battery would not charge properly, or maybe not even charge at all.

[nastor944]

There is no solution for now, people from other forums tries to patch battdrvr.dll.
But two things may help a little:
1.You may completely disable battery monitoring
HKLM\Drivers\BuiltIn\Battery rename or remove string battdrvr.dll
But you lost monitoring completely.

2. change HKLM\Drivers\BuiltIn\Battery\Order change value from 15 (in my case) to 0. - After this battery lasts longer until power off.

There is not complete hardware or software solution for this problem. We need to wait. :)

[nastor944]

Low Battery warning:

By default, a PPC will sound a warning sound when the battery is running low (10%, fixed value), but there's no way to disable or change the notification. To enable this, so that it is visible in the "Sounds & Notifications" control panel, set:
HKCU\ControlPanel\Notifications\{A877D663-239C-47a7-9304-0D347F580408}\Default = "Low battery warning" (REGSZ string, no quotes)

[BUMP THAT]

Anybody have any updates on this? I have noticed this more on WM6.1, but it was still an issue on WM6. I just find this so annoying!
Is there any radio that can fix this? I noiced that this battery reading issue only occurs when the Phone Signal is on. When off, it never happens to me. Or it seems. So it has something to do with the radio.

[Imperium]

bump, anyone got a solution?

[ChInEsE ChIcKeN]

this is very interesting, i bought the seidio 3200 battery i am having the same problems. i just tired the

change HKLM\Drivers\BuiltIn\Battery\Order change value from 15 (in my case) to 0

i am going to see how that works out throughout the day

[ms0529]

I am having same issue, reset the registry key to "0" and ran for a full day, no change, still incorrect reading. I have a 2700 Mah battery and the charge indicater is completely wrong on it. I have cycled the battery as per reccoemndations, but still get wrong power remaining readings. Can remove the battery and resets itselft to a more correct reading.

I am out of ideas, guess we need someone from HTC to chime in with a hardware fix.

MWS

[ChInEsE ChIcKeN]

I am having same issue, reset the registry key to "0" and ran for a full day, no change, still incorrect reading. I have a 2700 Mah battery and the charge indicater is completely wrong on it. I have cycled the battery as per reccoemndations, but still get wrong power remaining readings. Can remove the battery and resets itselft to a more correct reading.

I am out of ideas, guess we need someone from HTC to chime in with a hardware fix.

MWS

i have tried it too and it still does the same thing. i would still need to pull the battery and restart the device for the batt meter to get a more accurate reading. i could do it about 3 times before the battery dies completely.

[dampeal]

is there this problem with all extended batteries or just with the larger ones?

the reason I ask is that I've got a $17 credit at Amazon and was thinking of grabbing a 1600mah battery, it's only like $22 with ship so I'll only pay a few bucks for it really...

I wanted to get the larger one but it's fat and won't fit standard carrying case, but the 1600 is slim and will fit in place a regular battery

[ms0529]

I have a Seidio 1600 Mah battery as well and it exhibits the same issues. Seems only the standard 1350 battery will issue correct capacity information, at least as best as I can try. I have experimented with the 1000, 1350, 1600 and 2700 mah batteries, all "brand" names, no el cheapo batteries and only the 1350 seems to work as we would expect, which leads me to believe it is firmware in the phone itself that is the problem, programmed to compare useage to the standard battery capacity and report the differential as remaining power. Only resetting the phone, actually removing the battery resets the unit.

I think it is an HTC hardware / firmware issue, but could be wrong. All I know is I have tried 4 different batteries and got the same results.

MWS

[pepeto2001]

I use a 1600mah battery from ebay and I've never noticed that behaviour!. I was thinking about buying seidio 1600mah battery, but I didnt know it was displaying bad battery meter...

[invasion13]

Hi,
since i've updated my rom, official HTC WM6, from 6.0 to 6.1,
my battery status has changed:
With wm 6.0 i had at full charge a forecast length about 13 to 15 Hours
Now with wm 6.1 at full charge it indicates a 6 hours duration.
Quite odd, did you notice that with official/cooked roms?
regards

[juiceppc]

Seems like the extended batteries are not compatible with the Kaiser. Unless you enjoy removing and reinserting your battery all the time... :P

[arche3]

Question re: all extended batteries for kaiser tilt.

I know you need to pull out the battery to see the right charge level. but do you have to? when it shows say 9 percent battery and you just keep the battery in and you keep using it does the phone turn off? or will it just keep going?
Is the take battery out trick necessary for function? I can live with the battery meter reading wrong but the phone keeps going.

[aztilt]

Phone will turn off when the battery meter is low. Pulling out the battery reset the meter to about 55-60%. The first turn off time is longer with the extended battery by about 3 hours in standby.

[arche3]

Phone will turn off when the battery meter is low. Pulling out the battery reset the meter to about 55-60%. The first turn off time is longer with the extended battery by about 3 hours in standby.

extended from ebay. Ill see how it works. its a 3.7v. 2800ma. Liion Polymer battery. I am pretty convinced since these batteries are all made in china they are probably all the same since they all exhibit the same behavior. it was 23 bucks delivered. I wasnt about to buy a mugen or seidio extended for 80 bucks and have it still behave all crazy.

[arche3]

after one complete drain and charge overnite. the battery is a beast. just goes and goes. i did the registry hack setting to 0. and I did pull out the battery to reset the gauge. plenty of of juice for web surfing, bluetooth all day, wifi on constantly, push enabled all day, etc. great 23 bucks spent.

[ZoRaC]

Any new development on this issue?

[shopcity]

I too got a 2800mah battery from ebay i get the same results as well running the battery all the way down then restarting to have it read at 55% i hope sum genius can fix this mess :(

[markdmumy]

Does anyone know of any type of "fix" other than removing the larger batteries on the Tilt/Kaiser to get it to recognize the larger batteries?

[jamieay]

Does anyone know how the current measurement works on these batteries? My guess was that there ought to be a registry key that contained some calibration value (which could be messed around with to fix this issue), but I can't locate it. My guess was based upon the phone measuring and tracking how much current it is drawing from the battery - is that not correct? Does the battery itself keep track of current being drawn by the phone?

Jamie

[beanbag1973]

I take it by the way this thread has died out, that no one has yet found a fix for the extended battery reading issue. :(

or maybe it's moved to another thread!

any ideas????

cheers

[jamieay]

Nope, I'm not sure that we're going to find a fix. I posted a note just before yours looking for any suggestions as to where some calibration values might be stored in the registry - I couldn't find anything, and haven't heard anything from anyone else. I'd bet a shiny nickel that what I'm looking for is somewhere in the registry, but I can't find it.

Jamie


I take it by the way this thread has died out, that no one has yet found a fix for the extended battery reading issue. :(

or maybe it's moved to another thread!

any ideas????

cheers

[beanbag1973]

yeah, i've also tried searching through the registry... with no luck. I have read somewhere that it could be something to do with the battdrvr.dll file.. maybe someone needs to hack into it. I have edit'd this file, but have no idea what all the numbers mean.

I have also read on another post that people with a similar problem on the ipaq have tried this... plug in wall charger, soft reset, remove battery (leaving charger plugged in) for at lease 1 minute, reinsert battery, then charge to full... not sure if this will work on my tytn ii, but will give it a go and see what happens :rolleyes:

well, lets keep praying someone finds something.

cheers.

[jamieay]

Let me know how it goes!

Jamie

[beanbag1973]

didn't work... still has incorrect reading..

I use a program called Tbattery... it's says the full mAh is only 1920 when it should be 3000...so i guess it is just a software/firmware issue.

anyway, if i find a solution i'll be sure to post it here..

cheers.

[jamieay]

Your battery reports 1920mAh capacity - Mine reports 1380mAh. Do you know if the battery capacity (as reported by tbattery) has changed over time?

Is there a util to do a full registry dump? If so, I'd be interested in comparing a dump of your phone to mine and see if I can uncover anything.

Jamie

[beanbag34]

When i first used tbattery, it reported the mAh as 2020.. (although the battery had only gone through it's 3rd or 4th charge cycle. it's since dropped to 1920 and that's where it seems to sit now, which makes sense, because when i pull the battery out and re-insert i get about 30% more juice.

I'm not sure what util. would do a reg dump. i haven't really played around with any registry software..apart from PHM reg. editor. but if there's any values of the registry u want to compare, let me know and i can list it here.

how much percentage gain do u get by removing/re-inserting the battery..if any??

cheer's mate.

[jamieay]

I'll get a pretty good increase - if I take it all the way down to almost dead, pop out and reinsert the battery, It'll show about 50% left.

Jamie

[DeathmonkeyGTX]

I'm on my second extended Kaiser battery. I got it for $20 shipped, and it's a 2600mAH. Most days it gets down to 50-70% and I plug it up to get it back to 100. Periodically (every ~50 charges) I drain the battery until the phone turns off. Then you pop out the battery, wait a second, and stick it back in. Boom, you got lots of extra juice. I don't know how many times it takes before the mofo doesn't turn on, but then I charge it all the way and battery life improves slightly. Also, if you're caught without your charger you can use the "battery trick" to get up to a week of Kaiser if you're using a 40" aerial and being conservative with the device. Without the aerial and using it as normal, I can get 2.5-3.5 days out of it pulling the battery trick. This battery has been through near zero Fahrenheit temperatures and 105 fahrenheit with ~98% relative humidity for days on end, and one year later it's still kickin' great.