[Guide] Calibrating Battery {Rooted devices}

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Joshhayes801

Senior Member
Apr 26, 2010
470
100
36
Ogden, UT
www.uglyduckskateboards.com
*I had this posted over in the nexus forums and decided to move it over here for you guys to see now that I have this device as well*

I found a guide somewhere on the internet on the best way to calibrate battery stats on a rooted device (to fix incorrect battery reporting after flashing) when I had my old hero and I use it a lot to this day when flashing new roms/kernels so I decided to share the best way to do it here.

Step 1.
First and foremost charge the phone to 100%(Even if it says 100% wait about 5 minutes or so just be sure.)

Step 2.
Once it is at 100% go into data/system using your preferred explorer and delete the batterystats.bin file there.

Step 3.
Unplug the charger and reboot to recovery, wipe cache and dalvik cache and wipe battery stats once more while you're there just to make sure they're gone.

Step 4.
Power the phone down and plug it back in. Charge it to 100% while it's off (the battery bar can be deceiving so even once it shows it's full give it five more minutes or so to be sure) and then power up.


Once it is booted to the OS you should now see that the battery bar is at 100%. If not start back at step 1.

Final step.
It had come to my attention that this phone does not have a smart battery so fully discharging it is not a good idea. However I would recommend discharging it to below 20% before recharging. Thanks to hechoen for the info straight from Samsung.

After that you should have a fully calibrated battery and see correct battery stats.


Everybody enjoy! If this helped you please hit thanks! :)

*Thanks to whoever it was that wrote this up in the first place. If I knew who it was I would give proper thanks. :)

Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda premium
 
Last edited:

Joshhayes801

Senior Member
Apr 26, 2010
470
100
36
Ogden, UT
www.uglyduckskateboards.com

FBis251

Senior Member
Mar 21, 2011
3,418
3,716
www.fernandobarillas.com
I just realized that this would be a non-issue if you're using any roms that get installed using AROMA since the /data partition gets formatted with ext4, it'll also wipe the batterystats.bin file, assuming you didn't do a data backup/restore.
 

95Z28

Senior Member
Apr 29, 2011
798
252
Its actually not good on these batteries to drain them fully. If your battery readings start going crazy, such as losing 20% charge after a simple reboot, one simple wipe of the battery stats should fix that.
The whole process of charging fully before wiping, draining, recharging fully ect... isn't necessary.
I simply wipe stats once (at whatever my current charge is) and go on my way.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda premium
 

eollie

Senior Member
Mar 30, 2011
1,875
754
I could care less what that dude says. I know for a fact my battery reporting has gone funky before during flashing and calibrating it fixed it. For instance, it would say 92% and after a reboot it would change to like 94%.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda premium

Read through the comments there is some good info. Also this "dude" has boobs so Im sure SHE would rather be called dudette. One more thing, shes also one of the lead programmers on the Android Project.
 

hechoen

Senior Member
May 7, 2011
2,686
1,391
Just got off the phone with Samsung to find out whether or not this battery has a fuel gauge chip and it does not. I've assumed for a long time that it was a smart battery and I was wrong. So fully discharging is a bad idea as there is no chip to reset. As far as resetting the battery stats it won't have an effect on life but may correct reporting errors. I personally used to wipe it and then stopped. I have noticed no difference either way.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
 

Joshhayes801

Senior Member
Apr 26, 2010
470
100
36
Ogden, UT
www.uglyduckskateboards.com
Just got off the phone with Samsung to find out whether or not this battery has a fuel gauge chip and it does not. I've assumed for a long time that it was a smart battery and I was wrong. So fully discharging is a bad idea as there is no chip to reset. As far as resetting the battery stats it won't have an effect on life but may correct reporting errors. I personally used to wipe it and then stopped. I have noticed no difference either way.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

Very useful information. Thank you. I will edit the op to reflect this information.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda premium
 

Vlad_z

Senior Member
Mar 25, 2011
506
178
I could care less what that dude says. I know for a fact my battery reporting has gone funky before during flashing and calibrating it fixed it. For instance, it would say 92% and after a reboot it would change to like 94%.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda premium

well, you should at least read a lot to get knowledge about how stuff works... and you obviously did not or you wouldn't call dudette a dude...

unless you have your own custom OS you just fogot step 8 - dance with rain stick around phone when it's charging... :D
 
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eb13

Senior Member
Mar 26, 2012
210
67
Denver
I just realized that this would be a non-issue if you're using any roms that get installed using AROMA since the /data partition gets formatted with ext4, it'll also wipe the batterystats.bin file, assuming you didn't do a data backup/restore.

I flashed Unnamed with Aroma, full wipe(s) no back ups and i'm having an issue sometimes when I reboot with between 60% - 90% I only have 10% - 20% once rebooted. So I would have to say that does not completely hold true even though it does make perfect sense.

So the "calibration" ritual may not actually calibrate the battery but it definitely is useful when having these issues.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda premium
 

eollie

Senior Member
Mar 30, 2011
1,875
754
Heres the deal doing this DOESNT improve battery life. All it does is get rid of "gremlins" in the file.

Better battery stats (that you can get here on xda) will do this for you each time you plug the phone in.
 

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    *I had this posted over in the nexus forums and decided to move it over here for you guys to see now that I have this device as well*

    I found a guide somewhere on the internet on the best way to calibrate battery stats on a rooted device (to fix incorrect battery reporting after flashing) when I had my old hero and I use it a lot to this day when flashing new roms/kernels so I decided to share the best way to do it here.

    Step 1.
    First and foremost charge the phone to 100%(Even if it says 100% wait about 5 minutes or so just be sure.)

    Step 2.
    Once it is at 100% go into data/system using your preferred explorer and delete the batterystats.bin file there.

    Step 3.
    Unplug the charger and reboot to recovery, wipe cache and dalvik cache and wipe battery stats once more while you're there just to make sure they're gone.

    Step 4.
    Power the phone down and plug it back in. Charge it to 100% while it's off (the battery bar can be deceiving so even once it shows it's full give it five more minutes or so to be sure) and then power up.


    Once it is booted to the OS you should now see that the battery bar is at 100%. If not start back at step 1.

    Final step.
    It had come to my attention that this phone does not have a smart battery so fully discharging it is not a good idea. However I would recommend discharging it to below 20% before recharging. Thanks to hechoen for the info straight from Samsung.

    After that you should have a fully calibrated battery and see correct battery stats.


    Everybody enjoy! If this helped you please hit thanks! :)

    *Thanks to whoever it was that wrote this up in the first place. If I knew who it was I would give proper thanks. :)

    Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda premium
    2
    Just got off the phone with Samsung to find out whether or not this battery has a fuel gauge chip and it does not. I've assumed for a long time that it was a smart battery and I was wrong. So fully discharging is a bad idea as there is no chip to reset. As far as resetting the battery stats it won't have an effect on life but may correct reporting errors. I personally used to wipe it and then stopped. I have noticed no difference either way.

    http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
    1
    I could care less what that dude says. I know for a fact my battery reporting has gone funky before during flashing and calibrating it fixed it. For instance, it would say 92% and after a reboot it would change to like 94%.

    Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda premium

    well, you should at least read a lot to get knowledge about how stuff works... and you obviously did not or you wouldn't call dudette a dude...

    unless you have your own custom OS you just fogot step 8 - dance with rain stick around phone when it's charging... :D