[Howto] Fix "Battery Low - Cannot program"

Studio1b · Oct 17, 2011

good work to the poster of this

Tyler83 · Oct 22, 2011

Just a quick question. After reading this topic and the original topic linked in the OP, it's still not really clear to me if the cable has to be plugged to the battery or to the phone pins. Can anyone explain me the correct procedure? tx

lolzas · Oct 23, 2011

Tyler83 - It should be plugged into the battery pins (there are 4 of them in the back)
what happens if my battery is just fine and I still do it? nothing?

dilfatx · Nov 8, 2011

When I went to plug in the usb from the hack onto the laptop..i get this message

"Power Surge on Hub Port"..... "A USB device has exceeded the power limits of its hub port. For assisatance in solving this problem, click this message."

The only options i get is to reset the usb or to close it..

The light on the phone doesn't turn on.. but if i unplug the usb from the hack and plug in the regular usb onto the phone's regular port then the white light does come on..

Any solutions?

sd_shadow · Nov 9, 2011

several people have broke their phone doing this
Motorola Battery Question Mark

dilfatx · Nov 9, 2011

Does it matter if I use a usb cable from mini usb or micro usb? I have been told they carry same output.

Sent from my MB501 using Tapatalk

visualist6x6 · Nov 11, 2011

It works!

Thank you to all who have posted this useful info!

I hooked up my battery to my modified cable and plugged the cable into the AC adapter. It charged the battery enough so I could re-flash. 2 quick items: 1) check with a VOM to make sure you are connecting the correct wires and with the proper polarity. 2) connect the wires only to the battery. That way, if anything goes wrong, you'll only lose a battery. I hooked up the cable to an AC adapter because I didn't want to risk losing my usb on my laptop.

TheYama · Nov 11, 2011

Hi all,
I have the same problem. But I have for my lucky second battery - full charged

The lesson that it is better to fully charge the battery, before we try to flash Defy

ejstubbs · Nov 11, 2011

dilfatx said:
Does it matter if I use a usb cable from mini usb or micro usb? I have been told they carry same output.

The voltage on the power pins is the same regardless of whether it's USB, mini-USB or micro-USB. Think about it for a minute: it comes out of a USB port on your PC and goes along a plan ol' bit of wire to a micro-USB port on your Defy. It's going to be the same voltage.

dilfatx said:
When I went to plug in the usb from the hack onto the laptop..i get this message

"Power Surge on Hub Port"..... "A USB device has exceeded the power limits of its hub port. For assisatance in solving this problem, click this message."
The only options i get is to reset the usb or to close it.

Any solutions?

Yes: don't use the USB port on your laptop. There is a limit to the current they can provide and they will shut down if the device connected to them tries to draw too much. In the case of the hack, there's no control being exercised over the current draw and if your battery is flat (which is why you're having to do this after all) then it can very likely pull more current than the laptop wants to supply through its USB port. You might have more success plugging your hack cable in to a powered USB hub, if you have one.

dilfatx · Nov 12, 2011

ejstubbs said:
The voltage on the power pins is the same regardless of whether it's USB, mini-USB or micro-USB. Think about it for a minute: it comes out of a USB port on your PC and goes along a plan ol' bit of wire to a micro-USB port on your Defy. It's going to be the same voltage.

Yes: don't use the USB port on your laptop. There is a limit to the current they can provide and they will shut down if the device connected to them tries to draw too much. In the case of the hack, there's no control being exercised over the current draw and if your battery is flat (which is why you're having to do this after all) then it can very likely pull more current than the laptop wants to supply through its USB port. You might have more success plugging your hack cable in to a powered USB hub, if you have one.

Thanks for the response. As far as the battery I found a friend with a defy and used their battery and my defy still didn't turn on.

I will try plugging mine with my battery into wall instead if laptop and hope it works

Sent from my MB501 using Tapatalk

dilfatx · Nov 12, 2011

Also is it possible if someone can post a picture of the connections and the battery. I would like to ensure I'm doing this correctly.

Sent from my MB501 using Tapatalk

tallmantim · Nov 14, 2011

Managed to get it working, installed an SBF, but now phone is fully bricked - completely dead. Will not turn on with battery or with USB power connectors.

dilfatx · Nov 14, 2011

OK i just did the usb hack and plugged it in the wall instead of laptop.. no light came on and if i press the power button the white light flashes once then turns off.

I then plugged it into the laptop usb and saw that the laptop for first time since this no battery issue recognized the Defy.. it said looking for drivers and then a pop up message came up which said "Motorola Defy ready for Flash". I got excited and loaded up RSD lite and the sbf.. only to be dissapointed because it couldn't recognize the phone.. I noticed that the laptop had lost connection with the phone once again..

m11kkaa · Nov 14, 2011

Today it was the first time I got the "battery low"-message and your trick was very helpful. Within 15minutes my defy was working like before.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

dilfatx · Nov 14, 2011

I still can't get this to work..

Also I have noticed that when I looked in the computer device manager I can see that the defy is plugged in with its Moto usb drivedrs and a message that says Motorola flash interface.. there are no options other than uninstall the motorola flash interface..

its been days and i keep trying this with no luck..I feel I'm doing something wrong as so many people have benefited from this..

please help

m11kkaa · Nov 15, 2011

Is your Defy still showing "battery low - cannot program" or is it ready to program now?
If not you didn't correctly connected the cables to the battery.

If it's ready to program it should work. The only difference to what I did is that I used sbf_flash to flash the firmware because I'm using Linux.

Another problem could be, that you have an defective contact between the phone and your +5V-source. This could result in an aborted flash-process.

dilfatx · Nov 15, 2011

m11kkaa said:
Is your Defy still showing "battery low - cannot program" or is it ready to program now?
If not you didn't correctly connected the cables to the battery.

If it's ready to program it should work. The only difference to what I did is that I used sbf_flash to flash the firmware because I'm using Linux.

Another problem could be, that you have an defective contact between the phone and your +5V-source. This could result in an aborted flash-process.

My phone doesn't show a message. Only has white light appear when connected to laptop. Today I used a friend's defy to charge my battery then put my battery back in my phone and still will not boot.

Sent from my MB501 using Tapatalk

m11kkaa · Nov 15, 2011

I think you have another problem, too.
It's possible to brick your defy so it won't show anything on the screen.
This happens if you cancle the flash-process or flash a ROM with a lower CG-version.

I think this thread should help you: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1076735

dilfatx · Nov 15, 2011

m11kkaa said:
I think you have another problem, too.
It's possible to brick your defy so it won't show anything on the screen.
This happens if you cancle the flash-process or flash a ROM with a lower CG-version.

I think this thread should help you: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1076735

Before coming here I used that method and unlike the comment on that thread red lite did not detect it. I figured my phone needed this hack to get it going. When I get home today I will try again to load red lite.

Sent from my MB501 using Tapatalk

dilfatx · Nov 15, 2011

Now that I have 100 percent charge to my batter.. my phone will no longer light up the white light while plugged into the laptop..

I have tried holding volume up and power and nothing happens.. screen is black and no lights.. tried again while plugged into laptop with same results.

Before when batter had no charge I would easily get the white light on laptop..now that I have full charge I get no light..

---------- Post added at 02:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:18 PM ----------

Just figured it out.. I haven't seen this mentioned before on these thread..

on RSD lite

make sure to have First Come First Serve checked!

After doing that my phone was easily detected with the full charge batter and I was able to install sbf file..

I'm so happy.. thanks to all for the effort

[Howto] Fix "Battery Low - Cannot program"

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