5 replies to this topic

[St3liz]

Hi,

A few months ago my phone developed a problem. After I charge it the screen will light up by itself and stay on, the phone will indicate intermittently that it is charging when it is not connected and the battery will drain very quickly. I have tried replacing the battery which didn't change anything. I think I should replace the charging port but I would like a second opinion before I start taking my phone apart.

[8210GUY]

Personally I would scan for any infections first, a fast draining battery can be a sign of such a thing, because the infection is probably running bluetooth searches constantly to find other devices to send to so they infect other devices, and just like any nasty it's aim is to spread itself as much as possible.

 

Although mobile infections are not "common" as such, they are out there, and they are growing, so the mobile world is going to be as big a target as PC's etc, bigger in some ways, so although it may be considered paranoia to run protection on your mobile, just like you would a PC, it's probably a good idea to start doing so, no point waiting for the horse to have bolted before you lock the stable door as they say.

 

There are quite a few options available in this field, and the names you would normally look to for your PC, also have mobile versions available, so the 1st thing I would do is install some mobile protection and run a full scan, see if that shows anything, it is far better that dismantling a phone, as thats the last thing you should be doing when nothing else helps, and this is free and simple to do, so can't hurt to try first, it "may" save a lot of messing about.

 

This doesn't mean there is nothing wrong with the hardware, but given the symptom it would be my first thing to do, if that shows nothing get Process Explorer from the App store, just like a PC a mobile has many things running in the background, there are many around, but I use Android Assistant, you should be able to see what is using your battery up, assuming it is a "software" issue, it also allows control on your battery, but always use such tools with caution, don't change to much in a single go unless you know what will happen.

 

Should none of this shown what is going on, then there is a high probability it is a hardware issue, then you can consider stripping the phone down, but if you suspect the connection terminal is weak\faulty, gently move the cable and see if it cuts in\out, mine does this, but it still charges OK, but I mostly notice it when connected to the PC, you only need touch the lead and it connects\disconnects like mad at times lol, so see if any of this helps before stripping your phone down, it could save you a lot of work, hope something here helps.

[St3liz]

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestions. I installed the anti virus and did a scan which did't show anything up and I installed Android Assistant which also didn't provide any clues.

The connection terminal seems OK when I connect the cable. There is no faulty connection and the phone charges without a problem. The problems occur after the charge, the phone sometimes bleeps constantly with the 'charging' statement going on and off. I've found the best way to stop it doing this is to take out the battery and put it back which results in a charge loss of about 25%. Also, if I take out the battery and put it back the phone will not switch back on unless I connect the charger first.

[8210GUY]

So using that tool you could see no processes that are really chewing up the resources ?

 

The scan returning no results is good, but not infallible (what did you use out of interest ?), but from what you are describing, there are only 2 things that come to mind, it's either an infection, as said previous in a mobile they constantly scan with your bluetooth for other connections to spread itself to, the battery drain is the normal identifying factor in this.

 

The only other possible in my eyes is a hardware fault, before you start stripping the phone down, if at all possible put a meter on the battery and see what amount of charge it has, then put it on charge, and when it states it is fully charged, put a meter on it again, this will tell you if the charge is getting through or not, if the meter shows the battery is not at full capacity after a charge, then there is a charging issue, if it is at full power then it is something else going on IMO.

 

TBH it's been many years since I dealt with mobiles, so I'm well out of touch these days, but the logic still applies, for a battery to instantly lose that amount of charge with simply taking it out and putting it back, something is very wrong, I suggest dropping Samsung a line first, I had a problem with my S4 draining faster than it should, and they said there is a known fault with the batteries on some of these, so they may know of what's going on, and could save you doing things you don't need to, but if you can do what I said here it will help narrow it down.

 

Another possible to consider is the PCB becoming damaged\shorted, eg if the phone had\has become damp over it's time, it could have left a residue shorting it out sort of thing, it's easy for damp to occur, simply taken in\out of a hot pocket in cold weather can cause this, so do you think you can check the battery as mentioned here ?

[St3liz]

That's right, in fact the highest battery use is by the security app (avast) that I've just installed!

 

If there is an infection hijacking my bluetooth would I see any sign of it? My bluetooth is always off. The battery drain can be intermittent, sometimes normal but usually fast. Last night I went to bed and the battery was at 35% and it died during the night which is annoying as my phone is also my alarm.

 

I haven't had a chance to test the battery yet but it is a new battery I bought to try and resolve the problem. I did find on the internet some information that seemed to suggest that the charge calibration could be out of sync. I followed the instructions to reset this but it didn't make any difference.

 

I will follow your suggestion and contact Samsung but I won' be too optimistic about the reply.

 

I have tried cleaning out the phone with a can of compressed air which also didn't work.

[8210GUY]

If Avast is using that much power, it would be worth trying an alternate one, there are freak times when something that usually behaves, suddenly becomes a problem, so try another good one and see if that helps.

 

I would tend to agree if your bluetooth is off then that kind of hijacking is less likely, assuming it's not found a way round that these days, but as I say it's many years since I dealt with mobiles, so it may be possible they now target Wi-Fi as the method of furthering it's infection base.

 

But there are many legitimate things that will drain the battery, the only thing that varies is how much, so looking at the settings of everything installed may help reduce the drain, such things as background running when it's not needed, auto updates, live feeds such as eBay, email where set to auto check for mail, things like facebook if it's constantly updating\checking for anything new, they all take a part in how long the battery will last, and see if maps\GPS are on, using them without a power source it will drain quickly.

 

There are settings usually in the phone for energy saving, my S4 does, so would imagine yours does as well, things like screen brightness can make a big difference, you may have an energy saver mode setting, if you do using that may help a lot, but if the drain is intermittent, it may be worth trying to find out just when those times are, it will at least start to narrow down when to try and notice what's going on, and if you identify it's location based then you can look at what there is in that area that could be the cause.

 

Hopefully Samsung will have some insight as well, as I said they rang me when I contacted them, but maybe that was because they knew of a battery issue in my case, but I hope something here helps.