I have my daughters 18 month old LG Viewty.When texting etc it has a good battery life.Tonight i received a phone call about 8 mins long and the battery was showing full.Just before the call ended i get "Low Battery" warning and no bars showing on its capacity.Strange thing because put on charge and now after 30 mins has said "Battery Full" and is taking no more charge.Only happens on phone calls just seems to kill the battery instantly.Any ideas? or is it due a battery change?

I have my daughters 18 month old LG Viewty.When texting etc it has a good battery life.Tonight i received a phone call about 8 mins long and the battery was showing full.Just before the call ended i get "Low Battery" warning and no bars showing on its capacity.Strange thing because put on charge and now after 30 mins has said "Battery Full" and is taking no more charge.Only happens on phone calls just seems to kill the battery instantly.Any ideas? or is it due a battery change?

After 18months you would be due for a new battery, change mine every 6 months.

After 18months you would be due for a new battery, change mine every 6 months.

Not necessarily. You can condition the battery by charging on low warning, and removing once full. Keeping them charged constantly is what kills them, as they have a charge cycle life. Usually 1000-2000 charges - be it 5 mins, or an hour each charge reduces the life.

Did it actaully die, or just say it was low?

Maybe try again, and see if its battery goes back up a while after making the call because I know some (mainly SE) handsets battery monitor varies depending upon what your doing. So if you take a picture or make a call, it drops, then picks up again after a minute or two.

I will try that Triggerfish next and see what happens.My trusty old Nokia 6610 does it too but the battery is 5 years old now but still strong and only needs a charge once a week unlike the LG which is every day.

To be fair, an old Nokia (black and white?) will be drawing a lot less power than a full touch screen phone due to the size of the screen if nothing else. I got an HTC hero on Saturday night, gone flat twice since then! Pretty much non-stop use though, but touch screen phones will be worse as a general rule.

I've a Sony Erricson K800 as a spare which is about 3 yrs old now and with normal texting the battery will last around 3-4days, where my C905 lasts about 1 1/2 days if im lucky.

But the K800's battery life does tailor off quite quickly towards 25% if your using it for calls.

I would say as everyone else has said and the battery is on its way out.

In the old days of NiCads you could flash the battery (short it) if it developed a memory, but modern Li ones allegedly don’t suffer this problem. One interesting thing I have found with this type of battery is that in some applications such as Walkie Talkies, the battery contains a chip and if you make the mistake of 100% discharging it, it will not allow you to recharge it again! Very annoying as I think they cost us about £25 or so and many people are want to put the RT into the charger with it still switched on. Not a problem until the power supply is disconnected (every day at the end of shift) and the following day half the batteries are effectively dead :( . Recently my HTC TyTn II developed a short and eventually killed the battery. I rang Orange and said I need a new one and had the Orange insurance to back this up. They told me that nobody insures batteries for more than 6 months anymore, even thought the phone itself was covered. :(

I know mobiles use Lithium Ion batteys, but im wondering if the 100% discharge rate is a safety feature.

As the RC Helicopters i fly use Lithium Polymer batteries, and if these are discharge below a certain voltage. The charger wont allow them to charge due to fear by the manufacturers that they could explode. It is possible to recouperate them, but im not going to disclose that on here as its not something you should mess about with if you dont know what your doing. As there volatile batteries, and can shoot flames out by around 6ft if punctured or incorrectly charged.

I know mobiles use Lithium Ion batteys, but im wondering if the 100% discharge rate is a safety feature.

As the RC Helicopters i fly use Lithium Polymer batteries, and if these are discharge below a certain voltage. The charger wont allow them to charge due to fear by the manufacturers that they could explode. It is possible to recouperate them, but im not going to disclose that on here as its not something you should mess about with if you dont know what your doing. As there volatile batteries, and can shoot flames out by around 6ft if punctured or incorrectly charged.

It sounds like your recuperation method might involve a short? Do the RC batteries have a chip built in as well? NiCads could actually charge in a reverse polarity if you gave them a 100% discharge!!!! Perhaps Li ion can as well and that is what the chipped batteries I see, are trying to avoid?

Yes it would involve a momentairly short circuit across the main output wires and not the balance charge lead. But a large resistor to reduce the voltage going into your output leads from your source, But i wouldn't condone trying it. I never have and probably never will as i dont want to end up seriously burnt!

It was scary enough having a heavy crash and actually puncturing one as it was releasing fumes as i got to it, it got wrapped in a full roll of electricians tape rather quickly and put in a plastic box to try and keep it safe until i could get it home and drop it in a salt water solution to discharge it. (I actually dropped the battery in at arms lenght and run like mad when i tried it for the first time)

They do have a circuit board on the end of them, although i've not looked into this as im not brilliant with electronics i dont tend to mess about with them too much if i can avoid it. But i would presume its a saftey feature and gives the balance charger some idea as to the condition of each battery cell.

I dont know about reversing the polarity either, but its a interesting concept which i may look into as a matter of interest rather than actually wanting to go out and do it.

The reverse polarising of the NiCads was a pretty rare thing but did cause the occasional bit of damage :(One thing to note with NiCads (and possibly Lithium) batteries is possibly deadly ‘heavy metal poisoning’. Apparently one poor TV person (I think it was a cameraman) had a large PAG type NiCad battery in his pocket when it shorted out against his keys or some such. The battery heated up and cracked open, resulting in the heavy metal poisoning of the poor man. The result is it got into his system and eventually resided in his bones. Heavy metal poisoning will cause all sorts of health problems starting with bits falling out/off and in the case of this poor poor man, his eventual death. We received a big health lecture on how to avoid this happening to us. The main cure was to simply tape the contacts over with insulation tape (we usually have several rolls on us at any time, well the sound department does at least)

Regarding batteries,

As long as you look after them, and only charge them when they are flat then they will last a long time. Charging midway through its use, reduces its run time significantly.

At home, I have a Samsung D500 which still holds its charge for quiet a few days before needing a recharge. My first Gen N95 which was purchased when the phone was just released still goes for days without needing a charge, and my Company Nokia 6021 goes nearly 1 week without needing a charge.

My poor laptop, on the other hand which tends to get used on the mains only has a dead battery that lasts about 15mins at a push from fully charged. The laptop is 2 years old.

Li-ion batteries are better at the charging thing, but they also fail just not as quickly as Nicads did.

Well, my Morotola Razr is about 5 years old on the original battery. I never put it on charge before the "low charge" warning sounds, and virtually always leave it on until it's full afterwards. Battery life still 3 or 4 days as well.

After 18months you would be due for a new battery, change mine every 6 months.

Jesus! Do you leave it on 24/7 and talk for 18 hours a day or something?

I have my daughters 18 month old LG Viewty.When texting etc it has a good battery life.Tonight i received a phone call about 8 mins long and the battery was showing full.Just before the call ended i get "Low Battery" warning and no bars showing on its capacity.Strange thing because put on charge and now after 30 mins has said "Battery Full" and is taking no more charge.Only happens on phone calls just seems to kill the battery instantly.Any ideas? or is it due a battery change?

My daughter had the LG Viewty, her handset had the same problem, I tried a new battery but the problem still exists. I even tried the battery from swmbo' Viewty and that went flat too.

Swmbo bought a new phone case for her Viewty, the type which has a magnet to keep the flap closed. She found her battery going flat in a couple of hours, but if the phone wasn't in it's case it would last all day.

After doing some research it turns out the cases with magnet type catch can cause the battery to lose charge quickly.

I rang Orange and said I need a new one and had the Orange insurance to back this up. They told me that nobody insures batteries for more than 6 months anymore, even thought the phone itself was covered. :(

Nokia warranty on batteries is 12 months, and most phones 24 months.

Nokia warranty on batteries is 12 months, and most phones 24 months.

Its interesting as Orange were adamant that they only did 6 months on any phone (I mentioned that I believed my previous phone with them had a full warranty on it’s battery, ie the length of the contract). Wonder if they get the phone slightly cheaper from the manufacturer as a result?

Nokia warranty on batteries is 12 months, and most phones 24 months.

Battery or "enchancement" warranty on Nokia is 6 months although some retailers will honour 12 months (Mostly because they peons on the shop floor don't know the policy...)

To the OP... Get the firmware updated, it just sounds like a EM calibration issue.

Edited 26 November, 200916 yr by Decron

Sorry to be thick Decron but what is EM calibration?

Sorry, Energy Management

Basically, you battery will have an indicator in it usually a resistor which will tell tha handset what battery it is and also a thermistor which will tell the handset when the battery is charged. The way the handset interperets this info is usually done in software these days although it wasn't too long ago you had to calibrate them with a known voltage which with some handsets could be a biatch.

Get the firmware updated, if this doesn't cure it then it needs a new battery. TBH if it's 18 months old, my money is on the battery

I suppose there could also be a power amplifier issue which would just drain all the charge quickly when used thinking about it, does it get hot on calls?

Thanks Decron.Phone stays cool on calls.Just charged it for 16 hours and it lasted 10 hours with occasional texts and no calls inbound/outbound then shut itself off as it was completely flat.Can,t find a battery for it in the whole of Bournemouth,Poole and Christchurch areas.Nobody keeps them.

http://www.uk-mobilestore.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=1980

Take it you've tried the stores in castlepoint?

Wessex gate have a repair centre. However it's out of warranty so it will cost £45 but they should replace your battery

Sorry, Energy Management

Basically, you battery will have an indicator in it usually a resistor which will tell tha handset what battery it is and also a thermistor which will tell the handset when the battery is charged. The way the handset interperets this info is usually done in software these days although it wasn't too long ago you had to calibrate them with a known voltage which with some handsets could be a biatch.

Get the firmware updated, if this doesn't cure it then it needs a new battery. TBH if it's 18 months old, my money is on the battery

I suppose there could also be a power amplifier issue which would just drain all the charge quickly when used thinking about it, does it get hot on calls?

Decron is correct. I had the same phone and the same problem. I now know that this was due to me putting it on charge say 4.30pm and then only taking it off at 8.30am the next day.It's always best to let the mobile run down before you charge it. This also applys to laptops.Hope this helps,