Samsung Galaxy S2 Battery Problems

funkey_monkey

Hi,

I was given a Samsung S2 to replace my dead phone. However, the battery is not holding charge and a friend advised me to get a replacement battery.

I've been on eBay and Amazon was wondering how I know if the batteries are genuine? There seems to be a lot of 'fake' batteries.

Is it only advisable to use the genuine Samsung batteries or are there other respected brands?

Anyone know of a good site where I can get a decent item from?

Many thanks,

Chet T16

Get an Anker extended one

funkey_monkey

Like this one?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/1900mAh-Battery-Samsung-GT-I9100-EB-F1A2GBU/dp/B00567Y7A6/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

There does not seem to be NFC compatability with this product though.

webels

Does your s2 have NFC though?

funkey_monkey

Okay, put the battery in and charged it fully, it drained within 12 hours - with no use.

Therefore it seems that the charging circuit is gone, correct?

Can this be fixed and if so, what would the approx cost of the fix be?

vibe666

it might just be that an app or something else on the phone is draining the battery very quickly.

have a look at your battery usage in the phone settings and see if anything is using a lot of battery.

funkey_monkey

Got a few gus here at work with similar phones to take a look and they could not find anything. I also done a reset to no avail.

The Cell Standby was consuming most power at 53%.
Display 36%
Voice 4%
Andorid Sys 3%
Android OS 2%
Idle 2%
Media 2%

Slutmonkey57b

Cell standby shouldn't take up that much power. Is the signal very bad in your area?

In a healthy phone, Display should be by far the #1 energy user.

funkey_monkey

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

Cell standby shouldn't take up that much power. Is the signal very bad in your area?

In a healthy phone, Display should be by far the #1 energy user.

There is no sim in it at the minute.

Slutmonkey57b

Get betterbatterystats or a similar utility which shows "wakelocks".

As to why it's searching for networks when there's no SIM card, I've no idea.

funkey_monkey

Dl'ed BetterBatteryStats over the weekend and it would seem like usb_otg is the culprit.

Trying to figure out what path to take from here. What I have noticed is that the connection port for the charger is sensitive to movement on the cable.

Is there a download to fix this issue or is it hardware requiring a new charging unit?

Slutmonkey57b

I found the port is pretty sensitive too, but a different cable works fine.

According to This thread the USB OTG wakelock is a known issue. I haven't had it myself but on the other hand I don't use it in OTG mode.

Reboot the phone, and charge it off the mains rather than USB from the computer. Then see if you've still got the wakelock after a couple of hours.

funkey_monkey

I can't see the usb_OTG wakelock today, after recharging the phone.

Without being connected to a charger it seems to think it is charging - not sure how it could think that?


It has just bleeped and displayed the message:
MTP Initialisation

and then MTP connected, with what looked like a USB icon in the top left screen corner.

funkey_monkey

Media scanner running (USB Storage)
Media Scanner completed

and back to MTB messages.


What the hell is going on with this thing?

There is a Kies Air app on this phone - would removing it help things?

Slutmonkey57b

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Media scanner running (USB Storage)
Media Scanner completed

and back to MTB messages.


What the hell is going on with this thing?

There is a Kies Air app on this phone - would removing it help things?

Generally speaking, all things kies are bad.

funkey_monkey

Stupid thing thinks it is still plugged in.

I was unable to fully delete Kies.

Where do I go from here to fix this handset?

Slutmonkey57b

There's an awful lot on google if you fancy going through them. Fixes seem to vary from "clean the USB port" to "RMA the phone". Do you have an SD card in it? Try taking that out, it might be trying to mount a corrupt SD card all the time.

funkey_monkey

Can't RMA the phone as the contact has expired - it was a handset given to me as I don't have a smartphone of my own.

Tried putting in a uSD card that I know works on another phone and got a message stating it was corrupted.

IRCA

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Stupid thing thinks it is still plugged in.

I was unable to fully delete Kies.

Where do I go from here to fix this handset?

Hi,

Had the same problem with an S2 18 months into a 24 month contract - sent for repair as it was under warranty still BUT Vodafone claimed it was water damaged and refused to repair it - long story short had to buy a PAYG phone to tie me over (Vodafone Smart Mini 4 - not a bad little cheap phone).

I wouldn't bother with a new battery - looks like the charging circuit is fried.

Riesen_Meal

IRCA wrote: »

Hi,

Had the same problem with an S2 18 months into a 24 month contract - sent for repair as it was under warranty still BUT Vodafone claimed it was water damaged and refused to repair it - long story short had to buy a PAYG phone to tie me over (Vodafone Smart Mini 4 - not a bad little cheap phone).

I wouldn't bother with a new battery - looks like the charging circuit is fried.

Sounds like water damage to me also,

I fixed phones for many moons and the symptoms described above could well be either a water damage phone or the USB charge socket is busted....

funkey_monkey

Thanks - I've read forum posts stating that replacing the charging circuit cures this problem and that it is quite easily done.

I think according to the forums that buying one of these may be a solution:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Connector-Charging-Ribbon-Samsung-Galaxy/dp/B005X7EVU0

Anyone tried this?

Riesen_Meal

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Thanks - I've read forum posts stating that replacing the charging circuit cures this problem and that it is quite easily done.

I think according to the forums that buying one of these may be a solution:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Connector-Charging-Ribbon-Samsung-Galaxy/dp/B005X7EVU0

Anyone tried this?

Give it a go....

Nothing to lose at this stage....

funkey_monkey

Spoke to an online company and they suggest that it requires a motherboard to fix - costing £80GBP.

At that price, I think it is not worth the fix, so the question now is how much is the nadset worth for spares/parts? Or is it indeed worth fixing?

_Puma_

Ive had the same problem with 2 S2's. Found changing the USB board sorts it out. More than likely water ingress through the USB port. Pretty easy fix to do as the USB port is on a separate board to the main board. Just order the board off ebay(Be sure to get the right board and that the model number matches up with the old one when taking out) and follow a youtube video. Only hard part I found was separating the front cover so be careful not to use too much force.

Part cost ~10 euro and 30 mins of your time so will save you a lot of money.

*EDIT Here is the part I used a couple of months back. Came with a handy plastic separator for the front cover when I got it but don't see that listed with it anymore.

funkey_monkey

Thanks - can you detail exactly what symptoms your phone had? I don't want to go throwing more money at it if it is a brick.

Do you need to do any soldering to replace it?

_Puma_

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Thanks - can you detail exactly what symptoms your phone had? I don't want to go throwing more money at it if it is a brick.

Do you need to do any soldering to replace it?

Nope no soldering needed. It connects to the mainboard through a ribbon cable.

Its about a year since i had it but if i remember right it was very high battery drain with the phone getting really hot. When i plugged out the charger from the usb port it would take a few mins for it to register that it wasn't in charging mode anymore. Car app would launch intermittently too. The battery history graph was all messed up in the battery setting too.

funkey_monkey

Okay - well I've replaced the USB dock circuit. Quite straightforward after viewing a video on Youtube.

It's still not behaving itself though. Yellow warning triangle and temperature gauge. Tried a few things to get rid of it such a removing and replacing the battery and then performing a factory reset.

It starts to charge and then stops. No idea as to why. The replacement of the USB dock went fine and there was no struggles.

Any ideas as to what might be happening now?

funkey_monkey

Could it need a firmware refresh?

It is running: Android: 2.3.5
Build: GINGERBREAD.XXXKJ4

When I connect the charger it detects it and then starts charging for a few seconds and then stops. If I then disconnect the charger and turn the phone off it automatically starts displaying the battery, yellow triangle and temperature gauges icons.

Any ideas?

_Puma_

Hmm that sounds like there could be another problem with the Battery Temp sensor.

Did changing the USB board fix the other issues at least, namely the phone thinking it is in charging mode, USB icon and the MTP initialising? Not sure if that sensor would be on the mainboard or not, but to rule everything else out put back in the original battery and give it a hard reset. Also make sure the model numbers and REV number of the new board matches up with the old one and give it a once over to make sure all the cables are reattached correctly.

I wouldn't be inclined on updating the Firmware when the phone is faulty as you don't want it cutting out when updating, regardless it shouldn't make a difference if the stock firmware is installed.

funkey_monkey

Yes, it does seem to have fixed the initial problem, but this new one has arisen in its place. Both boards are clearly marked as rev 2.3. I double checked the cabling etc and I'm happy I've everything connected correctly.

Do you mean a factory reset to wipe down the phone or is a hard reset something else as I have already tried a reset a few times to no avail.

funkey_monkey

Phone is now working - got a dud USB circuit which I have replaced with a tested second hand item off eBay.

Now I need to unlock it. How do I do that without having to go onto those sites which require to undetake surveies and enter personal details?

I found this information on the GiffGaff website which says I need to root the phone and the unlock it. Seems straightforward, but I can't find the insecure kernels in the links they provide.

The kernel on my phone is 2.6.35.7-I9100PXXKJ4-CL664063 root@DELL155 #2
Android: 2.3.5
Build: Gingerbread.XXKJ4


Where can I get this unlocked. Google is a maze of crap and seemingly scam websites.