I turned sclitheroe's posts into a Google Doc that can be shared, I don't know many people that know the information presented in this thread, so I figured sharing it would be awesome.
sclitheroe, I gave you credit at the bottom and linked back to this thread, I hope that is okay.
Funny that I should see this today - I am currently having problems with my iPhone 4s battery (about 15 months old), so I think that this thread is a reasonable place to ask a specific question. Especially since we seem to have a battery expert on hand.
My problem is that my phone shuts off with a some of battery remaining. I understand that the percentage shown is an estimate, but quite often it is shutting off at 15%, and this morning it shut off at 27%. Admittedly, I hadn't known about the "30% rule" that was mentioned here, but I usually don't let my phone go all the way down to zero before charging. At least I didn't before it started dying at 15+%.
The interesting part, however, is that if I wait a few minutes and start the phone up again, it boots up and shows the same percentage that it was at before it died. It then operates normally until it either dies properly, or it is recharged. It is almost as if the battery isn't actually dead, but the phone thinks it is.
I have tried a couple of full discharges and recharges for calibration with no improvement. I have also tried restoring my phone, also with no luck. I restored from a backup, however, and not completely "as a new phone."
My latest attempt, after some reading online, was to reset all settings. It is currently charging fully and I guess I'll wait and see if that makes a difference. My last resort, prior to taking it in to Apple, will be to do another full restore, but this time setting it up as a completely new phone.
The one year warranty is over, but I believe that Apple can/will replace the battery if necessary for $80 or so, which is fine. But perhaps someone has some tips before it gets to that. I fee that I have treated my battery fairly well, but I will admit to letting it drain below the 30% threshold more than I should have.
Will add that if your laptop has a "battery saver" function which ensures the battery is only charged to a certain level, use it if you are plugged in often.
My 3 year old laptop has this - the default setting is to charge the battery only to 80%. I set it to 50%. After 3 years, the battery has 0% wear. My laptop is plugged in 90% of the time. The only downside is remembering to change it to a full charge if you know you are going to be unplugged for an extended period of time.
Are you using a proprietary software from the laptop manufacturer or third party? Lots of great advice in this thread- I was one to let my devices shut down due to lack of power before charging them so that will change. Anyone aware of apps that let you control the charge level (e.g. only to 80%) for mobile devices? There are plenty of charge monitoring apps but haven't found one with that much power yet.
Funny that I should see this today - I am currently having problems with my iPhone 4s battery (about 15 months old), so I think that this thread is a reasonable place to ask a specific question. Especially since we seem to have a battery expert on hand.
My problem is that my phone shuts off with a some of battery remaining. I understand that the percentage shown is an estimate, but quite often it is shutting off at 15%, and this morning it shut off at 27%. Admittedly, I hadn't known about the "30% rule" that was mentioned here, but I usually don't let my phone go all the way down to zero before charging. At least I didn't before it started dying at 15+%.
The interesting part, however, is that if I wait a few minutes and start the phone up again, it boots up and shows the same percentage that it was at before it died. It then operates normally until it either dies properly, or it is recharged. It is almost as if the battery isn't actually dead, but the phone thinks it is.
I have tried a couple of full discharges and recharges for calibration with no improvement. I have also tried restoring my phone, also with no luck. I restored from a backup, however, and not completely "as a new phone."
My latest attempt, after some reading online, was to reset all settings. It is currently charging fully and I guess I'll wait and see if that makes a difference. My last resort, prior to taking it in to Apple, will be to do another full restore, but this time setting it up as a completely new phone.
The one year warranty is over, but I believe that Apple can/will replace the battery if necessary for $80 or so, which is fine. But perhaps someone has some tips before it gets to that. I fee that I have treated my battery fairly well, but I will admit to letting it drain below the 30% threshold more than I should have.
I think this is the sign of a dying battery. My iPhone 3gs recently went through the same thing before I got my 5. It got to the point where it would die after 10-15 minutes, with 88% battery showing. I bought a battery from a website I found online with really good reviews, for $20 and replaced it myself. Took me about 40 minutes, but it was way cheaper than getting Apple to do it.
^ That's my fear, to be honest. I'll see how it goes for the next little while, but failing that, I'll likely need to look at a replacement. I can get through most of the day before it dies out, but I don't like the idea of not knowing an accurate estimate of what remains. Thanks for the link!
Are you using a proprietary software from the laptop manufacturer or third party? Lots of great advice in this thread- I was one to let my devices shut down due to lack of power before charging them so that will change. Anyone aware of apps that let you control the charge level (e.g. only to 80%) for mobile devices? There are plenty of charge monitoring apps but haven't found one with that much power yet.
It is proprietary (my laptop is a Sony, I've seen similar functionality on Lenovos). It needs to be proprietary as it is also built into the bios - the battery won't charge past 50% even with the laptop shutdown but plugged in.
For phones, 3rd party software may be good enough since a lot of people keep their phones on all the time. However, phones are meant to be unplugged the majority of the time, so limiting the max charge doesn't make as much sense - your battery will still wear down as it will be involved in discharge/charge cycles, and your phone will have less battery life.
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