There are four bars.

November 27, 2007 8:11 PM

What is going on with my cellphone?

I have the LG Chocolate (first release) and it's been reliable and good so far, however, the last two days the battery has lasted exactly 2 minutes.

Every time I look at it the backlight is on. I've carried this thing in my pocket for a good year and a half and never had this problem. Also, the little mp3 symbol is appearing a lot more at the top of the screen--when you play mp3's the backlight is always on--yet no mp3's are playing.

So I took it home and charged it from completely dead yesterday. I thought maybe it was from being in my pocket that somehow I was turning it off and on. So today I left it in my desk drawer all day. When I went to grab it and leave it had a blinking battery light and halfway home it turned itself off: dead battery.

I just got a new job so now I am also carrying the Blackberry 7130e and working around a lot of wireless network devices that use radio cards.

Is electrical interference making my phone do weird things? I don't have bluetooth enabled. If it is some sort of interference can it be manipulated to remotely access options on my phone? That'd be cool. Or do I just need to buy a new battery?

posted by M Edward to technology (8 comments total)

Only thing I know about cell phone batteries is that you're apparently not supposed to let them charge longer than they need to be charged to get to full strength. Otherwise the battery will go bad sooner.

But in my experience, I tried not to do that and my cell phone battery still sucks. But yours sounds like a totally different problem. If nobody here has tips maybe call customer service for LG or ask the store you got the phone from if they've heard of something similar.
posted by purelibertine at 8:16 PM on November 27, 2007

purelibertine
Only thing I know about cell phone batteries is that you're apparently not supposed to let them charge longer than they need to be charged to get to full strength. Otherwise the battery will go bad sooner.

This was the case with older Nickel batteries but almost all cell phones use newer lithium ion batteries.

To discuss the actual question... Most likely you just have a bad battery, bad phone, or bad charger. Unless you purchased the Chocolate when it was first launched it's still under warranty. Take it into a Verizon store and they should be able to check it out and replace it for you.
posted by Octoparrot at 8:34 PM on November 27, 2007

These days, even my el-cheapo, two-year-old LG seems to know when its charged (the light by the plug turns green and the "charging" message goes away.)

Seconding taking the thing in to where you got it, if you can. They may be able to offer instant resolution.
posted by Opposite George at 8:40 PM on November 27, 2007

I've had 3 lg phones do this, and it is always the phone and not the battery.
posted by 4ster at 8:40 PM on November 27, 2007

I've gone through about 50 phones in the past 8 years (I work for a errm... large wireless company) so I never keep them long enough to have the batteries go out but anecdotally LGs do tend to have more problems than most.

Our network guys swear they work the best on our network though so it's kind of a krapshoot.
posted by Octoparrot at 8:45 PM on November 27, 2007

Hmm. I worked in wireless for several years, sounds common. If you take the battery off, is there a white sticker? Is it red/pink? If so, it's got a sign of water/liquid damage.

One of the first signs of liquid damage to the battery or charging port is what you've described. There's a short in the battery causing it to discharge rapidly.

Or the phone itself could have gone bananas... If there's no damage or liquid/water damage, call Verizon, tell 'em, and they'll send you a replacement, methinks.... Though, I'm betting the former and not the latter is correct, unfortunately :( .
posted by vrdx at 9:24 PM on November 27, 2007

This post, about lithium batteries, may make some things more clear. They don't last all that long, and their effective operational life isn't affected much by use pattern.

You didn't say how old your phone was, though the "first release" comment suggests you've had it for a while. It's entirely possible that the battery has worn out. If so, there's nothing to be done except to replace it.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 9:45 PM on November 27, 2007

Rule of thumb: LG stands for "Much Crappier Than It Ought To Be."
posted by notyou at 7:09 AM on November 28, 2007