yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Epic 4G General] NeonMonster:
I have tried this, charger into wall, then cable into charger, then usb into phone.

Still phone will not charge.

If I unplugg the charger, it says the battery is empty. :(
[Epic 4G General] ravizzle:
aww man that sucks, maybe the battery is defective? u should try going to the sprint corporate store that does repairs. they should be able to test the battery and if its defective give u a new one.Its still under warranty, and if u have TEP it definitely is covered.
[Epic 4G General] issai:
My Epic was experiencing the same issue. When I first got it today, it was gradually charging fine via my new Thinkpad's USB port. But then for some reason, "Battery Indicator" showed the charge going down, even though the red LED and the battery icon indicated that the phone was being charged. So did my lock-pattern screen. I called my local store for a replacement.

The phone wouldn't charge while I had the rubberized phone cover on, bought from the Sprint store. Also, the phone felt very warm, so I took the cover off, opened the battery cover to see how hot the battery was. It didn't feel too hot to the touch. I removed the battery, put it back in, powered the phone back on, and saw a huge green battery charge icon, but alternating with an icon with what I think was a yellow warning sign, and a thermometer on it. So I left the Sprint rubberized phone cover off, and recycled the power on the phone.

After the phone fully loaded up, I tried USB-charging the phone. Now, it's gradually charging up (was down to 14%, now back up to 19%). The phone feels cooler, too.

I'm leaving the replacement option on the table in case my phone turns for the worst. I rely on the phone for work and business so can't be without a phone. Maybe I should reconsider getting a land-line or VOIP service again. But maybe, this being a brand-new phone, the battery needs to be cycled a few times before it stops acting unusually. I'll try the wall charger before I head to bed tonight, and see what happens tomorrow.
[Epic 4G General] herbthehammer:
Here is my findings after putzing with it all day. I was using two chargers. Both griffin's. One was cigarette plug to usb with an output capacity of 1 amp. I also have a wall one that has a usb port and is meant for an ipad. They need lots of current to charge them and this one is capable of 3 amps.

Using the evo, both could charge it and run the phone at the same time. The battery percentage would always increase. With both of these chargers on the epic, even though the charge light would be red, if I was using the phone, it was not charging and it was pulling off the battery to run the phone.

This should not act like this. I have read that these screens are supposed to be more power efficient, but I don't notice that. I do not know if the power regulator in the phone is wimpy or not but I noticed that when I played something loud through the speaker, the screen backlighting would dim when the sounds peaked. Come on! An amp and a half battery in this phone should be able to handle that.

Here are some more observations. About three hours before I was to go home, I would either put the phone on the griffin wall charger when I was inside or I would put it on the griffin 12v adapter when I was in the car. Finally around 45 minutes before quitting time, the charging led went blue. I was mostly charging the last hour with the phone off. I turned it on but kept it plugged in. By the time the home screen came up and everything settled down, the battery would be at 95%. I was like wtf. I left it on until it charged up and the light went blue. The battery was at 96% at full charge.

I kept hitting it with the charger. Unplug it for a few seconds then plug it back in. I repeated this many times. I would also charge until blue then turn off and let charge until blue. I would follow that cycle for awhile.

Lastly, I left it turned on and charging but would unplug it for a few seconds then plug back in. The maximum % would inch higher and higher. I got it up to 98%. Then I noticed that when the screen came on to tell me it was fully charged, it was at 100 for maybe a second or two then it would drop to 98. I suspect the screen was causing the drop. All the time I have been typing this, I have gone from 98 to 90 while on wifi, screen minimum brightness and using hardware keyboard.

This was my battery and charging findings for today. Add this to the theories out there flying around.
[Epic 4G General] NeonMonster:
I find that completely unacceptable if the phone can't charge if being in use....

I plugged it in the way mentioned earlier for about 30 minutes while I was waiting on a friend. The charge went up to 15% but 15% isn't gonna last me longer than a hour of use which isn't usable.

It stil won't go above 15%.... I'm gonna leave it alone for a hour and see if it will charge, but a phone that can't charge isn't of use to me.

And judging from what everyone says its not even a hardware error, if there are many people with the problem.....
[Epic 4G General] nicknomo:
is this a defect, or is this only isolated to some phones?
[Epic 4G General] sling:
Ive been testing finding battery charge of 2% every 10 min while connected to desktop charger Telanav enabled so somethings definitely wrong with your device.

I would take back asap swap for new
[Epic 4G General] NeonMonster:
So I just got home and plugged my Epic in yet again. After about 30 minutes of charging my battery is at 20%.

Still way slow but the battery has gone above the 15% sliver of battery.....

I'm thinking its because the battery has to be conditioned... I'm gonna charge it for a day to see if the battery performance changes...
[Epic 4G General] herbthehammer:
I'm gonna try turning off the phone while it's charging at night and see what happens. Or I could try the htc evo battery conditioning suggestion.

Full 8 hour charge on. Disconnect charger and turn off phone. Charge off for an hour. Turn on and wait a couple minutes then turn off and charge for a hour. I think maybe charging the crap out of it might condition the battery some.

Maybe kinda like filling your gas tank up until the lever pops. Then slowly keep filling until it pops again. Then push the rear of the car up and down and side to side to try and get the tank to burp out any air pockets. Then slowly top it off until it barely overflows the filler pipe. I know, stupid mental picture!

The only questionable thing I have is, after a "full charge" should I run the phone until it shuts off then give it another FULL charge? Some say yes, some say no. Each have their theories.
[Epic 4G General] issai:
I noticed that the "Where" application was sucking down a tremendous amount of juice. There are multiple similar complaints for it in the Market. Uninstalled it, and now the phone is charging gradually and steadily.

@ 9:57PM, battery life = 36%. Now @ 10:25PM, battery life = 48%. I'm cautiously optimistic.

With Where installed, "Battery Indicator" displayed a voltage of <3V. After removing it, voltage is now a hair < 4V (3.945V is the latest refreshed value).

I will be following herb's suggestions for conditioning by maxing the battery out tonight. I think I'll run the phone down to 0% tomorrow, once it's fully charged to the hilt.

Even so, I still intend to exchanging this unit out because I'm also experiencing issues with the Back soft-button.

Considering encasing it in that Sprint rubberized casing tomorrow to see if it affects the battery life.
[Epic 4G General] NeonMonster:
My Epic has no problems except for the battery being slow to charge, but i charged it to 80ish in about 2 hours.

If anything, I will try to switch it for a new battery.
[Epic 4G General] herbthehammer:
I just thought of something that may be nothing. Did anyone, like myself, update google maps to 4.4.0? I am going to try something and see if it helps.

In battery use details, in the about phone under menu, what is your highest battery consumption? My display is pegged all the way and it is at 70%. The next closest is cell standy 14. Then browser is 9, system is 4, idle is 2 and os is 2. I'm going to remove the maps update. I read somewhere that some people suspected the update to eat battery.
[Epic 4G General] NeonMonster:
I haven't updated the maps app. The screen and standby are the highest ive seen on power usage.

My radioshack wont have any more Epics in until Friday or later.... I'm gonna try to power cycle the battery (if I can leave it off for that long. :( )
[Epic 4G General] kgold708:
Free advice

[ QUOTE=herbthehammer;7944650]I'm gonna try turning off the phone while it's charging at night and see what happens. Or I could try the htc evo battery conditioning suggestion.

Full 8 hour charge on. Disconnect charger and turn off phone. Charge off for an hour. Turn on and wait a couple minutes then turn off and charge for a hour. I think maybe charging the crap out of it might condition the battery some.

Maybe kinda like filling your gas tank up until the lever pops. Then slowly keep filling until it pops again. Then push the rear of the car up and down and side to side to try and get the tank to burp out any air pockets. Then slowly top it off until it barely overflows the filler pipe. I know, stupid mental picture!

The only questionable thing I have is, after a "full charge" should I run the phone until it shuts off then give it another FULL charge? Some say yes, some say no. Each have their theories.[/QUOTE]

Do not do this to your car! Or any car made after 1995 ,you will damage the evaporative emmission recovery system. Long story short, check eng light, 1-2 hr diagnostic( depends on skill of technician,honesty of customer,proper asking and response to questions etc.) Replacement of charcoal canister. About $300-1000 repair. It clicks for a reason!

Btw so does your gas cap (pesonal pet peve and very cheap to repair).

Above info posted by master certified auto tech, level 1 advanced auto engine performance tech, level 2 advanced electronic diesel engine tech.
[Epic 4G General] NeonMonster:
With the phone off, the Epic charged from 10%-70%ish percent in about 2 hours.

I turned it back on, and installed a system widget, which showed the battery at 75%. With the phone still plugged in, i uninstalled 2 apps and flicked around the homescreens. Within 1 minute the battery was 3% down. This was ON THE CHARGER....

Dunno how the phone is using so much energy just being on!
[Epic 4G General] ConceptVBS:
^ Dude, get a replacement. Simple as that.
[Epic 4G General] entropism:
Neon, it's painfully obvious you need a replacement. Just head in today and get one, no questions asked.
[Epic 4G General] volcomjerk:
This just happened to my girlfriend's phone. It was charging and then all of a sudden shut off and showed a temperature gauge. We just got back from Sprint and they wouldn't take it back without charging $35 because they couldn't "SEE IT". Of course it didn't replicate right in front of their eyes.

REALLY PISSED OFF AT SPRINT RIGHT NOW.

Kind of regretting getting this Epic 4G when the EVO's are already perfect. There seems to be way too many problems popping up and I'm losing faith in the fact that Samsung probably will not address most of these issues. I saw how they treated the Samsung Moment customers...
[Epic 4G General] Comando156:
I'm sorry for saying this but don't listen to this guy he doesn't know hat he is taking about. You have a falty battery. It is a launch device so thisis to be expected. if you have sprint insurance take it to a sprint store to have battery replaced. If not you will have to go threw retalier but they usually just try to replace the entire unit. As for the issue of letting the battery drain and recharging this has shown to actually increase the overall charge the battery can hold. And at times needs to be redone every few months to regain those lost charge cells.
[Epic 4G General] issai:
So every time the phone is fully charged (indicated by blue LED light), I'd unplug it from the included AC charger. Within 2 minutes, "Battery Indicator" says it's at 96%. I'd then plug it again, and it'd take a few minutes to see the blue LED light again.

Even with the phone turned off, I could get the blue light, unplug, wait 2 minutes, plug it in again, get red light (to indicate it's charging), see blue light, ad nauseum.

And I still have a few other issues beyond the battery-- accelerometer doesn't always register and react, the back soft-button is unresponsive 90% of the time, etc. I'm still going to try returning it.
[Epic 4G General] NeonMonster:
Problem is, I purchased it through RadioShack, and they won't have any more epics till god knows when.

I was able to fully charge the phone to blue light after about 5 hours of charging.

Radioshack will NOT switch the phone for any other phone, and they can't exchange it for the lack of Epics. Plus, even though i have my 30 day money back guarantee, even if I was to cancel my plan and return the Epic the $100 deductible is not refundable.

I'm going to be using the Epic today through normal use and see how the battery fares and charges. If it doesn't do well, i will be exchanging it as soon as RS comes back in stock of them.
[Epic 4G General] ravizzle:
Have u tried the other radioshacks in sac area? i think other locations may have em in. I knoe west sac had some unsold yesterday.
[Epic 4G General] quasi13:
My experiences so far:

Since we have 3 Epics in the house, we got a spare battery with the charger. The charger seems to charge the batteries very quickly. They seem to charge reasonably fast when in the phone (powered on) and plugged in to a wall outlet. (I have not tried powered off and in the phone.)

They seem to charge very slowly when on and plugged in (charging mode) to a USB port on a PC or laptop. This is also true when in mounting mode, and the Epics seem to stutter and operate very slowly even when I'm not writing or reading anything on the SD card.
[Epic 4G General] NeonMonster:
Used the phone for the majority of the day. No heavy use but texted, gtalk, twitter, and light browsing. This was from 11-2:30ish.

Battery was at 100% and when I got home, the BATTERY INDICATOR showed only a sliver of battery gone about 90% full. But the power widget I have showed the battery at under 60%.

Something seems wrong but I still need to test it some more to decide if its the battery/hardware it self or if its the battery needing to be conditioned.

beamed from the stars on a Epic 4G
[Epic 4G General] nicknomo:
I don't know what the wall charger is rated at, but it could have a much higher amperage rating. Can someone check the the milliamps per hour rating on the charger (mAh)?

A computer will probably give you 500-750. I have seen dual USB cables for charging removable devices - these use two USB ports instead of one, and will give you 500-750 mAh per port (1000-1500) total. They will let you charge your phone faster...

It could be entirely possible that the phone uses enough power to equal the charge rate of a USB charger.. but that should be unlikely.

If the battery % moves very quickly, or not at all.. then there could be two reasons. One would be a defective battery, the other would be that the software or the phone hardware is malfunctioning..
[Epic 4G General] herbthehammer:
700 milliamps. Weak. Like I said before, I've used a 1 amp and 3 amp charger and the phone acts like it's on a weak charger. Another update to the battery saga. The battery has been sitting at 8% for three and a half hours now and no pop up screen *****ing to plug it in. Maybe don't completely trust what some battery gauges are telling you? I've got a 20 minute drive home now and I'm going to run shoutcast and see if I can kill the battery so I can give it a healthy all night off charge. I checked the manuals that came in the box and none of them said how long it should take to charge a battery. I will update any info I find tomorrow. Maybe people sharing their experiences and testing results can help us to find out how this new thing operates and how it should be used and charged.

Meanwhile, my battery is still holding at 8%....
[Epic 4G General] herbthehammer:
Well I got home and it was still at 8% but the low battery indication was flashing. Now it's steadily going down. It's at 4 now. I'm gonna let a online radio run and kill the battery tonight. Maybe like some people were claiming with the evo will happen. One day it might act like someone flipped a switch and it's battery life will be noticably better. Now it's down to 3...
[Epic 4G General] quasi13:
I know you said RS wouldn't help you, so why don't you go into a Sprint store and explain your situation. You're their customer, too. I was told by the Sprint guy that did my activation that accessories are all returnable. If they won't swap the phone out for you, then you should insist that you deserve a spare battery w/charger. Then you could rule out your battery as the cause.
[Epic 4G General] herbthehammer:
I wish I could find the battery and external charger! At launch, they said they got one but had to use it as a display.

I killed the battery good last night and gave it a full off charge. I also topped it off maybe 3 or 4 times before unplugging the charger at home. I haven't been back on charging since this morning. I'm at almost 7 hours uptime with mild internet usage, a couple of hours of bluetooth on. Battery indicator pro is saying I have 22% left but that number and the stock icon aren't showing the same approximate levels. Like I said before, maybe the battery needs conditioning to work good. I don't know for a fact but its seeming like the epic is doing better than the evo. Then again, the evo's battery was never condition cycled since I bought it. I am doing that now with it being on wifi only.
[Epic 4G General] trancednovea:
Didn't read through every post, but yesterday I had a similar problem where i thought i had broke my phone on the 2nd day of having it. It wouldn't charge with the usb cable it came with.

I stressed out all day at work because of it, then found if i pushed up on the cable, sort of tilted it upwards or had it resting on a book, i could get it to charge.

Turned out to be the cable and not the phone. Using my girls usb cable from her mytouch 3g confirmed this.

buying a new cable right now from monoprice for $2 shipped. problem solved.
[Epic 4G General] NeonMonster:
That's my same situation. I charged the battery all night to 100%.

Unplugged at 12pm and by 5pm my battery is at 20%ish.

All day my Power Widget showed differetly than the battery indicator.

Downloaded a few other power apps and they all said the same power level. But the battery indicator would show MUCH more battery left....

Does this sound like the battery needs to be conditioned or should I swap it??

5 hours is a bit better but Radioshack called and said they have a epic to swap and I have to go get I today.

I'm worried that if I get a different epic that it will have more problems then my current epic.

posted from a EPIC4G.
[Epic 4G General] herbthehammer:
Do what you want, but if it were me, and I thought the battery life was bs, i'd swap it. If this one turns out to be crap too, I might either try a third or get a refund. You might not get a 100% refund, I don't know. If it's choosing between losing a few bucks or having a phone I'm not at least 90% happy with, I'd get my money back. Its a gamble, I know...
[Epic 4G General] NeonMonster:
I decided to say screw it, backed up my apps and data and swapped it out at Radioshack.

Took 10 minutes to swap the user codes, and got a shiny new Epic.

The epic was under 30% when I turned it on for the first time. Took it home and charged it for a bit under 1.5 hours, and it went from 15 to 100% in that time.

Not sure if it was the battery/cable/charging port on the last Epic, but my new epic is perfect. :)
[Epic 4G General] herbthehammer:
Okay, now that you've got a good one, use it while you're charging and let us know if the battery percentage drops or what. Maybe I've got a faulty one?!

Oh, and congrats on getting a good one.
[Epic 4G General] bojackson63044:
How are you guys checking the percentage of battery left? I can't seem to find where it's located in the settings.
[Epic 4G General] volcomjerk:
I think he will experience the same behavior sooner or later. In the beginning my battery was acting very strangely. Temperature would be high while charging. I haven't experienced that again after the first time.

Honestly, you should check if you have an app that is drawing too much power. My epic discharges around 4000 mV while it's on with the display with minimal backgrounding. I noticed that it charges at around 3600-3800 mV. Screen must be off to effectively charge it for me. I don't believe its a faulty phone. I think an update will fix this.

I don't think everyone should panic and exchange phones quite yet.
[Epic 4G General] volcomjerk:
I use battery indicator pro in conjunction with the app System Panel.
[Epic 4G General] styckx:
New here but saw this thread after seeing it while digging around to see if others were having charging issues.

I have tested the epic under heavy use while on the ac charger and can get the battery level to drop by about 1% every 5-6 minutes by Streaming Slacker and constant web browsing. As soon as I stop and let the phone just sit there doing nothing my battery level starts rising again as it should.

Something is causing the phone to draw more power, or near equal power from the battery than what it is able to recharge at. Hence the reason most peoples takes forever to charge until they just shut it off or stop using it.

I have never seen a phone THIS power hungry. During the day when I use it the most I am always charging. The only time I ever get the full charge notification is overnight while I am sleeping.
[Epic 4G General] nicknomo:
The sprint charger is pretty anemic at 750ma , but I can't seem to get it to charge must faster... I have a 2.1 amp charger meant for an Ipad, but using "kill a watt" power monitor, the other charger looks to be supplying <100 ma of power. It just doesn't charge.. I'm going to test the Samsung charger tonight, just to make sure the kill a watt isn't misreading, but the other charger definitely moves much more slowly..
[Epic 4G General] styckx:
I have the charger from Sprint that has a battery inside the plug brick to optionally charge without a wall outlet. That was rated at 1000ma (an amp) but made no difference. Guess we will see if Froyo fixes this or one of the devs can find the bugger causing this.
[Epic 4G General] nicknomo:
Well, for me, with the phone in standby I charged in about 3 hours.. Which isn't that bad. I guess the phone might be drawing a lot of power while on and doing intensive stuff...

Just out of curiosity though, is your battery life also bad? I see its a common complaint. I'm wondering if those with charging problems also have battery problems, possibly because something is chewing through juice.

I haven't really tried to use my phone while charged, I'm going to have to stream youtube and see how it goes... My battery life is pretty good, so I wonder if I'd have the same effect.

BTW, where is everyone seeing how much mv/mah of battery they are using?

edit: nevermind, it looks like i'm using 3721 mv according to my monitor tool..
[Epic 4G General] styckx:
Well after biting my tongue I activated automatic brightness and the power saving option and my battery is actually charging at a somewhat respectable pace while using it now.,So silly to have to manage power consumption while plugged in.
[Epic 4G General] tcharp:
Of course it is!! (snicker) Thank you. Mine was stuck at 76% after indicating that charging was complete. It's very odd but I'm trying all of these suggestions.

-TC
[Epic 4G General] bran201:
well when i plug my phone in it wont charge and i know this bc the red light and the bolt in the battery is not showing. my mom and dad has the evo so i used there chargers but STILL WONT CHARGE! im so ****in pissed! and this is going to b my 3rd epic i turned it off but its too low to come back on so i cant to any thing!
[Epic 4G General] nevrlow:
the epic 4g is the stepchild of the galaxy s series.