Cell phone issue (what can it be?)

[Muse]

I have 2 "identical" 5 month old Android Tracfones, LG REBEL 3 LTE® (L158VL). Put one on charge overnight (connected to a desktop in suspend) and in the morning it acted dead. Wouldn't turn on. Wouldn't start charging either.

I get Tracfone support on phone (LG gave me their number), guy has me open phone to get the IMEI #. While on phone I had the idea to test the voltage of the battery with multimeter and it said 2.89v. I ask him if that isn't low (he doesn't know), I pop open the other Tracfone, its battery is 4.08v. Put on charge, the phone with the dud battery does NOT indicate that the battery is charging. So, we deduce that the battery has gone bad and we set up them sending me a replacement battery (2500mah). Day or so later I retest the "dead" battery and multimeter says 3.13v. Hmm. I pop it back into one of the Tracfones and put it on charge and I get an icon indicating it IS charging! Hours later it says 100% and the phone appears to be acting normally.

So what's going on here?

 

[ch33zw1z]

Battery could be flaky, possibly overheated when left plugged in. Try not to do that too often, and I definitely wouldn't charge it from a PC in sleep mode....too much involved there, ymmv kinda deal. Just replace it with the one they're sending, make sure it works, send them the old one.

I recommend using the wall charger, and unplugging it when it's done charging.

 

[Muse]

Battery could be flaky, possibly overheated when left plugged in. Try not to do that too often, and I definitely wouldn't charge it from a PC in sleep mode....too much involved there, ymmv kinda deal. Just replace it with the one they're sending, make sure it works, send them the old one.

I recommend using the wall charger, and unplugging it when it's done charging.

I suppose... but I thought that lithium-ion rechargable batteries had sophisticated circuitry built in that stops charging (or slows it way down) so as to prevent over charging, which, of course, is super dangerous because those batteries can basically explode in flames and burn your barn/house/hospital/plane to the ground.

 

[balloonshark]

Maybe it wouldn't charge the battery because the voltage was too low. I know with hobby chargers many will not charge if the battery has been over discharged. The workaround is to bump up the voltage enough for the charger to charge by charging the battery just a little bit in nimh mode to get the voltage up.

I have no idea why the voltage went up the next day though. I know if a battery has been quickly discharged in an RC it will rebound a little bit when you check it right after running and a few minutes later. RCs draw way more amps than a phone though.

 

[Scarpozzi]

You could always try running the battery all the way down....then charging back to 100%. Then test again.

 

[Muse]

You could always try running the battery all the way down....then charging back to 100%. Then test again.

Yeah, and keep the one they are sending me for a backup. I have had swappers in the past. It's convenient. Keep the swapper in the fridge with a minimum 40% charge.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I suppose... but I thought that lithium-ion rechargable batteries had sophisticated circuitry built in that stops charging (or slows it way down) so as to prevent over charging, which, of course, is super dangerous because those batteries can basically explode in flames and burn your barn/house/hospital/plane to the ground.

Dont take this the wrong way, but you didn't buy some high end phone, and there could be subpar components that could fail faster than a more expensive phone.

I use the same battery policies on my own devices and seem to have ok luck

 

[Muse]

Yeah, it's true. I actually have 3 of these, two are Tracfones on Verizon, one is Simple Mobile on T-Mobile, basically the same phone, an LG Rebel 3 LTE, about the same price. I wasn't intending to activate any (haven't so far), but wanted them to control my 3 recently bought TCL 43" 4K Roku TVs, using the Roku app. The Roku app on my Windows 10 phone sucks. I talked to Roku at length concerning that and they finally admitted that they aren't supporting it and won't. No doubt because Windows Phone is petering out completely. Support, IIRC, is disappearing in December! It's my one activated phone and for sure MY LAST WINDOWS PHONE EVER. I'll either buy a better Android phone or just activate one of my Verizon Tracfone LG Rebel 3 LTEs. User reviews are reasonably positive. Dang, a $30 phone! It's the monthly charges where they make their money.

 

[podspi]

Support, IIRC, is disappearing in December! It's my one activated phone and for sure MY LAST WINDOWS PHONE EVER. I'll either buy a better Android phone or just activate one of my Verizon Tracfone LG Rebel 3 LTEs. User reviews are reasonably positive. Dang, a $30 phone! It's the monthly charges where they make their money.

Of course it will be, they don't sell them anymore do they?

Seriously though, don't use the Rebel 3 as a daily driver. They're for very basic smartphone use. Personally, I just upgraded to an S9+ for like $350 at Visible (Verizon). They have had some great deals over the last month or so...

 

[Muse]

Of course it will be, they don't sell them anymore do they?

Seriously though, don't use the Rebel 3 as a daily driver. They're for very basic smartphone use. Personally, I just upgraded to an S9+ for like $350 at Visible (Verizon). They have had some great deals over the last month or so...

Yeah, almost for sure gonna get a better Android/Verizon phone at some point, maybe soon. Thanks for the tips.

I need:

1. Headphone support
2. Big SD card support (e.g. 128GB)
3. A real good screen would be cool!
4. Of course, support for all the real cool Android apps
5. Reasonable lifespan, both in terms of not breaking down and not becoming obsolete too soon
6. Good product support, both by the manufacturer and customers
7. Be able to swap out the battery.
8. Decent battery life

That stuff's off the top of my head. Seriously, I hardly use my cell phones for other than listening to music and checking the weather. Once in a while I make calls away from home. I almost never get calls on my one activated (Windows) phone unless I'm traveling. A big reason for this (i.e. using my land line for telephone service and not a cell) is that my Windows phone uses AT&T network and their coverage really sucks at my house! I am pretty sure Verizon here is more than adequate. So, when I go Android, who knows what my usage patterns will be? Dunno...