DTEK50 went from 70% battery do dead as soon as I tried to turn on location

[Red Squirrel]

Weirdest thing just happened to me. Was in middle of bush with phone in my pocket so I pulled it out, battery was at around 70% before I left home (did not notice when I pulled it out at that instant but we're talking like maybe a 20 minute interval) and it immediately went into low battery shut down mode except it locked up so I had to manually shut it off. I figured weird, maybe something was eating the battery in the background, like maybe I forgot to close an app or something. I get home and plug it in and boot it back up and the battery is at 83%.

What would cause this to happen? Clearly the battery was not actually dead. Going to let it sit and see if it actually drops suddenly again.

Only thing I can think of is it would be using more battery hunting for a cell signal, but it should not be dropping dead in a matter of minutes. I've been in the bush before where I get a very weak signal so it's harder on the battery but it still lasts the day. Anyone ever see something like this before? It almost feels like some weird software glitch. Or should I worry that it means something is unstable with the battery itself and I should change it?

 

[esquared]

My battery did this several times last year.
Watched it go from nearly 100% to 0 in seconds.
Don't know about yours but my battery was dead/dying.
My battery was less than 2 1/2 years old.
Plenty of time to do the 400-500 recharges, which is the life of a battery.

How old is your phone and or battery?

 

[esquared]

It happens without warning. My fitbit just the other week went from 5-7 days per charge
to charging every day. Its 5 years old this month so that's probably the 400 charges one would expect.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Phone is only a few years old. Like 3ish maybe. I rarely let it get lower than 50 so it's not like I abuse the battery either. I will see if it does it again.

 

[esquared]

Phone is only a few years old. Like 3ish maybe. I rarely let it get lower than 50 so it's not like I abuse the battery either. I will see if it does it again.

3 years of battery charging is about what you get.
99% chance that your battery is the culprit.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wow that's crazy it would only last so long. They really seem to make these things disposable, kind of sad.

Going to start looking on Ebay for a replacement battery if it starts doing this regularly. Though I wonder if those replacements are just going to be old stock that sat on a shelf for 3+ years or if they actively make new batteries that fit.

 

[CZroe]

Also, it was cold. Dude lives in Kanadia.

 

[Red Squirrel]

It's actually been quite warm here and it was in my pocket, though I wonder if that maybe did play a small role, probably was a little cooler than if it was in the house. Right now it's at 68% after plugging it in for like 1 minute (just before this post) so I'll see what happens. That was really weird.

 

[killster1]

Wow that's crazy it would only last so long. They really seem to make these things disposable, kind of sad.

Going to start looking on Ebay for a replacement battery if it starts doing this regularly. Though I wonder if those replacements are just going to be old stock that sat on a shelf for 3+ years or if they actively make new batteries that fit.

beware replacement batteries might be worse then the original (took a while to find a good galaxy s7 battery on ebay **check the date on the battery if you can a 3 year old phone might have a 3 year old battery replacement too.

 

[Red Squirrel]

feel like you still forgot to say what kind of phone it is! beware replacement batteries might be worse then the original (took a while to find a good galaxy s7 battery on ebay **check the date on the battery if you can a 3 year old phone might have a 3 year old battery replacement too.

Blackberry DTEK50. (it just runs Android, it's not really made by Blackberry they just put their name on it, I think it's Alcatel)

Down to 64% now and it has not acted up. Might put it in the microwave for a bit (to force it to have trouble finding signal) to see if the problem is due to that.

 

[killster1]

Blackberry DTEK50. (it just runs Android, it's not really made by Blackberry they just put their name on it, I think it's Alcatel)

Down to 64% now and it has not acted up. Might put it in the microwave for a bit (to force it to have trouble finding signal) to see if the problem is due to that.

after a quick google it looks like Tons of others have the same issue. they all mention a november update and that they clear the cache every week and reset. I realized the dtek50 was the phone name after i posted i love excuses to upgrade but it would be nice to get it to work first and give it away before that. some mention bb will send you a prepaid envelope to repair the battery but might be a hassle to get that in writing before sending it in.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah it definitly seems like a software glitch more than anything. I just put it through a few tests including freezer and it didn't do it. This is after only 1 minute of charge after the original incident so I'm not even starting off a full charge. It's on the charger now just in case. I will wait and see if it does it again or if this was a weird isolated incident that will get fixed.

 

[killster1]

Yeah it definitly seems like a software glitch more than anything. I just put it through a few tests including freezer and it didn't do it. This is after only 1 minute of charge after the original incident so I'm not even starting off a full charge. It's on the charger now just in case. I will wait and see if it does it again or if this was a weird isolated incident that will get fixed.

u could always backup everything and do hard reset. should back up anyway right..

 

[Red Squirrel]

I don't really keep much on there anyway, though now that I think about it it's been a while since I backed up my contacts, I should probably do that.

So far it has not happened again though. Really weird that it did that.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Also, it was cold. Dude lives in Kanadia.

Might put it in the microwave for a bit

Yeah, that'll work... for sure!

 

[Red Squirrel]

Microwave was kept off, to be clear. Wanted to simulate a bad signal situation to see if that's what caused it haha.

I let it get down to 20% today and it never did it. Really not sure what this was about but it may have been a one time glitch.

Definitely going to carry a power bank with me if I go in the bush though. Just plugging it in for a short time so it sees voltage gets it going again.