Photon Q got hot now won't power on - Hardware Hacking General

Hi everyone,
My Photon Q was probably about 30% charge when I last checked with it on. An hour or 2 later it was a little warm and was off. So I went to charge it using the car charger with 500mah charge rate. I came back about an hour later and the phone was really hot and no charging screen so I unplugged it. The green led light is lit when the phone is plugged in.
I tried holding the power button and volume down button, but it won't boot. If I have the usb charging cable plugged in from a PC or charger adapter when pressing those buttons, the green light will flicker off for a fraction of a second.
I then proceeded to dismantling the phone as I suspect a battery issue and the one in this phone is stupidly non-removable. After taking the back cover off, I tested the battery posts and received 0 volts. I still don't know if the battery caused the drain or if there's a short in the phone. I then took off the inside cover that holds the battery in. A few T5 screws later and the battery was removed. I connected the battery to some AA batteries in series to see if I could get a charge. A few hours later I got it up to 3 volts which held for several hours. So I connected it to a few more AA batteries in series to try and raise the voltage. I got it up to 3.67 volts and the battery is listed at 3.7 volts.
A day later and the voltage is still at 3.67 volts so I put the battery in the phone. I went to try and power it on, but nothing. I then connected it to a usb cord and received the slow flashing red led light a couple times before switching to green. The battery started getting warm again connected to the usb charger. After 20 minutes it was approaching hot so I unplugged the USB. The battery read 3.54 volts. 30 minutes later, 0 volts again.
Does anyone know what the actual voltage range is for this phone, as my old Samsung M320 is also 3.7 volts, but when testing the battery I get 4.10 volts? I heard it's pretty specific on minimum voltage. Any ideas for a temporary battery or way to boot the phone before spending $50 on a replacement battery and then find out there's a short in the phone. Is there another key combination to boot the phone, I'm trying to boot it to at least get my pictures and other data off it.
Thanks a lot in advance
Matt

Not the battery, seems to be an electrical short but where
I bought a new battery for the phone which had a 0 volt charge when I received it. I tried putting it in the phone as is to use the phone charger to charge it, but got nothing. So I charged it using 2, then 3 and then 4 AA batteries in series to get it up to 3.7 volts. I then put the battery in the phone and noticed the 2 large chips and the chip centered above them located by the camera get a little hot. I tried with the charger connected and not connected, but same thing. Power button doesn't turn the phone on. Just the green led lit when the USB power cable is attached. So now it seems there must be a short in the phone. Anyone know where I can look to check for a short, blown resistor or something in this phone? Or at least where the rom chip is located so maybe I can turn it into a usb drive to get my data at the least.
And sorry about the double post. I didn't receive any replies in the other section and I really need to get some data off the phone. Seemed the hardware section would be the place to check. Tree fell on the house and pictures before the tree was removed were taken with the phone which of course ironically stopped working right after.

Related

HELP!! PHONE WON'T TURN ON

So I upgraded to the latest mr clean rom and did some tweaks with the registry wizard. I was playing around with it for a while and turned it off to charge overnight. I wake up and try and turn it on and nothing. I've tried soft reset, and hard reset and it doesn't turn on or do anything. When I plug in my charger the light on my phone doesn't even come on. PLEASE HELP. WHAT CAN I DO!!!.
This exact same thing happened to me last week. I played with it everday hoping it would turn back on, but nothing worked. Out of nowhere, it powered back up after 7 days of being non-responsive.
So I would just suggest waiting it out and making sure it is fully charged. Sorry I don't have any better solutions, but this is what worked for me.
leave it charging (even if there is no light) for a couple of hourse. then hold the power button for 3 secs. It will work...ciao,V.
Charge it with the charger, not usb, mine did this and I thought it was dead but it's probably just a dead battery. For some reason it can self discharge to the point where the USB charger can't recharge it.
I've done that, had it charging for over 24 hrs now on the home charger. I guess the next step would be a new battery? Do T-mobile stores carry them? TIA
YOU HAVE TO USE THE ORIGINAL 1A CHARGER!!!!! 800mA will not do the job!!!
that's what i've done i think...the home charger... it doesn't say how many A though.
I fixed it , What I did was zap the battery with a 9v battery in 3 sec intervals, I did this about 5 times, then I pluged my phone into the charger and turned it on, the 9v gave it enough juice to boot up and the usb took over from there. So to everyone out there who is having this same problem, try this but don't over zap, check your battery with a multimeter.
my wizard wont turn on this morning. I just tested my battery and it's at 3.1 volts (not 3.7 as stated on the label)
Would your method work do you think ? My mains charger is at my girlfriends house i rely on usb here
Yeah I've had this issue before and I have it again. Last time it self-started after about an hour just sitting on the desk. This time it's taking longer, and is still out. I'm charging it as we speak - no light but I'm hopeful.
So this is a battery fault then? I guess that's a slight relief - I've already sent one in for repair and I can't do it again, as I'm on the far side of the channel..
ive never been backwards in trying these things out so i gave it a go. Slightly different method (a little safer).
Found an old 5v 2A charger lying around bared off the wires and used my meter to identify the positive and ground cores.
tested the battery again.. 3.1volts
applied the wires of the charger to the terminals for 5 secs
tested battery.. 3.25 volts
re applied wires for 5 secs
tested battery.. 3.45 volts
re applied wires for 5 secs
tested battery.. 3.52 volts
put in the wizard.. boot screen.
I think i have a seperate problem as i now have a red flashing light and then it locks up around 20 secs later but im a little further on at least !
cheers,
malty
all sorted here. I hadnt quite enough juice in the battery. Re applied the charger until the battery measured 3.62V Booted ok to the point then that the usb charger took over.
many thanks to the original poster
You saying that giving it brief jolts helps restore the battery? Given the time you applied it for, I can't really think it's being recharged by this action...
its a very temporary thing like a 'kick' and the extra voltage isnt sustained very long. It worked. thats all that matters
Yeah. But I'm reluctant to pump power into an electrical device without knowing why. In my case, the battery is giving a steady 4.2V output, which should be enough, no? In fact, the battery seems to be healthy in every way possible, and a few minutes before it died was reporting a ~80% charge...
I'll try kicking it though
4.2V is over voltage but yea that should be enough. sounds like you may have a more serious problem
Yeah, so do I. Battery was unaffected by a kick, output is still at the rated 4.2V, well above the needed 3.7V.
So, what would make an apparently healthy phone sporadically fail? It wasn't dropped or exposed to anything. I had it, on, on my desk. The screen turned off after 30 seconds, as usual, and then wouldn't turn back on. Soft and hard resets both fail to invoke any response whatsoever. No charging light.
The only thing that's different is that I did an ActiveSync for the first time in weeks, on a new computer, a few hours before it died. For which I'm extremely thankful, as I'd got a lot of data building up without a backup until then. But I'm doubtful that the sync has anything to do with the failure.
These symptoms occured before, a month or so ago, but the phone revived on its own after an hour or so. This one has been out two days now, which worries me.
Hi All,
THANK YOU!! I just bought this 8125 and thought I broke it in only 2 days. The 9 volt battery did the trick.
Now I can get on with trying to use it.
I have had the same problem last week and I used a 9V battery briefly onto the + and - of the phone-battery.
this just gave the phone-battery enough juice to start up and I was able to normally charge the phone again.
Old Trick but !!!Caution!!!
What you guys are doing is reviving a deeply discharged battery.
I frequently do that to normal AA 1.2v NiCd or NiMH Rechargeble battery that have not been used for a long time. When they measure about 0.2v you just jolt a 10v current through it for 1-3 seconds and then carry on charging as normal. If it does not come right, throw it away or use it as a paperweight
Problem comes in with the type of battery you do it with. I had a Lithium - Ion battery explode in my hands once.. (Thank god I wear glasses) I only had a few cuts on my hands and my shirt was ruined so I came off very lucky.
With lithium-Ion batteries one should be very carefull when attemting to boost it when deeply discharged... They dont like it very much.
My 10cents worth

design flaw?

Last week I was traveling, and I ran the battery on my 8125 dry. I got the unit to boot twice, but only for a few seconds, then it blinked out again. It never got past the initial screen. No big deal, I thought, I just charge it at the next opportunity. But when I hooked up the charger, nothing happened. No charging light, and no charging (left unit on charger overnight, tried 3 different chargers). Took the unit to an AT&T store, but they don't sell batteries. Fortunately, the clerk used the same phone and took the battery out of his and put it in my 8125. The unit booted, and when he connected a charger, the charging light came on and charged the phone. I moved it directly to a car charger, and the phone has been fine since then.
Did HTC build in a catch-22 here? When the battery is totally empty, you can't boot the phone and it will not go into charge mode?
Is there perhaps a way around this, other than having a spare battery that has to be kept in a charged state?
If you read around this thread, there are LOTS of posts about this. Yes, the battery in the 8125 is goofy. It'll crap out at you if the power goes below (and I'm recalling from memory, so this may be wrong) 5% of full charge.
Don't drain your battery completely. I usually shut my phone off around 10-15% and only power it when absolutely necessary until it's been recharged. If you drain it dead, it typically won't charge unless you use your AC adapter charger, or in rare cases your car charger. USB doesn't provide enough juice to jump over the dead-battery hurdle. Apparently, in your case, that wasn't even enough.
The best things you can do for yourself is show the actual battery strength on your today screen somewhere (doesn't matter how, or with what). Use something that shows the actual battery strength in linear value, not logarithmic value. This will help keep you from accidentally draining it. Also, like you said, buy a spare battery. My usage isn't that high, I can usually go 2-3 days without charging, but if you're draining it daily, an extra battery is a near absolute requirement.
This is usual for these phones. When battery goes dry it's very hard to charge it. You can wake battery up with atx power supply or similar with 5volt output. Just connect wire from power supply +5 volt line(red wire) to battery + and second wire from power supply ground line(black wire) to battery -. Power on atx power. After 1-2 min your battery is alive and you can boot up your phone and charge a battery.

Charging and Keeping a Charge

Simple questions to the long story I wrote below the line(didn't realize it was so long):
I have two batteries that get a red light when trying to charge and they will not charge. I'm using a travel charger that came with the phone (used, not sure if it is the original charger). Input is 110-220V 50-60Hz Output is 5.5V 500mA. Says model T-HT-8125-SH on it.
Based on my findings, the phone should charge with 1.0A so it makes me think this is not an original charger. Old posts stated if the battery was this empty you need an original charger since it is the only thing strong enough.
The second question regards a new battery (just bought - one of the two above) dropping from having about 50% to having 0%. This is described in the story below, but could switching batteries / putting in a dead battery anything like this cause the new battery to lose it's charge all of the sudden? Or could there be damage to the phone other than the battery causing this issue?
Anyone have experience with this? What specs on a charger am I looking for that match the original charger? I may find other mini USB chargers around and if I have one that matches I can try it. I just don't want to damage the phone.
------
I have a wizard I bought used a couple months ago. It worked fine until a water damage issue occurred. I let it dry out for a week and then it was back to working fine. The only thing I noticed afterwards was sometimes the battery would drop from about 75% to 25% really quickly when it did not used to.
Last weekend, it was charging overnight and in the morning it would not turn on at all. I tried taking the battery out and trying to charge it again without success. The orange light usually does not come on. I either get no light, or a red light. Sometimes the red light stays, sometimes it blinks, but usually it is red when I first plug it in for a couple seconds then goes away.
I read recently in the manual that red means it is in LDO charging mode, thus the battery is empty. I thought the battery was dead so I ordered a replacement. It arrived, I stuck it in, it worked.
Now the weird part - I let it charge some on the new battery (it was around 18% when I got it). Then I decided to test the old battery and make sure that was indeed the problem. The phone wouldn't turn on or charge. However, I put the new battery back in and there is no charge. I tried charging it and the light was orange as it should be. However, after a couple more battery switches (I found out about the red light / orange light from the manual at this point so I went to test that with the old), the new battery is acting like the old battery. Both get a red light and will not charge.
Any ideas?
No answers for you but -
My original HTC charger has the following stats:
HTC p/n 70h00051-01
Model ADP-5FH B
Input 100-240v~0.2A 50-60Hz
Output 5V 1A LPS
Thanks for the details. I suppose mine isn't an original charger as it only has half the power yours does (and is a different model). It is probably some generic third-party charger.
For anyone interested, I did manage to get the phone charging by jump starting the battery with a 9 volt battery (saw an old post about it). Just connect the positive terminal of 9V to positive end of battery, and negative end of 9V to negative on battery. I used the metal from the inside of twist ties to connect the two batteries. Hold for about 15 seconds, then see if it will charge. If not, take battery out of phone again and use the 9V for another 15 seconds..See if it will charge afterwards. It only took a couple tries before it had enough power to start charging with my charger. Just don't hold it too long as the 9V is nearly twice what you need.
Anyways - it's charging now and is at 80%. We will see if it works like it should afterwards. If so, then I will have two working batteries for the phone.
Note - this shouldn't be an issue with an original charger that is 1.0A. It seems the third party ones are less (500mA, or my car charger is 650mA). I imagine the original charger is strong enough to get it started even on a completely empty battery. If not, the 9V battery sure is.
Just an update - not sure what is going on. It finished charging and the light turned green. As soon as I unplugged the wall charger, it dropped down to 51%. Ok...so that was weird...maybe it wasn't really charged. So, I let it charge up to 100% again. Light turns green. Unplugged it, dropped immediately to 39%.
Anyone have any idea why it would lose a large amount of charge when I unplug the cable? I'm charging it for the third time now...I'm not sure what is going on.
This is all with one battery (the old one). I haven't done anything with the new battery yet to try and get it to charge, but this might explain how the new battery lost the charge it did have and became empty like the original battery - perhaps it lost it's charge when I unplugged it just as the old one is doing...in which case this seems like a phone problem...hopefully not though.

Internal battery is very low!!! Need Help

Hi,
My wizard main battery (wiza16) was very low and the wizard stop with a message “The internal battery is very low”. After coming back home I have tried to charge but it is not taking charge and didn’t turn on anymore. I recently bought a new battery (wiza16, 3.7 VDC, 1250 mAH) thinking that it will work again but still the same problem, wizard is not taking charge or turn on.
Can anyone help me?? What can I do to start my wizard? Do I need to change the tiny little battery (which is inside the wizard)? Kindly help me.
Wizard service manual
Hi,
See if when you connect the power plug the led turns red, if yes....
If Charge light is red when plug in AC adapter, it means the main battery is not charge enough and can’t power on,
You just need to continue charge unit the light become Amber
If not, i think you have a problem.
Check if charger its working and if its pluged.
If it helps --- ftp://ftp.xda-developers.com/Wizard/Docs_Tutorials/Wizard_Service_Manual.pdf
Wizard Battery discharge completely
Hi,
Thanks for quick reply. there is no light when i connect my wizard with PC. I don't have the AC charger, I have lost that for long and was using my PC usb to charge. trying to get one AC charger.
There was no problem with my wizard, just can't turn on after it's battery discharge completely. Even the new battery couldn't turn that on.
You'll need the original charger if the battery has complelty discharged as it will only charge from the computer if the phone is powered on.
This happened to me before.
There is a trick to giving the battery a quick charge which will give it enough juice to boot the phone up and allow it to charge from usb. its not recommended but works.
You will need a spare usb cable, cut one end of, strip the wires back and connect the red wire to + and the black to - on the battery, only do it for a short period, about 30 seconds while conneted to your computer.
You may need to give it a few 30 second bursts to give it enough juice.
Pop the battery back into the phone and switch it on while pugged into the PC
Took me a few attempts to get enough charge in the battery for it to boot up.
Wizard battery
You can also use a 9V battery to jumpstart your battery. But then you have to be more careful. I connected the 9v battery to my Wizard battery for about 15 seconds, then tried to start up my device. If not successful I started again with 15 seconds jumpstart..
But you can find more information here in the forum: just search for jumpstart or something similar....
Regards
huibuh_!
Wizard Battery discharge completely
Thank you all for information. 9V battery method didn't work for me. Looking for AC charger online and get a link (http://www2.dustin.se/pd_5010073700.aspx). Do you think this is the right one? If yes, then I can order.
yea that's the right one but if you have a friend with a ppc or maybe a razor you can use there charger most ac adapters are starting to use mini usb just a way of saving some money even though having an ac adapter is good
could also try and get one of those usb plugs that you can plug up to a wall and plug in a usb cable into the slot
but don't take my word for this wit hmy wizard i haven't had it shut all the way day
if anybody can verify this would work
AC charger not also working
I have got the AC charger yesterday. When Connect the Ac charger first time the red light on my wizard showed for just half second then dissappear. Still let that connected for whole night but no response.
Thank you all for help.
@Keland44, most Razr chargers dont work, they MUST be at least 850mA in order for the Wizard's battery to receive anything. The older Razr chargers are sometimes as low as 350mA, but the never ones are as high as 1.2A, so you need to read the label on the charger itself to be sure.
ashasaur said:
@Keland44, most Razr chargers dont work, they MUST be at least 850mA in order for the Wizard's battery to receive anything. The older Razr chargers are sometimes as low as 350mA, but the never ones are as high as 1.2A, so you need to read the label on the charger itself to be sure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup that is about right,
If the battery is complelty dead, then you need to original charger.
If you have got the right charger and you get a red light and it goes off. your phone might have a problem.
This happened to my last wizard after stupidly trying to dry out the screen after getting it wet which stopped the touchscreen working (i was drying it out while the phone was still on) well my wizard crashed.
Took ages to get it back on but it was very unreliable then one day, it wouldnt go on and charger done nothing. Unpluging and pluging the charger in several times got a red light on.
Sometimes i could get it to turn on, the charger would charge for about 5 minutes then the phone would die soon after.
Your phone might possibly be bricked.
Help :
I Have Same Problem with my wizard
Yesterday my wizard goes died, i think the battery out
when i came home, i use AC Charger for HTC Universal, for 1st time its red light then off,
after 15 minutes orange light, i try to turn on my wizard and works but only in boot loader 5 minutes again its going off again
until now my wizard wont turn on
some body help

[Q] Battery Charging - Current Draw When Complete

Guys, I'm hoping someone familiar with LiPo battery charging can give me some insight. I've done some diagnostics, and I'd like your take...
- Nexus 7 3G, purchased a few weeks ago. 4.2.1, not rooted, stock charger and cable
- Battery life seems good, fully charges and discharges 'normally'
- I usually charge with the device powered off (ie: blocky battery icon in the middle of the screen).
However....
- On two occasions now, I've left it on the charger for a long time (>15 hours) and have come back to a dead device.
- Pressing the power button doesn't bring up the blocky battery icon.
- Holding the power button for 30+ seconds brings the device back back.
- It has otherwise never failed to boot properly during normal use.
Out of curiosity, I was wondering if there was something wrong with the charging process causing this, so
- I plugged the stock charger into my Kill-A-Watt last night to monitor the charging current.
- Even 8 hours after the device finished charging (via the blocky icon), the current never dropped to zero - it stuck around 10mA on the AC side (ie: ~1.2W).
- My first N7 (sent back for a bad speaker and dead pixels) went to zero after charging. My iPad does the same.
QUESTION(S):
I know modern LiPo batteries have internal circuitry to prevent overcharging, but does it sound like that circuitry might be defective on mine such that I should be worried about overcharging? Could that be the reason for my lockups?
I really don't want to go through the return process again if I don't have to. I'd rather just live with it if I can prevent damage by taking it off the charger when complete. Thoughts? Opinions? Have any of you done this test, and if so, does yours go to zero?
Thanks for any insight!
developer_john said:
However....
- On two occasions now, I've left it on the charger for a long time (>15 hours) and have come back to a dead device.
- Pressing the power button doesn't bring up the blocky battery icon.
- Holding the power button for 30+ seconds brings the device back back.
- It has otherwise never failed to boot properly during normal use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That might be a possible cause... Leaving any device plugged in the charger for long periods of time is not recommended. Anyway have you tried charging the tablet with another charger with a higher output? If it refuses to turn on even after holding the power button for 30 seconds you might be able to "wake" it up by using a higher output charger. Thats what I did on my Nexus 7 when the battery level went too low.
cr0wnest said:
That might be a possible cause... Leaving any device plugged in the charger for long periods of time is not recommended. Anyway have you tried charging the tablet with another charger with a higher output? If it refuses to turn on even after holding the power button for 30 seconds you might be able to "wake" it up by using a higher output charger. Thats what I did on my Nexus 7 when the battery level went too low.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm...everything I've read has indicated that Lithium Ion/Polymer batteries can be left on a charger without damage since they have internal circuitry to prevent overcharging (although I realize a constant topping off is probably not wise in the long run). As for a charger with a higher output, I thought the stock charger was 2.1A....I've never heard of a 3A or 4A USB charger. Can you clarify what you mean?
Also, as I said, on the two occasions it has locked up, holding the power button has brought it back, so I'm not really asking about how to get it back if it locks up - I'm asking if the behavior (locking up, charge current not dropping to 0) is indicative of a battery that has faulty overcharge protection.
Thanks though!
The "charger" IC inside the N7 not only charges the battery but at the same time powers the device - it should allow use of a N7 with no or a faulty battery. I've never looked at the standby settings on the N7 but I would suggest that is where your 1W is going. The only info about the IC I know is http://www.summitmicro.com/prod_select/summary/SMB347/SMB347.htm
Added I think this is an identical TI version of the chip http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/slusaw5a/slusaw5a.pdf
peterk-1 said:
The "charger" IC inside the N7 not only charges the battery but at the same time powers the device - it should allow use of a N7 with no or a faulty battery. I've never looked at the standby settings on the N7 but I would suggest that is where your 1W is going. The only info about the IC I know is http://www.summitmicro.com/prod_select/summary/SMB347/SMB347.htm
Added I think this is an identical TI version of the chip http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/slusaw5a/slusaw5a.pdf
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks - that's good info. However, since I have been charging with the device off, it would seem to me that it shouldn't be drawing any standby current...unless just the act of charging puts the unit in a form of standby. It also still doesn't explain why my first unit went to 0A a while after charging completed, while this one doesn't. I'm now wondering if I may be looking at roundoff error. The resolution of the kill-a-watt is .01A - which is what I'm seeing. It could just be that both units drew some current after charge completion, but this one pulls marginally more.
So, my question still stands. Does anyone familiar with LiPo technology know if this sounds like my overcharge protection circuitry is faulty? Is it normal for a device that has completed charging to draw SOME current, and if so, how much? Would someone else with a Kill-A-Watt be willing to try this and let me know what you see?
Thanks again for the help guys...
Just in case anyone is still following this thread, I have some new info. I charged my N7 last night POWERED ON.....and after charging was complete, the AC current draw went to 0A. I'm starting to wonder now whether the 1.2W constant power I saw when charging powered off is the power needed to keep the charging circuitry alive while the tablet is powered off. When the device is powered on, maybe this circuitry is running off the battery allowing the AC draw to go to 0A. I have absolutely nothing to support this, so it's just a guess/hypothesis, but at least I know my N7 is behaving the same as my first one. I also loaded Simple Battery Logger while doing my last charge and all looks normal....it charged up to about 4.208V, indicated 'full', then the voltage start dropping off - which tells me that it stopped charging. It also maintained a temp of about 23C throughout the process. I'm running a battery test right now and it doesn't seem to have been damaged by my overnight charging episodes...if anything, the battery life is better than when I first got it.
I'm going to let it go here and assume all is well. If anyone does any experiments with theirs, I'd be interested in seeing the results.
Thanks again!

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