# Galaxy s4 battery problems



## hat (Jul 23, 2017)

I've had a galaxy s4 for a little while now and it has serious battery issues. It worked fine for a while (battery drained a little fast but whatever), until it stated randomly shutting down even though I still had like 40% battery left. So I ordered another battery on eBay, and all was fine for a while, but now it's shutting down a lot again. It'll shut down on me even though the phone reports like 75% battery. I've even tried flashing another ROM (cyanogen) to no avail. What's going on with this phone?


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## P4-630 (Jul 23, 2017)

My dad has my old S4, still working fine with the first battery (although he still has a never used spare).
I never rooted the device and still works perfectly.
I'm no mobile phone expert but this is very annoying, would you be able to restore it to exactly as you got it from the shop or your provider?


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## FreedomEclipse (Jul 23, 2017)

Bad battery -- one of my Oppo Find 7 batteries does the same thing so i marked it with permanent marker and tossed it somewhere


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## P4-630 (Jul 23, 2017)

Try original Samsung S4 battery?


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## Komshija (Jul 24, 2017)

It might have bad or loose connection or something might be short-circuiting. That's my first opinion on that problem. Open and inspect the device. Clean battery connectors with alcohol, either isopropyl or standard "70%" alcohol.


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## remixedcat (Jul 25, 2017)

I'd get a Hyperion extended battery and run another ROM, stock with touchjizz is a drain


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## Sempron Guy (Jul 25, 2017)

Is it an original battery? Had the same problem with my 3 mos. old S4 battery that I bought online. Instantly shuts down at 30%. Still looking now for an original S4 battery, but finding it here in my country is such a headache. All I see are "oem" china branded replacement batteries.


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## OneMoar (Jul 25, 2017)

ebay battery's are generally garbage actual OEM-Samsung battery's are nearly impossible to find in new condition you are better off with a reputable aftermarket most of the replacements on ebay are fakes 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KR9FT4Q/?tag=tec06d-20

I have one of those in my spare s4 i use as a media device

I gave up on the s4 unless you have one that was LOKI'd they are effectively worthless as a daily


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## hat (Jul 25, 2017)

Not sure how I would be able to tell if it's an "original" battery or not. If it's a fake, someone did a decent job making it. Looks just like this one:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BW0X892/?tag=tec06d-20

The battery I had in the first place works better than the replacement I bought. It doesn't last a whole day but at least I can use it for 30 minutes without it dying. My other battery looks a little swollen now... I know that's not a good sign. It was also a tight fit (even when I first got it) when the other battery I had fit just fine, but it didn't look swollen or anything... /shrug

Looks like I'll try an aftermarket battery this time.


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## P4-630 (Jul 25, 2017)

hat said:


> Not sure how I would be able to tell if it's an "original" battery or not. If it's a fake, someone did a decent job making it. Looks just like this one:



It seems in my country it's all better regulated, less chance of buying a "fake" one.


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## uuuaaaaaa (Jul 25, 2017)

Komshija said:


> It might have bad or loose connection or something might be short-circuiting. That's my first opinion on that problem. Open and inspect the device. Clean battery connectors with alcohol, either isopropyl or standard "70%" alcohol.



This is the first thing I would check too. A loose connector can definitely causing the issues that you are having. The same happened to a friend of mine a couple of days ago, it was with a 1+1 tho.


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## R00kie (Jul 25, 2017)

I had an old S5230 from Samsung that had a similar problem, apparently the battery contacts weren't touching the battery firmly, so I had to stick a piece of paper between the battery and the casing, and that fixed the issue.


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## v12dock (Jul 25, 2017)

hat said:


> I've had a galaxy s4 for a little while now and it has serious battery issues. It worked fine for a while (battery drained a little fast but whatever), until it stated randomly shutting down even though I still had like 40% battery left. So I ordered another battery on eBay, and all was fine for a while, but now it's shutting down a lot again. It'll shut down on me even though the phone reports like 75% battery. I've even tried flashing another ROM (cyanogen) to no avail. What's going on with this phone?



Same thing happened to both my parents S4 I just replaced there batteries with new OEM batteries and they are working fine again.


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## DR4G00N (Jul 25, 2017)

As stated, the battery is probably bad. My old Note II does the same because the battery is extremely swelled and completely toast. (Can't even fit the back cover on)


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## cdawall (Jul 25, 2017)

I can't believe people still have working s4's. My wife's croaked on her 2 years ago and she actually does quite well with phones.


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## Ferrum Master (Jul 25, 2017)

Go to a service location and buy one. They are still maintained made new.


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## OneMoar (Jul 25, 2017)

hat said:


> Not sure how I would be able to tell if it's an "original" battery or not. If it's a fake, someone did a decent job making it. Looks just like this one:
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BW0X892/?tag=tec06d-20
> 
> ...


anything that says samsung on it is fake samsung stopped making s4 batterys years ago the NOS is depleted


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## PHaS3 (Jul 25, 2017)

I've seen 2x S4s with a power button issue, where the button seems to get stuck in the depressed position and the phone refuses to stay on for long. Sometimes it looks like a boot loop, others it will work for 5 or 10 minutes then go off. I know one of these (the first I saw) the owner had gone through 2 aftermarket battery replacements and couldn't figure out why, turned out to be the button.


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## Ferrum Master (Jul 25, 2017)

OneMoar said:


> anything that says samsung on it is fake samsung stopped making s4 batterys years ago the NOS is depleted



Nope... there still last warranty having rarities. I've seen year 2016 for sure.


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## OneMoar (Jul 25, 2017)

Ferrum Master said:


> Nope... there still last warranty having rarities. I've seen year 2016 for sure.


not in the us


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## Ferrum Master (Jul 25, 2017)

OneMoar said:


> not in the us



As a Samsung service official... they should have... not in amazon ir ebay for sure... no retail offerings, service or OEM yes. 

Direct orders from sammy... no problems...


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## xkm1948 (Jul 25, 2017)

Back in the days when I had my S4 I used an Anker 2600mah battery. The quality was really good.



cdawall said:


> I can't believe people still have working s4's. My wife's croaked on her 2 years ago and she actually does quite well with phones.



I had mine until last year. It was actually pretty decent. Load up some custom ROMs and the phone felt really snappy.  I had the international variant with the Exyon processor. When the wife decide to grab an iPhone7 upgrade I got her old iPhone6 to replace the S4.


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## hat (Jul 25, 2017)

The s4 works just fine for me as a phone, notwithstanding the battery issues...


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## micropage7 (Jul 26, 2017)

what about flashing it with stock basic rom then test it again


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## hat (Jul 26, 2017)

micropage7 said:


> what about flashing it with stock basic rom then test it again


The battery already sucked with the stock ROM, and there appeared to be a slight improvement with Cyanogen, probably due to less junk running in the background.


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## OneMoar (Jul 26, 2017)

hat said:


> The battery already sucked with the stock ROM, and there appeared to be a slight improvement with Cyanogen, probably due to less junk running in the background.



what s4 on what carrier are we talking about
if its a i950/5/6 with a unlocked bootloader i believe there is linage os builds


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## hat (Jul 26, 2017)

SPH-L720 on Freedompop (Sprint MVNO)

Bootloader is unlocked, at least unlocked enough to flash Cyanogen through Odin... or maybe I flashed TWRP through Odin and Cyanogen through TWRP once it was installed. Was a bit of a while ago when I did that so I don't remember exactly the specific details.


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## OneMoar (Jul 26, 2017)

https://forum.xda-developers.com/ga...p/jdcteam-optimized-cyanogenmod-14-0-t3479888


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## hat (Jul 26, 2017)

Cool, I'll try installing that tomorrow. Running android 7.1 instead of 4.4.4 would be interesting. I actually downgraded from 5.1 or 5.2 when I flashed this cyanogen ROM.


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## OneMoar (Jul 26, 2017)

running 4.x is likely part of your problem the kernel is trash
 do note that jumping from 4x to 7.x WILL require a full wipe including a full delete of all partitions except for EFS/modem

edit: make sure you update twrp before you flash anything


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## hat (Jul 26, 2017)

Must have been trash on 5.x too, the battery was even worse then.


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## xkm1948 (Jul 26, 2017)

hat said:


> Must have been trash on 5.x too, the battery was even worse then.



Strange. I had the official Samsung 5.1 on my S4 for about 2 months. Not as bad I thought. A full charge can hold 2 days, that is constant emailing/msging and tracking of fitness data.


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## hat (Jul 26, 2017)

Who knows, maybe it shipped with a garbage battery. It was "refurbished" after all.


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## hat (Jul 27, 2017)

OneMoar said:


> https://forum.xda-developers.com/ga...p/jdcteam-optimized-cyanogenmod-14-0-t3479888


Well, that didn't work out too well. It won't connect to the Freedompop network with that ROM. I tried changing APN settings but it still didn't connect after that. I might be able to get it to work if I play with it more (open to suggestions) but no time now so I rolled back to my backup. Good thing I made one! Learned my lesson about that the hard way not too long ago. Seems like when you remember things better when you learn the hard way...


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## Mussels (Jul 27, 2017)

had the same problems with many samsungs over the years, you're getting fake/B grade/refurbed batteries.

Make sure to get a genuine one in the samsung retail box.


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## OneMoar (Jul 27, 2017)

did you try flashing this  after the rom
http://www.mediafire.com/file/mc1kipz9nugftbi/Freedompop+APNs+fix.zip

old but might do it
I know that rom works with freedom pop there are people in that thread using it

make sure you don't wipe the modem/efs directorys

I am sure its just a APN problem it usually is

this in the apn's from that .zip


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<apns version="8">
<!-- Sprint/FreedomPop -->
    <!-- Test APN for Sprint LTE support -->
    <apn carrier="LTE - SPRINT test ISP" mcc="001" mnc="01" apn="n.ispsn" type="default,mms" mmsc="http://mms.sprintpcs.com" mmsproxy="68.28.31.7" mmsport="80" protocol="IPV4V6" roaming_protocol="IPV4V6" bearer="14" />
    <apn carrier="LTE - SPRINT test OTA" mcc="001" mnc="01" apn="otasn" type="fota" protocol="IPV4V6" roaming_protocol="IPV4V6" bearer="14" />
    <apn carrier="LTE - SPRINT test PAM" mcc="001" mnc="01" apn="pamsn" type="dun" protocol="IPV4V6" roaming_protocol="IPV4V6" bearer="14" />
    <!-- END APN database for Sprint LTE support -->

    <!-- Test APN database for Sprint EHRPD support -->
    <apn carrier="EHRPD - SPRINT test ISP" mcc="001" mnc="01" apn="n.ispsn" type="default,mms" mmsc="http://mms.sprintpcs.com" mmsproxy="68.28.31.7" mmsport="80" protocol="IPV4V6" roaming_protocol="IPV4V6" bearer="13" />
    <apn carrier="EHRPD - SPRINT test OTA" mcc="001" mnc="01" apn="otasn" type="fota" protocol="IPV4V6" roaming_protocol="IPV4V6" bearer="13" />
    <apn carrier="EHRPD - SPRINT test PAM" mcc="001" mnc="01" apn="pamsn" type="dun" protocol="IPV4V6" roaming_protocol="IPV4V6" bearer="13" />
    <!-- END APN database for Sprint EHRPD support -->

    <!-- FREEDOMPOP CUSTOM APNS -->
    <apn carrier="FreedomPop LTE" mcc="310" mnc="120" apn="n.f6.ispsn" mmsproxy="68.28.31.7" mmsport="80" mmsc="http://mms.sprintpcs.com" type="default,mms" bearer="14" />
    <apn carrier="FreedomPop EHRPD" mcc="310" mnc="120" apn="n.f6.ispsn" mmsproxy="68.28.31.7" mmsport="80" mmsc="http://mms.sprintpcs.com" type="default,mms" bearer="13" />
    <!-- FREEDOMPOP CUSTOM APNS-->
<!-- END Sprint/FreedomPop-->
</apns>

edit: freedom pop apparently requires multiple entries to work (bah stupid 2d tier carriers)

flash the zip after rom and gapps

make a backup of the 7.x rom that way you can fiddle with it without loosing service


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## OneMoar (Jul 27, 2017)

https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2447534
would probly be of help as well

happy flashing


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## Ferrum Master (Jul 28, 2017)

Just my few cents from warehouse...


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## FreedomEclipse (Jul 28, 2017)

Ferrum Master said:


> Just my few cents from warehouse...



Is it genuine though?

Fake batteries are big business and there are only a few brands that make good replacements that are trustworthy


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## Ferrum Master (Jul 28, 2017)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Is it genuine though?
> 
> Fake batteries are big business and there are only a few brands that make good replacements that are trustworthy



I don't do stuff with fake knock off parts. This is sourced directly from Samsung. An OEM part.


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## Ahhzz (Jul 28, 2017)

I'd be tickled to move higher than the 4. OS that I'm running, if I could get a stupid root to take :/


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## brandonwh64 (Jul 28, 2017)

Rom's that are not poorly built can cause these issues. My old LG G3 would have crazy battery issues with Cyanogenmod roms but other would be good after a battery calibration.


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## hat (Jul 29, 2017)

@OneMoar already tried that APN fix .zip, didn't work. I'm sure it has in the past... but not now, for some reason. Not really interested in dual booting... but thanks for the option.

It's my big weekend (3 days) so I have time to muck with it. I'll see if I can come up with something.


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## hat (Jul 29, 2017)

Well, I got that ROM working. What I did was copy down my APN settings from my previous working 4.4.4 rom and entered them manually once I flashed the new ROM. Seems to work okay...

The ROM seems to work well, so far. I opened the STweaks app and selected the extreme battery governor profile, so maybe that, combined with the updated version of Android (and a slimmed down, tweaked ROM) will help.


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## OneMoar (Jul 30, 2017)

do everybody a flavor and post what you did in rom thread so people can repeat

also the kernel/rom should support doze which will go aways

zzmove is good but it can have some stablity problems if you get Rr's thats where you should look


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## hat (Jul 30, 2017)

OneMoar said:


> also the kernel/rom should support doze which will go aways
> 
> zzmove is good but it can have some stablity problems if you get Rr's thats where you should look



Not sure what any of this means... lol

I'll post in the thread later, though. Interestingly enough it looks like you posted the same data I entered manually... I wonder why it didn't stick when I flashed that .zip?


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## OneMoar (Jul 30, 2017)

hat said:


> Not sure what any of this means... lol
> 
> I'll post in the thread later, though. Interestingly enough it looks like you posted the same data I entered manually... I wonder why it didn't stick when I flashed that .zip?


that zip is very old and probably very broken on anything above android 5.0

could be anything from a permissions issue or a formatting change in xml parasing

I am ever bothered enough maby ill update it I don't use freedom pop but i have been considering it as a second line

zzmove is one of the governors in the alucard kernel you said you switched to extreme battery saving that usually means zzmove


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## hat (Jul 30, 2017)

I dunno. I seem to remember the zip working in the past but you could be right, that was certainly with an older version of Android. This is the first time I've had a current version of Android since I got my Nexus 4 back in 2013 I think, when Jelly Bean or KitKat was current. I'm liking the ROM so far... as a PC enthusiast who likes to tweak things I love finding ways to tweak other things and make them better. Giving an older (but still capable IMO) phone new life with a custom ROM not only updated to the current version of Android but also with all the junk cut out of it is nice.

A bit off topic but since you said you're considering FP as a second line, I'll share with you my experience as a customer. This is all based on their free plan, so keep that in mind. It's 500MB data, 200 minutes talk time and 500 texts. You can get around the talk time and text limit by using another app like TextNow (though it has ads if you don't subscribe to them, and AdAway doesn't remove them). Once you reach 400MB data usage, you're cut off, in order to prevent you from going over the 500MB limit (so they say) so you should really only consider it 400MB. At this point you can buy more, of course, but then it wouldn't be free... anyway, the actual cell service, at least in my area, is honestly pretty lousy. They run off the Sprint network, so that's what you'll get... and since FP runs off VOIP, call quality is directly dependent on how strong your signal is. Calls work okay with decent wifi of course but if you're depending on a less than stellar cellular connection, forget it. In a nutshell try not to depend on it for anything important if you can help it.


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## monim1 (Aug 20, 2017)

No doubt you have a faulty battery. It reports as 40%, but it's really zero. Time for a replacement.

This doesn't sound software related at all.


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