Are you unable to charge your smartphone or is the charging rate very slow? Charging issues don’t always stem purely from hardware faults within the device – there are a variety of other causes behind them in most cases . In this article, we’ll attempt to provide you practical solutions for a few prevalent issues that bog down effective charging.
If a smartphone isn’t charging properly, most people attribute it to either a faulty battery or a defective charger – but in several cases, these tend not to be the cause. While it is easy to eliminate the charger as the cause by testing the smartphone with another charger, testing with alternate batteries is vexing with most manufacturers nowadays opting for the non-removable battery design.
COMMON CAUSES:
Charging issues can present themselves in a variety of ways – either your phone refuses to charge completely when plugged in, or it tends to charge at a very slow rate (equivalent to the discharge rate when not plugged in). In other cases the charging occurs intermittently.
Most of prevalent charging problems can be attributed to a faulty charging cable, defective adapter or battery, along with issues related to the charging port, the firmware installed on the device and so on.
A few solutions that you can attempt to resolve common charging issues are:
CHARGING PORT ISSUE
Generally if the metallic surfaces inside the charging port are not making sufficient contact due to damage arising out of constant plugging and unplugging of the charging cable, it can prevent the device from receiving power properly from the charger.
To resolve this, shut down your device and remove the battery (if possible) and use a small tool such as a toothpick and attempt to carefully lever up the small tab inside the charging port. Also inspect if any form of dust or fabric is lodged inside the port (most people claim these to be the culprits as they are usually deposited due to being stored inside the pocket or a handbag) and if any kind of foreign substance is found, you can use compressed air to clear out the port. Now pop your battery back in (if removed) and restart your device. Users report that 9 out 10 times this solves their smartphone charging issues.
SWAP THE CHARGING CABLE
The most fragile part of a charger is the charging cable, as opposed to the adapter – in most Apple devices, it is reported that the lightning cables are quick to sustain damage and present diverse charging issues. Although most of the reputed manufacturers provide sturdy cables, incessant twisting and pulling eventually causes them to degrade. Hence the simplest solution in this case is to swap the charging cable and notice if the charging rate improves. Additionally, if possible try to use OEM cables, as there are countless tales of cheap third-party cables causing arbitrary irreversible damage to devices.
FAULTY ADAPTER
If you are sure that the charging cable isn’t at fault, inspect the wall plug adapter. In case of adapters that consist of detachable charging cable, constant plugging and unplugging tends to damage the port. You can easily test this by charging a different device with the same adapter. Additionally you should also verify that your wall socket is working properly and ensure that the adapter is original (as non-OEM adapters have no reliability in terms of life expectancy)
BATTERY REPLACEMENT
Batteries typically have a limited life and their charging capacity deteriorates with time. If a battery is charged and discharged frequently, the battery life will go down faster. If your battery is demonstrating appalling performance within 6 months, it is most likely defective and you should attempt to replace it as per your manufacturer’s warranty, but on the other hand if it is more than 2 years old, it is fast approaching the end of its life and it is time to replace it.
Generally you can conclude that the battery is defective if you observe a noticeable bulge or the presence of leaking fluid. In case of sealed non-removable batteries, you can lay the device on its back and check if there exists a bulge that is sufficient enough to allow the device to spin (as the bulge deforms the back). Please ensure that you buy an OEM battery as a replacement and in case of sealed batteries you should approach a reputed smartphone repair service to carry out the replacement for you (as it requires complete dismantling of the device).
CHECK THE POWER SOURCE
The amount of charging power a wall socket can deliver is always greater than that of a PC or Laptop, as USB ports are not capable of providing extensive power. A wall socket is capable of providing 2 times the charging power of a PC or Laptop, while a Fast Charger can provide 5 times the charging power.
Hence if your problem is that device is charging very slowly while connected to a PC or Laptop – there lies your problem.
On the other hand, if your problem is that the wall socket isn’t delivering enough power, verify that it is the same one that came bundled with your smartphone (or is at the least of a similar rating from a reputed manufacturer) – as third-party non-OEM chargers or Bluetooth chargers (ones not designed specifically for smartphones) will not be able to deliver sufficient power and their effectiveness varies with every device. Furthermore, since recent devices have Adaptive Fast Charging (AFC) capabilities which are capable of charging a given device up to 50% in just 30 minutes, and if your phone supports AFC but your charger doesn’t (as some manufacturers such as Motorola provide a regular charger not a fast charger bundled with the box) that could explain the slow rate of charging).
SOFTWARE FAULTS
Software updates tend to drastically degrade the battery life when older devices are updated with newer software. While newer software is specifically designed to take advantage of the hardware present in the latest devices, the lack of hardware prowess in the older devices typically render them ill-equipped to handle these updates and as a result the performance usually suffers.
If you are experiencing slow charging rate, after a recent update, you can consider rolling back to the older version. However, we should warn you that there are certain security risks involved as newer versions have security updates that may not be present in the older versions (although the risks associated may be small, it is important to be aware of them)
On the other hand, sometimes the battery life can be substantially improved by updating the device to the latest software. So if you are experiencing slow charging rate, then you should attempt to update your device by accessing Settings->About Phone and update your device via Wi-Fi (please ensure that you device has at least 50% charge while performing this)
MANAGE YOUR APPLICATIONS
If you are using battery intensive applications while charging your device, the charging rate will be affected. For instance, if you are watching YouTube with 100% brightness on 4G, the charging time will be more. Usually Wi-Fi, 4G, Bluetooth and GPS tend to drain more power, and hence if you want to test the charging rate unfettered from the influence of applications or features, you should either switch the device to Airplane Mode or switch it off completely, and check if that accounts for the lack of charging speed.
TEST CHARGING POWER
You can do the following to check whether your charger is defective:
Download the freeware app Ampere from here. Open the app and when the charger is connected, check if the interface turns green and the text at the top displays the message Measuring. If the aforementioned messages do not occur, it means that no current is entering your device.
If the current is entering the device, you can view the charging statistics for a given charger along with minimum and maximum current (in milliamps). You can also use this app to determine which one your chargers is more effective.
HARDWARE FAULTS
If none of the aforementioned solutions worked for you, or if your battery issues stemmed as a direct result of physical or water damage – we are sorry to say that the issue may be hardware related. Either the Charging Port or the Battery Connectors or some other crucial hardware component(s) may be at fault. So your best course of action would be to approach a reliable repair service to get the issue resolved.
We Hope we were able to help resolve your battery problem or at the very least help isolate the issue. Happy Repairs!
We at SOLDRIT specialize in resolving all forms of charging issues in Smartphones, Tablets and Laptops. Experience the difference by visiting our Website or call us at +91-888-444-5432 to Book a Repair today .
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