Battery showing -1 %, otherwise working fine, bar random shutdowns

[sup]

Some time ago, Android started to report battery charge "-1%" (that is a minus sign there). It seems to work otherwise. I can charge the phone and it works for about a day before turning off without any warning. But it is annoying to have no idea about the charge and also Google Play refuses to install or update any apps. Have you ever seen anything like that on Cosmo or on other phones? I tried googling but it does not seem common at all. Could this be a software issue or should I order a new battery? (Planet computers want to charge 95 pounds for it - it costs about 40 when I order it online and it is somewhat easy to replace, once one gets rid of that adhesive between the battery and the metal plate holding it in place).

[LinuxGuy]

Very strange - for me, it sounds  not like a mere battery issue... did PC only suggest to change the battery?!

[sup]

Their customer service is crap, unfortunately. I described the problem but I am not sure they read it at all. They want me to send it to them without any advice on what might be causing it and insisting on replacing the CoDi*. They vaguely suggested that often "the CoDI has the OLED panel itself broken, which can create some shortages." I started a parallel thread ( https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?topic=36418.0 ) if it is possible to just remove the CoDi altogether because of this. I am also not sure if it is just a battery issue. But appart from the "-1%", everything works. I think the random shutdowns occur when the battery drains completely - the software has no way of knowing so it just shuts down since there physically is not enough charge to power the phone remaining. I will probably try to reinstall the device in case this is something to do with software but I doubt that as well.

But communicating with them is hard, I repeatedly ask the same questions over and over, number them and I get a response in one third of the times and usually responding to just half of the questions. They never even acknowledged the battery issue is weird or that they are aware of its nature. Basically support level of some big company that has clueless people at the front level, but I would expect better from such a small company as Planet Computers is.


* Glass on top of CoDi is cracked after I dropped the phone, but it failed months before I cracked it due to this issue https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?topic=36278.0 - and given its battery demans, I found out I prefer turning it off anyway, it does not deliver on its promise. Also, I am not happy that they want me to pay for replacing something that was broken _before_ I managed to break it on my own (which they know, we communicated about it when it happened).

[Occupied_username]

Hi Sup,

I am experiencing something similar with my CC.

Before I delve naively into my own issues - any news on yours?

All the best,
Nicolaj

[sup]

No. I replaced the battery but that never helped. No need to talk to Planet Computers, they do not care, they said it was my problem not under warranty. I put it to electronic trash over a year ago.

[Occupied_username]

Hi again,

Sounds horrid.

Thank you for your reply! I'll struggle on a bit before considering the bin.

I sort of managed to reset the battery with the standard Android method -- i.e. draining battery to zero -- filling to 100 and repeat-method.

I am however getting sudden shutdowns, and having issues booting the device again. Something is amiss.

None the less: all the best.

[Zarhan]

I have also encountered battery issue.  Battery suddenly went to 1% and phone shut down (Gracefully, shows "shutting down" indication).

I did the recalibration (let the battery drain, charged to full with phone off, drained again, and charged).

Now what happens is that the battery charge indicator goes to somewhere around 85% and then phone turns off all of a sudden, without shutting down.

Is there any place (in EU preferably) that would provide a replacement battery?

I did find this with googling, any experiences? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114815668118 - it's in HK though so import taxes apply... (and apparently they do not even ship to Finland).

[Zarhan]

Ok, this is *weird*. I had usually kept my Cosmo attached to my laptop, so it had essentially been slow charging.

Now, at the start of this week I needed to travel without the laptop so I took the original charger with me, with the idea that I'll just charge it.

Well, the cosmo battery lasted for about half a hour of use before it shut down. No problem, just plug in charger. After charging to full, it then lasted again another half a hour when unplugged. Repeat.

What happened next is that...the battery has more or less lasted the entire day.

So somehow I more or less reconditioned the battery by using the Planet's original charger. I have no idea why this could be. Did the higher amperage break down some barrier in the battery or something? I had attempted this exercise on purpose but using slow charging only and it had not had any effect...

Anyway, just a trick to try if you have been slow-charging your Cosmo.

[Occupied_username]

It really does behave weird with charging, this phone.

I had initially (apparently) fixed my issues with the "Android-recalibration-method" (AReM). Mind you, I had also played around a bit with other approaches, as I had found, that whether the phone charged, randomly rebooted/shut down, or not was affected by which port and which charger I was using.

Well.. after what I now think was an overly creative charging attempt (i.e.: charging through a USB Type-A to USB Type-C adapter) the phone is now acting up again.

One "interesting" behaviour consists of a complete inability to charge at all, regardless of charger, port, lunar cycle and anything else I've thought of.

Detaching the battery connector for a while, then reattaching has now allowed for 2 recharges with AReM (though only with this, and not the PC-charger: https://raspberrypi.dk/produkt/raspberry-pi-stroemforsyning-usb-c-eu-5v-3a-sort/).