Samsung Galaxy S4 - Battery Problems

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michaelmurfy

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# 137980 15-Dec-2013 21:21

First, I've had problems with Sudden Death hitting my SIII and now I'm having problems with my S4, this time it's the battery. In the past month I've noticed some incredibly bad battery life of my Galaxy device, it drops from 83% battery to 0% in a matter of seconds but the most disturbing thing is the battery is now rather swollen. Having just sent my phone away for repair less than a month ago I'm not too keen on sending it away again just to grab a replacement battery.

I've emailed Samsung asking for a replacement battery but got this as a response:

Thank you for your email Michael, we recommend to return this back to the store it was purchased from so the battery can be sent into an authorised service centre to be assessed.

Being a known issue I do think the stores should stock replacement batteries for Galaxy devices just like mine. I've got a problem though, when I got my S4 sent away for repair they requested the proof of purchase (fair enough) but they've never returned this to me. Now I'm having to go through the whole grabbing my proof of purchase all over again. I know they've got policies to adhere to but I do think a problem like this (especially in my case where the back of my phone no-longer fits on) should warrant Samsung to go "Right, we've got a problem, let's just set up a site, grab the serials and send out batteries to the affected customers"

My Galaxy has actually only been in my hands without problems for less than a month, I don't know if I've had bad luck or what, but I've had faulty Gorilla Glass when I first purchased it, and now it doesn't hold a charge at all.

So my question is, is anyone on this forum experiencing the same issues with their batteries? You can find out if you've got a potentially faulty battery by just seeing if it's made in China (faulty) or Korea (new).

tanivula

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# 952814 15-Dec-2013 23:05

Have you looked at this thread on xda: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2504093

Mine is pretty good, been playing with kernel tweaks and have managed to get over 4 hrs screen on time. No drastic drops in levels.

Damager

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# 952829 16-Dec-2013 00:39

I've seen the swollen battery issue mentioned as above as well. Luckily it hasn't happened with mine.

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timmmay

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# 952848 16-Dec-2013 07:24

Mine seems fine. If you don't want to send it away you could always just buy another, or claim from the retailer somehow.

Of course you shouldn't be using the faulty battery at all.

uglyb0b

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# 953304 16-Dec-2013 20:16

The battery that came with my S4 did this too, although not to the same extent. I sent in just the battery (I had a spare battery to use in the mean time) with the proof of purchase and they replaced it as it was clearly swollen.

So it shouldn't be necessary to send the phone in, however not much difference if you don't have a spare battery to use while you're waiting.

michaelmurfy

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# 953315 16-Dec-2013 20:26

Agreed - after-all I've actually had a battery vent in one of my old phones (HTC Magic) so I do understand how dangerous they can get. The problem is being told I have to send my phone away this close to Christmas, I won't get it back until after (and this is the time I'm really needing it).

I've bought an apparent genuine battery off Trademe with a proper display photo - hopefully I'm not buying another faulty battery but will yell at Samsung about getting another replacement battery from them too (I was needing 2 batteries anyway so no biggie), still a bit of a pain, faults do happen but they also seem to happen more often with Samsung devices (in my case anyway).

I plan on finding an easy way to get a battery replacement from Samsung without having to send my phone away, if I do find a way I'll post it here. I know 3 people total who has had their battery swell and stop charging.